When Camilo, a NYC social worker, goes to an absurdly swanky charity event that his boss can’t attend, he’s intent on enjoying the special evening, which includes chatting up the hottie he meets at the bar. After a few drinks and some suggestively flirty banter, he and Mr. hot stuff find a dark corner and make the night truly memorable.

The next morning, Camilo’s boss introduces him to Tom, the millionaire who’ll be financing their agency’s major renovation project. Tom also happens to be Camilo’s hot charity gala hook-up from the night before.

Aware how awkward the situation is, Tom agrees to keep things strictly professional from now on, but also asks that Milo be the point man on the project, keeping him up-to-date on the renovations.

Their weekly meetings begin to look more and more like dates – a meal at a fancy restaurant, a walk through the botanical gardens. Camilo is no fool, but as he gets to know Tom better – he’s certainly not your average philanthropic millionaire, there is more than meets the eye – the pretense of “keeping things professional” begins to hold less and less appeal.

When they can no longer deny the attraction, Tom takes Milo back to his place. The sex is amazing (of course), but the afterglow is short-lived when Tom’s ex drops buy with their daughter.

Tom shares custody of Libertad, his daughter, with his former husband. Learning of all of this (which Tom failed to mention up until that point) briefly throws Milo for a loop, but it’s hard to resist the precocious the little girl, and Milo falls even harder for the millionaire and his ready-made family.

A situation with Milo’s mom has him taking on more work and financial responsibility and, in addition to that, he’s working overtime as the massive renovation project is wrapping up.

He’s stretched almost to the breaking point. When Tom offers to help, the fiercely independent Milo insists he has it all under control.
Tom quietly takes care of things. It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission, right? In this case, no.

Camilo is furious.

As a reader, it’s hard not to feel frustrated by Milo’s stubborn streak. Your boyfriend is a millionaire for god’s sake! Get over yourself!

But it eventually becomes clear that Milo is, of course, right. Tom’s intervention robbed Milo of his own autonomy. It’s Milo’s choice whether or not to ask for help – no one else’s.

This is a deal-breaker for Milo and it causes a major rift in their relationship. Tom has to find a way to fix things, by doing the hard work and not using his money to solve their problems.

This is a romance, so Tom figures things out, and pulls off a grand gesture that is less grand, and more heartfelt and considerately thoughtful – which is exactly what Milo needed.

It all wraps up with swoon-worthy family vacation to the Dominican Republic.

This is another great addition to this series. I'm so glad I found these romances! I can't wait for more from Adriana.

Milo is a scrappy social worker who gets a free ticket to a high-roller benefit. He meets the impeccably-dressed Thomas in line for the bar, they hit it off, and end the night having a mutually enjoyable encounter in a coat closet. But the next day, Milo meets the new major donor for his struggling nonprofit. If you guessed it was Thomas...you're right! And now Milo has to act like everything is okay, or they might lose the desperately-needed funds. Meanwhile, Thomas is secretly glad to get to spend more time with the passionate man who made such an impression.

Both characters have some substantial trust issues and baggage. I enjoyed their story, but I could never quite get past the power imbalance between the two. However, Herrera writes them with terrific chemistry, and it was a very readable book.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review.

Camilo Briggs is a biracial social worker in NYC. He’s been raised by his mom, a Cubana who sought asylum after floating to Florida on a raft. His father, a Jamaican raised in Miami, died when Milo was young. Milo’s fiercely protective of his mother and has a bit of a Disney princess complex—or so his close friends joke. His parents were a love-at-first-sight couple, and his mother still mourns her husband’s passing 24 years later. Milo longs for a man who will make him a priority, be loving and compassionate, and respect his heritage.

Milo meets a dashing older white man at an LGBTQ charity gala. The chemistry between Milo and Tom is beyond magnetic, and the growing desire, fueled by an open bar, leads to a sexy-dirty hook up in the venue’s powder room. Milo isn’t normally so impulsive, and he’s not rewarded for his choice when it turns out Tom is a multimillionaire who has only recently pledged $2 million to a long-desired renovation and expansion project for Milo’s agency, New Beginnings. Tom had been looking to fund a group that serves destitute immigrants and survivors of domestic violence, and New Beginnings was on his short list. He chose the agency before he and Milo met, so it’s a huge, but engaging, coincidence to reconnect. Milo is on high alert for shenanigans, but Tom is both good and decent. This charity project is personal for him, in memory of his aunt who’d been battered. He won’t let his interest in Milo disrupt those plans, and working closely with Milo on the project planning and implementation is a bonus, right? They can get closer, and maybe become more than colleagues.

challenge month 2020 badgeTom is used to buying what he wants—and he’s willing to use his money to make the lives of the people he cares for easier. Milo doesn’t want a sugar daddy, however. He finds Tom’s financial overtures to be extreme, and he’s not shy about making his desires clear. He wants Tom, not Tom’s money, and the bond growing between them does signal their increased compatibility—including with Tom’s daughter, Libertad. Milo needs to search his soul in his attempts to mesh his growing affection and desire for a deep love, with being cared for in financial, as well as emotional ways.

This is a sweet and sexy fairytale romance for Milo, whose demeanor is wholly unsettled by the surprises Tom has in store—being biracial Dominican (though very light skinned), a loving father, and a generous and kind-hearted man—on top of his sexiness and enormous wealth. Milo’s afraid he’ll lose his sense of hard work and determination if he lets Tom in too deep. Unfortunately, he’s fallen hard for his prince, and the only way to be true to himself again is to go all the way in.

I chose this book for TBR Pile Week because I read it when it first released more than a year ago, but my life is crazy and I sometimes go from book to book without writing reviews. Then, two other books came out in the American Dreamers series and I read each of those. I really love these stories about bicultural, and sometimes biracial, people navigating the Anglo networks in the U.S. Their stories are so lush, and the author really brings her experiences as a social worker, an immigrant, a person of color, and an “own voices” author to the page. I was a little surprised we hadn’t already reviewed this book, and I was grateful for the chance to re-read the story at my leisure, knowing that I was going to love it thoroughly on the second read.

DNF
At this time, I am no longer interested in reading this title. Thank you for the opportunity to review this title and I apologize for the inconvenience.

Adriana Herrera's Dreamers series is beautiful and American Fairytale may just be my favorite. Milo is without a doubt my favorite character in the series and the love between him and Tom was so beautiful! I adored every minute of this book!

So, as you can see from the blog post title/date, this is a Self-Isolation read. Yes, I audiobooked this while in self-isolation due to Corona (the virus, not the beer). I finished Cassandra Clare’s Chain of Gold in self-isolation (though, at the time, I was holiday, using last few days of my work’s allocated holiday in 2019 financial year) but when I knew that I was on self-isolation, I knew I wanted to read and audiobook fun stuff. Fun, silly stories. Now more than ever, I wanted to read and audiobook stories that make me happy. They can be fun, silly, dark-as-heck, a reread, I don’t care but I want stories that make me smile and, hopefully, make you go “Oh, this sounds like something I would like.”

Yes, I know that’s very much what the Pewter Wolf is about for past few years, but you know what I mean… 2020 has been a dark year, let’s lighten it up a bit… Wow, that sounds like that mannequin moment from the first series of BBC’s Miranda…

But I had American Fairytale on my NetGalley for a while as I saw this title on NetGalley a year or so and I went “Ooooh!” when I read the blurb.

New York social worker Camilo (Milo to his friends) has always dreamed of his own happily-ever-after. But, he lives in the real world and knows that kind of ending doesn’t exist. Men who are too good to be true, usually are. So, when Milo does something drunk and reckless one night and has an unforgettable hookup with a mysterious stranger at a gala his boss had to pull out of, he doesn’t think anything about it. Till the mysterious stranger walks into his office that Monday morning and turns out to be Thomas Hughes, the wealthy donor who is backing Milo’s agency’s funding for their next project.

As the two try (and fail) to keep business and pleasure seperate, the two have to figure their issues out: For Milo, it means learning to let someone take care of him for a change and, for Tom, it means that money can’t solve every problem. But can these two get over their issues to get their happily ever after?

So… for self-isolation, this was a nice, fun story, but there’s a bit of weight to it. It’s not perfect, let me make that clear from the get-go, but this was fun.

Where to start? The positive or the negative…?

This was a sweet and very fairy tale-esque romance. It worked for what I needed it to be: a quick romantic story to listen to while self-isolating and playing Animal Crossing. The characters were diverse - Milo is Cuban-Jamaican, his mother is Cubanita, his best friend is Japanese-Jamaican and his other friends are people of colour, and Tom is white-passing Latinx and his friends are people of colour (and all Milo’s and Thomas’s friends are fabulous!I loved them so much!) . We have LGBT+ rep (it’s a gay romance, of course there is, but with secondary characters as well) and this book has weight as it touches on mental health, domestic abuse and the long, painful road of healing a victim of domestic abuse goes through after they’ve left the relationship.

The romance is sweet as it’s very much lust then love at first sight, and due to this story having dual POV, we see both sides of the romance and glimpse into each other’s lives before the other finds out. With Milo, it’s his mother’ depression and coming to terms with her past and with Thomas, it’s his young daughter, his ex and his friends.

As this is a romance novel, there is conflict within the romance, and it wasn’t what I was expecting. It comes down to money and trust. Due to situations in his and his mother’s past, Milo has to do everything himself and don’t feel like he can rely on other people and Thomas, wanting to help, throws money at the problem, even though Milo has said no.

So, why the negative? Well, it’s more that fact that, when in the story, you get sweep away with it and, at the current moment, this is very much needed. And yet, writing this write-up up, I see little problems.

We have an age group (Thomas is a “daddy” - 40ish - while Milo is in his mid/late 20s) and yet, some situations feel very out of place for their ages. Thomas, who grew up with nothing, should know better that money can’t solve everything, no matter how well meaning it is, and Milo doesn’t practice what he preaches: that asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness.

Plus, Thomas’s history. I’ve read one or two reviews asking what was the point of Thomas’s ex and his young toddler daughter. I get why: it shows Thomas had a life before Milo and I like this, but I kinda wish more was done with them. Now I think about it, if Thomas’s ex and daughter were edited out of the story, would we have noticed?

And yet, it did what it said on the tin. We had a romance, a couple that we knew would get together and wanted to get together. We understood why they did what they did and, at the same time, wanted to bang their heads together. And we had some X-rated scenes that made me glad I didn’t listen or read this at work, and some sweet moments.

This was a nice read, perfect for self-isolation, distracting self from the news or on a beach in the height of summer.

It's not the worst book Ive ever read, but it also wasnt very good. I liked the familial relationships, but the romance seemed a little forced.

I adored this book so much it is really hard to write a review :) I've reread it about two or three times already and I just love Camilo, Tom, and Tom's daughter, as well as Camilo's mother. It's so well-written in general, deals with difficult questions, such as race, domestic violence, migration, and mental health, but Herrera manages to deliver it all amazingly (and I can tell that MH issues are dealt with amazingly).

[Thanks Netgalley for the ebook. This review is my honest opinion but just another opinion, you should read this book and judge it by yourself]
3'5 stars.
It has been a good reading, a complete modern fairytale. And, as every fairytale, you must keep your mind open and don't expect a lot of reality. If you can do that (which was my case) you'll have a lovely experience. If you cannot, maybe you'll be rolling your eyes every two pages.
The MC are lovely, especially Tom. He's a modern prince charming, handsome, generous, with so much love to give... and a lot of money too. Camilo is the grumpy one. He's been worried with his mother's depression and her money problems and, although his relationship with Tom is perfect, they have a different POV in the financial area and that become their great issue.
It's been a sweet reading for me. The book is mostly well written, the love story beautiful (and sometimes a little cheesy, but it's a fairytale, so you must expect that) and perfect when you need something that melt your problems away during your reading time.
However, there are two things that disturbed me. On one hand the book makes you believe that there's going to be a lot of social problems involved with the story (the renovation of the shelter and how it can affect to Milo and Tom's relatioship, the difference of social status and wealth, the hard life of inmigrant people...) and, although you can see glimpses of these, it never goes deeper. On the other hand I had many problems with the Spanish the characters speak. Since I'm Spaniard, I struggle a lot when I read in English and find a lot of words in Spanish, mostly because they're almost always bad written, which is this case. I didn't like the lack of accents (very important in Spanish since they can give a different meaning to the same word) and another spelling mistakes. I loved the Spanglish, it seems great and natural in this story, but it seems that the Spanish wasn't paid special attention. It made me roll my eyes everytime I found that kind of mistake.
Overall it was a sweet and charming reading.

I don't wanna say I loved Camilo and Thomas better than Jude and Nesto, but like... they really put up the good fight.

I was kinda sad we didn't get as much of the friend group here as we did in Nesto's book. It makes perfect sense with the paths each of these guys is taking, but selfishly I just wanted to see the gang back together. I love these guys so much!!

Camilo's story is a bit of a Prince Charming story. Camilo meets his Prince Charming in Thomas, but he also refuses to accept it for a while. Camilo has been burned before and he's reluctant to believe that Thomas is as good as he comes off from the very beginning.

I loved their sexy first meeting and their awkward second meeting and just all around loved watching their relationship grow and develop. They have a couple of obstacles, and Camilo's head often gets in the way, but Thomas is kind and patient and just loves him so much.

I adored this book and cannot wait to read the next one!!!

Thomas is the multimillionaire immigrant alpha progressive cinnamon roll of our dreams, Camilo is a sexy Momma's boy who devotes his life to helping women and kids, and when they meet at a fundraiser it's straight fire.

On their second meeting, which occurs in a professional setting, the connection deepens. Camilo reacting to Thomas:
<blockquote>At the mention of his mother his face lit up. A Dominican boy who loved his mother. Like I needed one more reason for my ill-advised crush to grow.</blockquote>

They share values and chemistry but inhabit very different class positions and social worlds. Plus, they have a working relationship that further exacerbates those conflicts. The challenges they face are realistic and relevant. So basically, American Fairytale is simply my platonic ideal of radical romance. Just the right mix of social conscience and unabashed swoon.

I've put off writing this review for too long waiting for just the right words to do this justice, so for now I'll leave it at that.

I did not review this title for All About Romance; I loved it, though. I picked the Dreamers series as my favorite of 2019. Here's what I said:

It’s hard to pick a favorite in the Dreamers series (they’re all terrific); the series as a whole makes my best of 2019. Dreamers follows four Afro-Latinx best friends who grew up in the South Bronx: food truck owner and chef, Ernesto Vasquez (Nesto), social worker Camilo Santiago Briggs (Milo), professor and activist Patrice Denis, and (still to come) physical therapist, Juan Pablo (Juan Pa) Campos. Each novel features a sexy and romantic relationship – and the often rocky road to happily ever after. But what unifies the series – and makes it better than almost everything else I’ve read this year – is Herrera’s thought provoking portrayal of the immigrant experience in America. Nesto, Camilo and Patrice fight for their American Dream – and it’s a difficult, painful journey. The author unflinchingly tackles racism, prejudice, privilege, poverty, abuse, wealth disparity… and that’s just with Nesto, Camilo, Patrice, and Juan Pa! Their love interests bring a host of struggles to the relationships, too. Sexy, funny, thought-provoking, challenging, romantic and uplifting, Dreamers is marvelous on many levels. If I have to pick a favorite, I’d give a slight nod to American Love Story, but only because I think the series improved from book to book.

I love Adriana Herrera and I love this entire series. I think her work is just so well-thought out and really careful about these two characters and how they come to love each other. This is one of the few romances with a billionaire that didn't just feel like money porn. A great entry in a great series from an up and coming writer.

In Herrera's thrilling follow-up to AMERICAN DREAMER, the stakes are higher than ever, and it's evident from the very first chapter as Milo and Tom start getting wrapped around each other's businesses (uh, almost literally). The relationship is not only realistic, with its insecurities and discourses on colorism within the Latinx community, discussions on gentrification and domestic violence... And it's still extremely romantic and sensual without seeming voyeuristic. I got frustrated with their discussions around wealth and Milo's hangups with the way Tom used his money to sometimes get his way (yeah, that's what rich people do, and they're not always ethical, but that doesn't mean Milo should be agonizing over it every single time).
Overall, a great book and I absolutely love Herrera's writing style and the way that she writes community and friendships.

I thought I couldn't love this series more, and I do love American Dreamer, but American Fairytale was even more amazing.

Full review on the blog soon!

Stevie‘s review of American Fairytale (Dreamers, Book 2) by Adriana Herrera
Contemporary Gay Romance published by Carina Press 20 May 19

I adored the first book in this series about three friends from different immigrant backgrounds who grew up together in New York and are now finding their individual ways to career success and relationships that will last. This time, we return to New York City to catch up with the second of the trio, Camilo Santiago Briggs, a Cuban-American social worker with a Jamaican father and a determination to fight for those who’ve had fewer chances in life than he has. When Milo and his best friend are gifted tickets to a swanky charity event, he doesn’t expect to hook up with one of the top donors, and is even more surprised when the man in question shows up at his work as the major benefactor behind his new project.


Thomas Hughes is a light-skinned Dominican, who wants to renovate some of the city’s shelters for women escaping abusive relationships in memory of his aunt, who was killed by her partner. Having made his fortune from a business he and his university friends set up to facilitate money transfers for other migrants, he’s now enjoying a spell of semi-retirement in order to bring up his daughter. He split up from her other daddy around the time she was born and they now share custody in a mostly amicable fashion. Tom is pleased to have a chance to get to know Milo better, although they initially try to keep things on a purely business footing. Soon, though, they’re meeting each other’s families and spending a lot of time together outside work, even though Milo is wary of Tom’s generosity, seeing it as an attempt to buy his favours and to control him.

Tom just wants to do the best by everyone and can’t understand that spending money on expensive gifts for Milo and his mother might be seen as anything other than wanting to treat them. His previous relationship fell apart because he was too absorbed in his work, and he’s determined that won’t happen again. When Milo finally snaps over one expensive outing too many, Tom has to figure out a way to show that he cares that all about giving away something more precious than money.

I was very taken with Tom’s plan to win Milo back, although I’d have liked to have seen more of the adventures he had in the process of carrying it out. I felt that Milo was a little too suspicious of Tom’s earlier attempts to woo him, even as I sympathised with the formative experiences that had led to his attitude. It was good to see both their families being supportive and to catch glimpses of the other two pairs that are central to this series. This book wasn’t quite as enchanting as the previous one, but I’m certainly looking forward to the next.

Stevies CatGrade: B

Herrera's series picks up the pace in this installment, with social worker Carmilo and ultra-rich software developer Tom hooking up at a benefit for LGTBQ youth--and then discovering that they're connected though Milo's work and Tom's financial support of a shelter for victims of domestic violence. I appreciate that everyone's an adult here, despite the age difference--Herrera's characters have a refreshing emotional literacy, as well as a colorful and warm cast of friends who aren't afraid to call everyone on their nonsense--and I love the way the romance encompasses both characters' families. Herrera's work celebrates a rich and loving community, and despite the tensions Milo and Tom have, particularly surrounding Tom's high-handedness regarding money, this is a delightful spin on a Cinderella-ish story.

Overall this was a solid read, but compared to the first book in this series, I found it disappointing. While the dialogue in first book flowed like water, and the characters gelled very obviously from the get go, in this one, they...did not. More than once, I found the dialogue stilted and the interactions almost forced.

What's more, I don't love it when books have the main characters hook up within minutes of meeting each other, like in this book. And in this case, it seemed inconsistent with the rest of Tom's character. It just didn't seem to fit. This doesn't seem to bother most people, but it doesn't work for me. On top of that, I found Tom's dominance a bit odd. The dynamic worked on Milo's side, but not Tom's.

There are a lot of things to like about this book. I love that the characters are more diverse than the usual fare, and by diverse I mean not just race, but across a delightfully human range of characteristics, including race, gender identity, culture, experience, relationships, professions, childhood history...

And I love that this diversity is just normal, a part of things, with nothing that calls attention to itself in that annoying, "look how diverse I'm being" sense you often sense from some authors (the seemingly casual mention of caramel skin is often a dead giveaway).

And I love the close, emotionally supportive friendships that are shown among men without denigrating their emotions as feminine or negative. A huge relief.

In general, I am thrilled that this author is publishing regularly! I'm looking forward to reading them again in the future. It's just that this book didn't grab me quite as much as the first one.

I really love this series by Adriana Herrera and this one starts out with a BANG so be prepared for some steam just fyi! Tom and Milo have major chemistry in this book, as a social worker and a billionaire who have to work together but also figure out how to maneuver the financial issues that separate them. I love them together and their romance is both sweet and hot, just the way I like it.



What I loved in this book was the exploration of Milo’s relationship with his mother, and his mother’s depression. I thought that was particularly well done. I also really love how much Herrera celebrates the Dominican Republic culture in these books. The friend group that unites this series of books is still tight-knit even though they’re not local to each other anymore and that shines through as well.