Alana Albertson

Ramón and Julieta

Alana Quintana Albertson

When fate and tacos bring Ramón and Julieta together on the Day of the Dead, the star-crossed pair must make a choice: accept the bitter food rivalry that drives them apart or surrender to a love that consumes them--perfect for fans of Jane the Virgin! 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 take-over 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.

Elizabeth Wood

Cute little romance book. Felt a little unrealistic to me and the author skipped on going deeper into culture and emotional relations. Could have had much more substance.

Juli Nazzario

This book is quite possibly the worst Romeo and Juliet retelling I’ve ever read. I can’t imagine how any girl could’ve possibly fell in love with Ramon. Both of these characters act like they’re better than everyone else bc they hate social media. There are many, many other problems with this book that I won’t get into. Cringey af, wish I never had read this book.

Aditi

Ramon is probably the worst love interest I've read about. There's nothing appealing about a flashy rich asshole to me and he is exactly that. He goes through zero development throughout this book when he needed a lot of it to be even slightly acceptable. Julieta, just by falling for this man, becomes questionable in my books.

mighty dragon 

ass writing and even more ass plot lawl (might actually give a proper review later but that will do for now)

Allyson McMillen

Super cheesy but was just what I wanted. 

When fate and tacos bring Ramón and Julieta together on the Day of the Dead, the star-crossed pair must make a choice: accept the bitter food rivalry that drives them apart or surrender to a love that consumes them—perfect for fans of Jane the Virgin! 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.

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Ramon And Julieta

Author: Alana Quintana Albertson

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 5/5

Smut Level: 2/5

Diversity: Mexican American MCs and Mexican American characters

Recommended For...: adult fiction, romance, contemporary

Publication Date: February 1, 2022

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Recommended Age: 18+ (Gentrification, Death, Grief, Language, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Romance, ICE, Violence, Gore)

Explanation of CWs: The book is a romance book, so it has sexual content, active sex, and romance in it. The book also discusses gentrification and displays issues that Hispanic/Latin communities face, such as ICE, disproportionate imprisonment, and poverty. There is death that is mentioned briefly, some very slight grief, cursing, some alcoholism shown, and some very slight violence and very very slight gore.

Publisher: Berkley Books

Pages: 304

Synopsis: 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 take-over 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.

Review: I absolutely loved this amazing book. The story was well written and the characters well developed. I especially loved Julieta as she was a tattooed curvy female, which I haven’t seen a lot in books, and both MCs were 30 and over, which is also something not normally shown in romance books from my limited experience. The book is a sweet Romeo and Juliet retelling, but the author made the story her own in a unique fashion. The book also had a lot of Spanish words intermixed throughout the book and a lot of different Hispanic influences, which I very much enjoyed. It felt like a read that a lot of people, especially those who are Latin/Hispanic would be able to identify with greatly.

The only issues I had with the book are that the smut part of the book started really late in it, at about 62% in, and the book didn’t have a lot of enemies to lovers runtime before they started actively falling for each other. The book also wrapped up within 5% of the novel and it just felt a bit rushed at the end. Unfortunately the problem with gentrification is that it can’t be easily solved and I don’t expect the author to have most of the answers, but it just felt like it was a bit of a dropped ball at the end.

Verdict: It was great and I highly recommend it for the story, the discussion of gentrification, and for the romance.

Ramón and Julieta

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