I truly enjoyed the way that Latinx culture is celebrated in this book, as well as the glimpse into the world of acting (and tabloids), as well as the exploration of family dynamics. I enjoyed both Jasmine and Ashton as characters (though they both got on my nerves at various points, but that's what makes them realistic). While I did enjoy whenever they were on page together (and the steamy bits were quite good), I also don't think the reason for their mutual attraction is explained or explored enough. And while the chapters that featured Carmen (the show that they are filming) are fun, they also felt a little jarring and out of place; it was hard to tell if I was supposed to be reading it as a script (complete with the characters' motivations and inner monologues - so not really script-like), or as if I was watching the show (which would also make the details that were included a bit odd). Every time we came to a Carmen chapter, it just took me out of the main story, even though I could sort of see the parallels between it and the main plot, but it always took me a minute to orientate myself between the shifts. I do look forward to reading more from Alexis Daria and I think I'll go back and read her dancing series. To be honest though, I think my favorite part of the book (besides the fire hot steamy bits), is this FANTASTIC cover!

Ratings (out of of 5):
Cinematics: 💥💥💥💥
Forced Proximity: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
The Abuelas: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
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Fresh off of a humiliating breakup that lands her on the front page of every tabloid, heartbroken soap opera star, Jasmine Lin, drafts a Leading Lady Plan. Rule #1 - a leading lady doesn’t need a man to be happy. She’s to play the lead in a new bilingual rom-com, opposite the devilishly handsome but famously aloof Ashton Suarez. Ashton’s last telenovela character was killed off and he worries that his career died with him. He’s got a secret and a plan and Jasmine is the key and biggest risk to both. Their chemistry is off the charts and they make magic on screen. But what happens when all that chemistry starts to make off-camera lines blurry?
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I FLEW through this book, friends. Jasmine and Ashton leapt off the page and it’s stuffed to the brim with interesting supporting characters who were fully realized and made me care about them. The structure is perfect, layering scenes from the show in with their daily lives to show the development of the relationship. Loved that.
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Daria weaves Spanish and English throughout the text with a deft hand. Spanish dialogue is not translated word-for-word into English but is indicated through context to stunning. Did I have to Google once or twice? Yup. Did I mind? Not one bit. The beauty of both Spanish as a language and the Latinx culture function as characters in this book as much as any people and I was HERE FOR IT.
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It’s a swoon-worthy whirlwind of not-quite-but-almost-instalove but feels real at the same time. They love and they laugh and they fight and they make up and it all makes for a love story that is both ordinary and extraordinary at the same time.
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If you like sexy contemporary romance with fairly low angst that is vibrant, diverse, and brimming with culture, you won’t want to miss this. I loved it and would 100% tune in if It got filmed for real. (Please, please, please 🙏)
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Kiss and Tell:
The sex scenes in this book are hot hot hot and yet vanilla enough to not scare off our more timid readers. Sexual tension builds until it leads to kissing, hand play, oral, and p&v sex. Our lovers are as considerate as they are sexy.
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(I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. All opinions are my own.)

I'm having a hard time putting into words my experience with this book. Maybe it's because I found it to be so contradictory. It is at once too slow and too fast, believable and entirely unbelievable, diverse yet tokenized. I'll try to hit all these points one by one.

The beginning of this book is slow, like really slow. Like, one third of the book passes before the romantic leads so much as have an actual conversation. I think I picked up and put down this book dozens of times because I entirely lost interest. I guess this time was dedicated to building out the characters separately but I just didn't find it very compelling. On the flip side, once the characters did dive into a romantic relationship it was zero to one hundred. This isn't really a complaint, it was a lot of fun to read about the main characters as a couple. They share a lot of chemistry and the whirlwind made sense. We're all reading for the romance here, after all, aren't we? But I do remember being surprised to hear them voice love for each other rather than just attraction. Like, when did that happen?

I do feel like the author did an excellent job with the dialogue which was definitely believable. I didn't find the characters to be all that unique but honestly, I think that lended itself to their credibility as you can see realistic traits in them. What I mean when I say it was "unbelievable," rather, is that I felt like I could see the hand of the author all the time. This kind of goes into my third point a bit, but a good example of this was when the Latinx characters are talking about the importance of Latinx characters in media in a sort of didactic way. I appreciate the moral and agree on the importance of diverse representation 100% but it was just so meta that I felt like I could see right through the page to the author writing it. I don't always mind seeing an author in their work but in a romance novel I feel like it's all the more important that you be completely immersed.

I debated including this last bit as it's not really my bone to pick and why criticize the quality of representation when the quantity in the publishing world is pitiful. I decided to cover it because it impeded in my ability to enjoy the book. I thought a lot of the representation in this book was ace, the main characters especially, where their identity influenced their person in many complex ways. However I felt the minor characters occasionally came across as tokenized. There would be characters that would only appear in a single sentence that seemed to have a minority identity tacked on as an afterthought in ways that weren't helpful to the development of the character or even added to the confusion. To be very clear I don't think this was the author's intention at all! I think her heart is completely in the right place. As someone that did not always share these identities, if you are reading this review as someone who does, please feel free to let me know I'm totally off-base and that you appreciate this kind of representation.

This is a bit of a scattered review but I do want to say that though I didn't love this book it had its fun and escapist moments. If the other reviews are an indication this book is widely loved, so if you're looking for a cute summer-y contemporary romance, most likely you will enjoy it.

This is a fun, fast-paced romance with well-fleshed-out and appealing characters, humor, and lots of tasty bits of dialogue and scenes.

Ashton was not my favorite hero, he was just a little bit too inflexible for my taste, but Jasmine is definitely one of my favorite heroines and I loved her journey in this book.  The lighter tone was definitely what I needed the past couple weeks.  I’m hopeful there will be more books in this world as some of the supporting characters really stood out.  A must read diverse romance.

Jasmine Lin Rodriguez has a plan: post messy breakup made even messier by tabloids, she fully intends to start acting like a Leading Lady. She's going to put herself first, which means focusing on her career and not on men. When she finds herself starting to find Ashton Suarez, her on-screen love interest, endearing, she reminds herself that falling in love is not a part of her plan. But often times, the best laid plans can go awry. 

I adored You Had Me at Hola. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading the alternating perspectives of not only Jasmine and Ashton, but the characters they play in Carmen in Charge via script snippets as well. With limited pages, the book manages to scratch the surface of the microaggressions, barriers, and stereotypes Latinx actors face in the film industry in a way that is organic and honest, and while the other cast members of Carmen don't get as much on page time as the leads, I really enjoyed the sense of camaraderie you can tell they shared while working on a project as groundbreaking as Carmen.

More than anything, I loved Jasmine as our leading lady. She's a romantic at heart with a lot of love to give and has to unpack why she longs for a steady relationship so much through the course of the book. Her growth, above all else, was my favorite part of the book. There were moments where I had my doubts about how Jasmine's story would wrap, but she ended up becoming a refreshingly relatable character that hit close to home.

Sweet, but not too exciting. I was expecting more drama! In fact, I preferred the romance they acted out in the actual telenovela they were filming over the romance brewing between them off-screen.

3.5 - Such a great diverse book. 

I thought the characters were okay, just not fleshed out enough. The main character, Jasmine was great and I was really happy with how confident she was unabashedly. The male lead Ashton was a little immature and some of his fears were realistic. I'm glad that it showed him as insecure, since we don't get that a lot in fiction but I didn't really like reading his perspective all that much since he was whiny often. 

The story was decent, just not paced well. I felt like the climax and resolution was too short. The climax wasn't thrilling or scary enough since it couldn't be fleshed out. The resolution was just a few pages and didn't feel fulfilling enough.

I absolutely loved this book! The author’s decision to incorporate scenes from the show was amazing, allowing readers to follow the love stories of the characters on and off screen. Definite recommend!

You Had Me At Hola was a very sweet read that still managed to bring the heat when the two finally make it to the bedroom. I very much enjoyed seeing these two work together on set and then grow a relationship. I very much look forward to reading more from Daria in the future.

"You Had Me at Hola" was a super sweet and lighthearted romance. I loved the chemistry that Alexis Daria built between soap star Jasmine and telenovela star Ashton. The two were the exact kind of fun couple that readers love to root for, and their pairing definitely did not disappoint! I really enjoyed this fun story, and watching Jasmine and Ashton navigate their time together both on and off the screen. I'll be keeping my eye out for more of Daria's novels!

You Had Me at Hola was really enjoyable! I'd love to see it adapted for the screen. 

Our romantic leads (Jasmine and Ashton) are costars - in a bilingual romantic comedy - about to meet and work together. Jasmine is off a bad break-up and not looking to get involved with anyone, especially her costar. Ashton is protective of his privacy, and wary of doing anything that might attract the tabloids. But, you know what happens... sparks fly.

Be advised, the first half is a bit of a slow burn - but then it gets steamy! 

The premise is such a sell with this book. Their being on set, with a Boricua showrunner, a Latinx cast, and an intimacy coordinator? Awesome. 

Admittedly, the romance itself wasn't my favorite - it relied on some tropes that I could do without. Which is a true testament to Alexis Daria's writing and the rest of the book, that I enjoyed it despite not loving some of the plot points. I'd definitely try another book by this author and recommend this one!

I was sold when I read the blurb and saw there was a telenovela background. I knew it would bring on the drama and the secrets, and it did! However, much like a telenovela the reader knew all the secrets and we were just waiting for it to all unfold. This is an indulgent romance between two people that are trying to keep the trajectory of their careers going. Another strong point for the book is the forthrightness between the two characters, they share their stories dealing with the stereotypes of the latinx community in Hollywood.

I am a big fan of the author and was so excited for this book! It is mostly enjoyable though the TV show 'story within the story' felt tedious and unnecessary. It felt like filler when I would rather just read about the hero and heroine instead of reading plotlines of their characters. The characters they played in the show weren't different enough from their real personas, so that it sort of felt confusing in a way that didn't help the story along. It also felt strangely repetitive and did a lot of 'showing' rather than 'telling' which made certain parts feel like they dragged. I enjoyed the dynamics between the heroine and her supportive cousins -- they were great and hilarious.

This book had me at Hola! I am so excited about all the new voices and cultures being represented in the world of romance. It's so fun to have an experience different than my own. And this was especially true in You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria. Alexis brought to life for me not only the experience of TV stars, but also Telenovelas and Latinx culture. The cast of characters in the book were so interesting. I especially loved Jasmine and Ashton and their families. Their relationship was captivating and there was so many layers to their stories. You Had Me at Hola was a fun, fast paced read with plenty of steam. Highly recommended!

An incredibly fun rom-com about the two leads on a new Netflix-style show, whose on-screen romance begins to seep into their real lives, despite all the reasons they should keep things professional. Jasmine, coming off of a bad tabloid breakup, is determined to become the Leading Lady she was always meant to be. Ashton has every reason to want to stay out of the limelight between his anxiety over a stalker who broke into his house years ago and a son he is determined to keep secret and safe from the paparazzi. But the chemistry between them is impossible to resist. 

I really enjoyed this showbiz-centric romance novel. Daria's writing style was so voicey and immersive and the exploration of Latinx culture / identity were so wonderfully integral to the story. I also loved that the conflict was resolved by both characters realizing their own mistakes as well as overreactions to the other's mistakes, which I feel isn't something we always see dealt with in romance novels. Just an all-around great book!

I connected with You Had Me at Hola on a deeply personal level in a way that I haven’t with a book in a long time. Jasmine has gotten her first leading lady role on a streaming show that’s an adaptation of a telenovela, and her co-star is Ashton, a telenovela star trying to break into mainstream Hollywood. The two fall in love despite Jasmine having a recent bad breakup and Ashton hiding his son in Puerto Rico. I was obsessed with this story from the beginning and really connected with Jasmine. As a half Puerto Rican reader, I felt very seen reading a heroine who wasn’t fluent in Spanish and feels insecure because of it. I also really loved seeing all of these Puerto Rican and Latinx characters on the page. I highly recommend the audiobook for this one as the characters speak Spanish quite frequently and the narrator performs the hero Ashton’s accent. It helps set the tone and also aids with the switches between the book’s narrative and the TV scenes that depict the characters playing their on-screen roles.

I am usually not a big fan of romance novels, but this was a great read. The two main characters were well developed, the situations they were in were fun, and the novel kept my attention throughout. The story focuses on two co-stars cast in a Netflix type remake of a telenovela. We see their off-camera relationship develop as the characters they play also get closer. This is a quick, light read that is thoroughly enjoyable. One area I would have liked to see improved is adding more depth to the minor characters, but that is a small quibble. I will be looking forward to future books by Alexis Daria!

(DNFed at the 52% mark)

I had heard so many good things about this book, so I had high hopes going in. I don't read a lot of romance, but figured I'd give this one a try. While I enjoyed the diverse cast of characters and the idea driving the romance (two telenovela stars with somewhat troubled pasts fall madly in love), I didn't enjoy much else. From the beginning, I found myself struggling to connect or care about Jasmine or Ashton. There was just something missing in their descriptions? It was like we were thrust into their world of celebrity much too suddenly without really getting a feel for them as people instead of actors. I also didn't enjoy the episodes being played out between chapters. They felt very forced and inauthentic. It was like they were supposed to be immersive but yet impossibly so at the same time because the audience was reading inner thoughts that couldn't possibly translate on TV. This was just not the book for me. I'm glad I gave it a try, but sad and disappointed that I didn't enjoy it more.

Jasmine went through a terrible breakup that was highlighted in the tabloids. She then went back to her hometown when she accepted a role to star in a bilingual comedy. The surprising part was she wasn't fluent in Spanish. 

Ashton was to play Jasmine's ex-husband in the comedy. The day they met, their initial greeting did not go so well. Ashton's past caused him to be very guarded. Protecting his privacy was his main focus. 

Jasmine did not understand Ashton. He would open up only to withdraw again. The attraction was always there between them. Things began to get better once secrets were revealed.

This book was not my typical style of reading, but it was okay. The transitioning from scene to scene or each character did not flow easily.  However, things prevailed towards the end.