You Had Me at Hola (Primas of Power, #1) by Alexis Daria
Series: Primas of Power #1
Published by Avon on August 4, 2020
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 387
Goodreads

FINAL DECISION: Sweet but average romance. Didn’t live up to the hype, but certainly an okay read. I enjoyed the telenovela setting, which felt fun and flirty, but the hero was a mess.

THE STORY: Jasmine Lin Rodriguez is starting the most important role of her career as the star of a bilingual romantic comedy. After a messy public breakup, Jasmine is determined to lay low until she meets her co-star, Ashton Suárez. After being dumped from his most recent telenovela, Ashton worries that he is past the prime of his career and hopes that this role will give him a chance to increase his visibility in Hollywood. Both Jasmine and Ashton have a lot of gain in this performance, so creating chemistry on screen is vital. But as the two work to improve their performance, they find out that everything between them is not acting.

OPINION: This story was enjoyable as a read, but quickly forgettable. It was a bit banal. I really didn’t get any emotional connection between these characters. Their relationship felt cold. They had sex and acted, and then there were performative lectures about how a relationship should be. But I really didn’t get much emotion or connection between these characters.

My real problem was with the hero. I really felt like he was a hot mess. And it seemed like the heroine needed to get him to act more responsibly. It seemed like he had things together by the epilogue, but I needed that before.

There were some fun and flirty moments. I enjoyed how parts of this book mirrored the telenovela/romantic comedy/soap opera format. The first part of the book is flirty and cute. Unfortunately, the story turned serious, and I didn’t like the obvious drama that pulled the couple apart. It was too contrived and didn’t work for me. Instead, the characters stayed disconnected.

There was a good book here, and it was almost good. Instead, it was just okay.

WORTH MENTIONING: I enjoyed how this book includes some episodes of the show which interacts in interesting ways with the “real” story.

CONNECTED BOOKS: YOU HAD ME AT HOLA is the first book in the Primas of Power series.

STAR RATING: I give this book 3 stars.