Author: Alana Quintana Albertson
Publication Date: 1 February 2022
Publisher: Berkley
Page Count: 304
Dates Read: February 3 – 4
Reading Method: Digital ARC (thank you to the publisher)
Review
I still cannot get over how beautiful the cover of Ramon and Julieta is. It is absolutely perfect!!! Unfortunately, the cover was my favorite part of this book.
Ramon and Julieta is a re-imagination of the classic Romeo and Juliet story. Ramon is a super rich gazillionaire who is looking to buy a city block to put in one of his family’s fast food taco restaurants. Julieta is a well-known chef at her family’s sea-to-table taqueria. Though they come from different worlds, they have a lovely meet-cute at the Dios de los Muertos celebration and fall head over heels for each other almost instantly. Unfortunately, Ramon is in the process of purchasing the city block where Julieta’s restaurant is located. To make matters worse, his father started their wildly successful fast food chain by stealing Julieta’s mother’s taco recipe. It seems like everything is working against these ill-fated lovers, but they are determined to make it work.
I really struggled with rooting for these two. The chemistry just didn’t feel like it was there. Their relationship felt very superficial. Julieta was constantly thinking about how uncomfortable she was with how wealthy Ramon was, yet never actually acted upon her discomfort. In fact, she frequently let him splurge on ridiculous things for her. There were a couple instances where she mentioned she was uncomfortable with the money he spends, but then she turns right around and lets him do it again. I just wanted her to pick a stance and stick with it. Julieta was one of the most flippy-floppy characters I’ve ever read. Ramon kept referencing how he felt out of place with other members of the Latinx community, but didn’t really make much of an effort to see where they were coming from or try to relate to the community at all. It sometimes felt like being rich was Ramon’s only personality trait. The amount of times this guy’s car collection was mentioned was borderline obnoxious.
The dialogue and writing felt very surface level/ juvenile. I haven’t read any other books by Albertson so I don’t have any frame of reference as to how this book compares to the rest of them, but it was a bit jarring and kept pulling me out of the story. I am a huge dialogue reader and I was not feeling it. It just felt awkward and stilted. I also really wish we had gotten more from Ramon’s father. What is up with that guy? We’ll never know, I guess.
While I didn’t love this story, there were some things I really enjoyed. I loved the culture that oozed from every page. The celebrations were described so vividly it felt like I was right there celebrating with them. Ramon and Julieta connect when he serenades her, and I am a sucker for romantic musical connections. I also loved literally any mention of the food. There is SO MUCH food in this story (duh!) and it all sounded absolutely drool-worthy. You can tell how passionate Julieta is when she’s in the kitchen. You’re going to want to have some snacks on hand when reading this book. The pacing was good and kept me interested until the end.
I really, really wanted to love this one. The cover held so much promise and the premise was intriguing. Unfortunately, it missed the mark for me. Though it didn’t work for me, I’m sure lots of people will love this one. For me, this was just an average read.
About the Book
Ramón Montez always achieves his goals. Whether that means collecting Ivy League degrees or growing his father’s fast-food empire, nothing sets Ramón off course. So when the sexy señorita who kissed him on the Day of the Dead runs off into the night with his heart, he determines to do whatever it takes to find her again.
Celebrity chef Julieta Campos has sacrificed everything to save her sea-to-table taqueria from closing. To her horror, she discovers that her new landlord is none other than the magnetic mariachi she hooked up with on Dia de los Muertos. Even worse, it was his father who stole her mother’s taco recipe decades ago. Julieta has no choice but to work with Ramón, the man who destroyed her life’s work—and the one man who tempts and inspires her.
As San Diego’s outraged community protests against the Taco King takeover and the divide between their families grows, Ramón and Julieta struggle to balance the rising tensions. But Ramón knows that true love is priceless and despite all of his successes, this is the one battle he refuses to lose.
About the Author
Alana Quintana Albertson is a Latina bestselling romance author (her book Badass hit #3 in entire Amazon paid store, she has had multiple novels in the top 100 paid store, and her Se7en Deadly SEALs romantic thriller serial has over one million views on the Radish fiction app). She has written thirty books and landed a three-book six-figure deal with Berkley Publishing for the upcoming Latinx romantic comedy series, Love and Tacos. The first book in the series, Ramón and Julieta, was recently optioned for television. Alana holds a Masters of Education from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Stanford University. She’s the former President of Romance Writers of America’s Contemporary Romance, Young Adult, and Chick Lit chapters. She’s the founder of the non-profit dog rescue, Pugs N Roses.™ She lives in Poway, California, with her husband, two sons, and too many pets.
