I just loved this book. It really had a Gilmore Girls vibe to it. A small town full of great personalities (my favorite was the Instagramming viejitos). Rosa working to navigate her relationship with her loving-but-absent mother and find her heritage in her steadfast grandmother, while at the same time trying to figure out her own future. Rosa’s determination to bring the town together to save the place she loves. And her conflicted emotions when she meets Alex – a boy connected to the sea.

I laughed. I cried. I really enjoyed this read.

I am always on the lookout for books that will appeal to my Latinx students.  Don't Date Rosa Santos is one that girls will fall in love with. This is the story of family, of friendship, and of love.  It is a story of hope and dreams and fears of disappointing those who mean the most to you.  It is the story our students need to read and connect with on a personal level.

I got this book off of Netgalley.  The title seemed like something my students would like.  I had prepared for a angst-filled teen romance novel, and I was surprised to get so much more.  Rosa is a teen in Florida who has only ever wanted to go to Cuba to see where her family comes from.  Cuba is, of course, off-limits because of the communism.  Rosa has found a university that she wants to attend solely because it has a study abroad program to Cuba.  Rosa lives with her grandmother who is the town’s bruja and very much a force to be reckoned with.  Her mother is off galevanting around the country painting for a living and stopping in every now and then.  The Santos women have been cursed by the sea. Mimi left Cuba with her mother in her arms after losing her husband to the sea.  Liliana was a young girl with a baby on the way when the sea took her husband and didn’t give him back.  Rosa and the Santos women have nothing to do with the sea, but what elese can get them to Cuba?  Rosa has some hard lessons to learn about family, culture, and what life means to a Cuban “nerd” who has her whole life ahead of her.  Throw in a cute boy with a bakery and a boat....this was a much more complex story than just a teen romance.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

There are always a few books every year that, from the very first page, you know are going to land among your favorites of the year. Don’t Date Rosa Santos was one of those such books for me. It’s a gem of a YA contemporary that deals with identity, history, family, culture, and home, set against the whimsical backdrop of a tiny Florida beach town. Add in a swoony romance, a generations-long curse, a deeply likable and relatable MC, and some excellent representation, and I was SOLD.

Let’s first talk about Rosa, our main character and the sweet baby angel overachiever of my heart. Rosa is one of those characters who I read about and was immediately like, oh, yep, this is a real person I completely would be friends with. She reminded me SO much of high-school-Madalyn. At the start of the book, Rosa is facing two huge projects: deciding where to go to college, and saving her hometown’s annual festival, Spring Fest. She’s intensely driven, a little type A, and a lot magical in the way that all cool women are. She is intensely loyal to her family, friends, and home. And even though I don’t share Rosa’s Cuban background, I empathized deeply with her feeling of having one foot in two different worlds and never quite feeling like “enough” to belong in either of them.

So much of this story is a love letter to the idea of home. Port Coral is Rosa’s home, but she also feels intensely connected to Cuba despite the layers and layers of family secrets and shame and history that country holds for the Santos women. That being said, I thought Nina Moreno NAILED the small Florida beach town setting with Port Coral. My parents live on a tiny Florida island, and that very specific vibe was so present throughout the story. Port Coral is very much a community where everyone supports one another and they work toward common goals together. The portrayal of Cuban culture in Don’t Date Rosa Santos is one that I know many of my Cuban American friends hold dear. Family also plays into the idea of home, and the women in Rosa’s family were all incredible. Mimi in particular has my heart forever, but I also loved exploring the complicated dynamic between Rosa and her mother. Of course, friends often function as found family, and especially so for immigrants. Rosa’s best friend, Anna, and her family were a pleasant surprise I didn’t expect going into this story. All of Rosa’s friends felt true to life and exactly like a real group of teenagers.

Though it’s not a central part of the story, per se, I loved Rosa’s romance with Alex. It was romantic and swoony and allowed Rosa to reckon with a few of Rosa’s deep-seated perceptions about herself and her relationship to the world around her. I appreciated the way the “curse” of the Santos women played out, too.

Nina Moreno’s writing is lyrical and lovely without feeling too over-the-top. I’m so impressed that Rosa Santos is her debut novel, because she was able to capture a lot in this relatively short gem of a book. It’s a love letter to Cuba, to children of diaspora, to family, and to home. I cannot wait to read more from Moreno in the future!

I LOVE this book of heritage, hope and hanging on! “Love and Mother’s (are)n’t simple,” especially when 3 generations of women are fighting a familial curse and making borrowed sacrifices in order to try to be enough.
Rosa is a fiercely strong character whose vulnerability is hard to find, but there nonetheless. She is refreshing and sarcastic and brave. Rosa proves that even when you don’t have it all figured out anymore, you can still get back to you.
The plot is full of brightly rich culture and of stories that grow upon each other and culminate into a lifetime. Moreno’s writing is fresh, she strings words and phrases together so masterfully that they are given new perspective. Don’t Date Rosa Santos is at times heart wrenching, but it’s also a soul searching, spirit lifting book that will hypnotize you and you won’t want it to end.

I was legit here for the “cursed girl and the sea” story line and didn’t need much more than that. 

I loved Rosa. I loved her loyalty and her steadfastness. I loved her need to explore and learn. Her friends were all great and so were the secondary characters. Of course Mimi stole every scene she was in and I don’t even know what to do with Alex {aka the boy who bakes and read silently next to her in school and is so shy and charming}

Plot wise, it was good. There were loads of characters and I finally gave up trying to keep them straight. Even with all of the plot threads, the story is ultimately about family and finding your place in it and this was told beautifully. I loved the culture and the way food was basically a character and just how much longing there was for Cuba. 

Overall, it was a quick and passionate read.  There were definitely some heartbreaking parts, but I was captivated from the start and could easily read more from these characters. 

**Huge thanks to Hyperion for providing the arc free of charge**

4.5 stars.

"We try with all we have. We fight hands we can't see. We stomp against the earth and whisper all the right prayers, but sometimes it isn't meant to be. You believe life will always be as it is, and you make plans, but the next thing you know, you're climbing into a sinking boat in the dead of night because the land you love is no longer safe. The sun sets, he doesn't swim above the water again, and time runs out."

Rosa Santos has been raised to believe that the women in her family are cursed by the sea, especially when it comes to love, and the men who get involved with them are doomed. When her grandparents migrated from Cuba when her mother was just an infant, storms hit their boat, and only Rosa's grandmother and mother survived. Eighteen years later, the young man her mother loved (and Rosa's father) left on his boat for a routine day of work and never returned.

Since then Rosa has been afraid of even going near the water—and has steered clear of relationships. She lives with her grandmother, Mimi, in a small Florida town where everyone knows everyone's business. Mimi works as a curandera, the person everyone turns to for help with illness, crises, and everything in between. Rosa's mother drifts in and out of town, unable to stay for too long in the place where her heart was broken, and causing friction with Mimi whenever she returns.

What Rosa wants more than anything is answers. She wants to know more about what Cuba was like for her grandmother, why she'll never speak of that time or of the family left behind. She wants to understand why her mother can't stay in one place, why she can't be the mother she's always needed. And more than anything, she wants to understand the whole idea of the Santos "curse," especially when she meets Alex Aquino, the brooding sailor with tattoos of the ocean and a passion for baking.

How do you get a fresh start when everyone around you knows everything about you, and is watching your every move? Can we really overcome the challenges of our past, and outrun the "curses"? Is love worth risking everything for, especially the potential that you could "doom" someone else?

Don't Date Rosa Santos is an utterly charming, sweet book about family, love, grief, and heritage, and is, in many ways, a love letter both to Cuba and to small-town America. The characters are fun and complex, and even if there aren't too many surprises to be had in the book, I got hooked pretty quickly and read the entire book in one day.

Nina Moreno has created a magical place, and her characters are quirky and memorable. It does feel a little like Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls, and the relationships between mothers and daughters are special. (Plus, Alex sounds hot.) This was a fun read without a tremendous amount of angst, which was a nice change of pace for me!

NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion provided me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!

A fun Jane the Virgin type story. I loved the sass. And it was fun, while also being somber at times. 

I hope it doesn't get lost in the mix, because this is one of those gems that tend to get overlooked. It's important and beautiful and I want everyone to read it!

This book was so fun and quirky and i loved it all. The writing is cute and whimsical and i loved how it was such a sweet rom-com. i loved reading the heritage of all the town and seeing who they are as people and what drives them! Rosa was so endearing and i loved seeing her grow into herself and do what she wanted to do with her life and learn how to live without fear of the "curse" This book is the perfect beach read!

This book was said to be Gilmore Girls meets To All The Boys I've Loved Before and I love both of those things so I was really nervous to read it. However, I love it!!  

So we follow Rose who lives with her grandma as her mom artist who is in and out of her life. I love the community of this quirky Florida town! (Kinda feels like Stars Hollow) How these people stand together and hold each other up. I enjoyed that Rosas want to know more about her roots & culture, I can relate to that so much! I can't talk about most of the book because of HUGE spoilers! But I enjoyed the relationship between Rosa and Alex. The Curse that is set on her and her family is quite new of a curse, which is something that I don't read much of; I thought that the cures were going to be a major part of the story and I'm glad that it is that way. Rosa also feels that she is her age, she's still young when need and when she need to be adult she did without losing herself. I did cry, smile and giggled with these pages. I'm a fan of the authors writing, can't wait to read more by her. 
With that said, I'm pleased with this refreshing look onto Cuba culture of an immigration grandaughter, of a small sea town.

Ahh!! This was an amazing story about love, friendship and family. I loved this story and how it made me feel! 

I would like to thank the publisher for an advanced copy of this book for an honest review!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this digital ARC.
I will admit up front that I was attracted to this book by the cover and the title. I had no idea what to expect. I actually nearly stopped reading it a couple times because I wasn't being pulled in. I pushed through until I WAS pulled in. The whole story of the Santos women was unique and much richer than I expected. The last third of this book is the absolutely best part of it, even when it's heavy and a little heartbreaking. I liked reading about Rosa Santos and her journey to discover more about herself, her family, and her family history. 
There's magic in this book that reminds me of the subtleties of Practical Magic and then the family element reminds me of Jane the Virgin. The main plot seems to be that the locals are trying to save the harbor but becomes so much more in depth and rich and tied together. Between trying to pull off a wedding and festival at the same time, overcoming a family curse (something that I didn't actually love, honestly), picking the college Rosa wants to go to, and unexpectedly falling for a boy with a boat...there's a lot more. Alex is a boy that has layers and I adored his love of baking. When the author talks about sailing, I could easily picture those scenes. There's a nice visual within her writing that helps the story flow more easily. 
Yes, this book only earned three stars for me and it's mainly because it took me so long to get invested. It earned its three stars and I can easily see others giving it a higher rating. It's one that I would recommend to anybody wanting something original.

"This wasn't Cuba, and it wasn't her farm, and so much life and family had been taken from her, but despite loss and a raging sea, she reached the shore with my mother and her story hadn't stopped. She made something real and her life counted here, too."


Wow, what a great read! I really loved the amazing family and community dynamics that were so prominent in this story! For a debut author, this was very impressive!

Don't Date Rosa Santos is about a girl named (you guessed it) Rosa who has to decide her future, all while dealing with the stress of a wishy-washy mother, a secretive abuela, and a supposed curse that is getting in the way of her love life.

What truly shone in this book was the dynamics within Rosa's family, friend group, and community. The sense of support and familiarity with all of the citizens of Port Coral was so pure and wholesome to read about! I loved all of the unique personalities that each person in the story had, and how Rosa's friend group was a more realistic size than how a lot of YA books portray (for example, most books only have the protagonist have one good friend that they hang out with all of the time and no one else. This situation is not very realistic for most people. In this book, Rosa had a best friend that she was the closest with, and then she had a bunch of side friends who she also hung out with. This is how most friend groups are, and the dynamic within this group was really relatable to me and the friend group that I have in real life!). The only downside is that there are so many characters that sometimes you lose track of who people are. However, I still really enjoyed this aspect of the book and would say that the positives outweigh the negatives!

Another strong point in this book is the author's lovely, poetic prose! There were many lines that really stuck with me, and here are just a few of them:

"Spring was blossoming and my mother was back, but I only knew how long one of those would last."


"We try with all we have. We fight hands we can't see. We stomp against the earth and whisper all the right prayers, but sometimes it isn't meant to be. You believe life will always be as it is, and you make plans, but the next thing you know, you're climbing into a sinking boat in the dead of night because the land you love is no longer safe. The sun sets, he doesn't swim above water again, and time runs out."


"I took the moment to jot down the memories I'd made in my journal. They were still so bright, sharp, and mine. I uncapped a marker and added my lost family to them. A little girl exploding with laughter as she chased a goat in Viñales. The grandmother who always slipped her extra sweets, when her world was alive with peace and possibility. I added a grinning Alvaro, in full color, rushing up the university steps, a book under his arm and hope in his heart."


Those are just to name a few!

So, as I said before, I really loved this prose. I found it really impressive, especially for a debut author!

Needless to say, I really enjoyed and recommend this book! However, there are a few more things that I wish I could have gotten from it. Personally, I really think that this book could have been fleshed out a little more. I feel like things happened a little too quickly sometimes, and because of how quick they would happen they didn't impact me as much as they usually would have. I am primarily talking about the romance, which I feel like needed a bit more developing in order to make it something more memorable. (Not saying I didn't enjoy the romance, but I feel like a lot more could have been done with those two characters!) The same goes for Alex's family, who we got a lot of conflict from that didn't seem quite fully resolved. 

But, those little things aside, this was a great book! The positives definitely outweigh the negatives on this one. I loved the representation of Latinx characters, and I couldn't recommend this book enough! I hope this review inspires you to pick this one up if you haven't already!

A big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

This is magical book about a young woman. She lives in fictional Port Coral, Florida, where the sea meets the land. Family and local lore surround Rosa; her grandparents escaped Cuba by boat, and her grandmother Milagros gave birth to her mother in the ocean, while losing her husband to the sea. Rosa's own mother lost her beloved to the sea, and Rosa was raised knowing she should never set foot on the wharf or step onto the beach.

When she was young, Rosa wandered America with her mother, traveling from one town to the next, until one day she decided she would rather live with her grandmother in Florida. Her mother came and went throughout the years. Rosa is responsible, follows the rules of the family curse, yet she covets a desire to visit Cuba and major in Latin American studies at college. Until the day she meets her own sailor, and the whirlwind begins.

Magic and realistic fantasy make up this love story; the love of three women tied to the sea, their love for their adopted hometown, and love all of the people that surround them. Rosa and her Mimi are beloved and admired, but the townspeople are wary of Rosa's mom. Spanish phrases, descriptions of food, herbs, flowers and simple magic embellish the story. Tragedy follows great triumph, and Rosa is left wondering what is real and what is imagined. It's a beautiful story, and the writing is poetic. Descriptions of life in this small Florida seaside town, and of Cuba itself are rich in detail and color. This is a good story to escape the real world for a short time.

I laughed, I cried, and I loved this book.
Don’t Date Rosa Santos is about a girl who’s just trying to find her place in the world. Rosa is one of the most relatable protagonists I’ve ever read, and I can’t emphasize how much I loved reading about another Cuban-American girl living in South Florida and stressing about dual enrollment—and her family curse, of course. (Seriously, I’m convinced Nina Moreno found me somehow and said “I’ll write a story about this random girl who screams about books a lot on Twitter.”)
Every character is so endearing and funny and cute, and I felt like I really got to understand and know the people of Port Coral. I’m legitimately ready to pack my bags and visit them ASAP, especially to try Alex’s pastelitos de guayaba y queso.
Speaking of Alex—he was such a wonderful love interest. He was cute and mysterious and kind, and I felt like his dynamic with Rosa was so natural and well-developed. No spoilers here, but there are definitely many swoon-worthy moments.
This is a new all-time favorite, and I can’t wait to read and support anything and everything else the author releases.

I LOVED THIS BOOK. The reason I requested was because originally I liked the sound of the story and I've been looking to expand my reading genres. After I sent the request in a ton of other bloggers and booksellers I follow started gushing about it as they read and reviewed this one. ALL OF THEM WERE RIGHT. Everything about this book is fabulous. The over-arching plot, each and every one of the characters, the writing itself, I loved it all. Would absolutely recommend to any YA reader, typical genre or no. This is one of those books that everyone must read, immediately.

This was such a sweet and beautifully written book! I completely fell in love with Port Coral and it's tight knit community. It had so many general Florida references and it was so fun to read them, the town of Port Coral just felt so real. I may have also screamed a bit when the area I currently live in, and the university I went to, were mentioned.

I adored Rosa so so much, the second she started going on about her bullet journal I was just sold on her. The dedication she has for meeting goals was fantastic, no matter the issue she's there helping out and planning a path for success. Now Rosa and Alex absolutely killed me with every interaction they had, it was so cute!! 

Rosa's relationship with the women in her family is very complicated, but despite all their differences and misunderstandings I was glad there was always that emphasis on just how much these women love each other. Mimi was such a cool and wise grandmother, she definitely made me miss my own grandmother a lot. I loved how her extensive knowledge of medicinal plants was a huge part in helping their local community. How everyone could just go to her and she would have a solution for their problems. Also Mimi's garden room is the stuff of my dreams!!!

Now when I heard about the curse I wasn't sure what to expect for that. I enjoyed the way the family curse was shown to have such a strong grip on so much of their lives. This was a serious issue for them, and I'm glad it was never downplayed. Now I also appreciate how the subject of brujería was handled so beautifully. How it was just a very normal part of Rosa's life, and doing it came so naturally to her. I loved how casually she could bring it up with her friends or others within the community, and how it was never seen in a negative light. 

Overall this is such a beautiful book about family and finding yourself. Rosa takes you on such a huge adventure, and I loved every single moment.

Everything about this book was on point: the coastal town of Port Coral was filled with a cast of characters who knew everything about everyone, delicious food, and a family that has been cursed. With Spanish language dispersed throughout the novel in a really effective way, readers were transported into this small town in Florida, among the people and their traditions.

The Santos family has been dealt a tough hand through the years. Mimi (Rosa’s grandmother) was her main guardian as Rosa’s mother was a flighty artist who avoided their town due to a rough past. Even with this tense relationship and obvious untold secrets about their family, there’s nothing these three women wouldn’t do for their family.

Rosa Santos was a very high achieving and ambitious teen who was always up to help with everything. She could have been a really annoying character, but there was something so nice and lovely about her. She had a great group of friends who stuck close to her, being very supportive in everything she did. The townspeople in general where really great and offered so much color to an already delightful town. The food! My mouth was watering from all the talk about freshly baked breads and other cakes and pastries.

Then we get to the ending. The best way I can compare it is to the TV show Scrubs. Okay, still with me on this? Scrubs had an incredible eight season run that they ended with a really incredible series finale that tied up all the storylines so nicely. Then it got surprisingly renewed for a ninth season that went in a completely different direction with new characters. That’s how I felt with this book: there was a natural ending that would have left a little a hopeful and sort of open ending. Peaceful. However, it kept going to a point where Rosa was starting to act differently to who she’s been the whole novel.

The ending was just the one thing that kept me from giving this five stars.

I was sent an e-arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love that this book is just so, so, so inherently Latinx. I feel like almost every Latinx family has had a family member who has either cursed someone or had a cursed placed on them. The supernatural and storytelling go hand in hand in Latinx familes in a way that feels almost natural and Nina Moreno was able to capture this feeling perfectly. 

I enjoyed how in this novel, multi generational trauma is really explored in depth through magical realism. It also explored what being a child of the diaspora feels like and the complicated feelings that come with the longing of a place that has never been your home, but feels painted in your veins. Rosa's relationship with the women in her family, her mother and her grandmother is messy and stems from the lack of proper communication so it was cool to see them all heal together at the end.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to read an ARC of Don't Date Rosa Santos.  I would hope I would pick it up in the library or bookstore - I would be sad to have missed it.  This is an excellent book on many, many levels.  I loved it - I think Rosa Santos goes down as one of my favorite characters of all time.  Nina Moreno writes a story steeped in the culture of the Florida Keys and Cuba and introduces many colorful, vivid characters that I find unforgettable.  

Rosa is 17, graduating high school and also attending online college and avoiding the beach religiously thanks to the family curse.  She plans on attending college in South Carolina because of a study abroad program that includes Havana, Cuba.  Why Cuba?  Its complicated.  Rosa lives with Mimi, her Grandmother who came to American after giving birth to  her daughter on the crossing from Cuba after losing her husband on the journey to flee a dangerous country.  Rosa's mother, lost her love as a pregnant teen when her boyfriend was lost at sea.  Since her mother is away most of the time, pursuing her art around the United States, she left Rosa in Port Coral, Florida with Mimi and the extended family of neighbors, friends and a culture rich in folklore, food, and magic..

Circumstances are threatening the marina in Port Coral so Rosa comes up with an idea to have a festival to celebrate the village and save the harbor.  It is at a community meeting that Rosa meets the strong, silent and gorgeous Alex Aquino - sailor, baker, and crush.  Rosa's mother shows up on the anniversary of Rosa's father's death and sticks around long enough to fight with Mimi and confuse Rosa.  Rosa becomes torn between old culture and new, college and new love.  Her plans are thrown in to turmoil as a family tragedy changes everything.  Rosa has tough choices to make and has to overcome anxieties to grow up quickly.

I have to stop writing or I'll tell you the entire book.  I plan to get several copies of this book for our school  library and  urge as many kids to read it as I can.  Read it yourself and I'm sure you'll agree with me.  Please make sure to read the acknowledgements -  Nina Morena writes a heartfelt thank you that just adds to the poignant tale of Rosa and her family.