Cover Image: Here to Stay

Here to Stay

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Member Reviews

HERE TO STAY by Adriana Herrera is a contemporary romance that brings the heat. This is a standalone which could easily become a fun series with ethnic New Yorkers coming together for support and fun in their new surroundings of Dallas.

Julia del Mar’s year did not start out well, but she loves her new job running a charitable foundation and she is making her life in Dallas work. The foundation is run by one of the most iconic high fashion department stores in the world and which was family run, but the siblings have decided to go public.

Rocco Quinn is sent by his New York based consulting company to ready the chain to go public. Rocco is trying to stay above the family feud and do his job. The twins want the foundation to continue, but their younger brother wants it gone. And if the brother gets his way the beautiful Julia will lose her job.

Julia is tasked with introducing Rocco to all the programs the foundation runs. The heat generated between these two is explosive, but both know they are on opposite sides and in a no-win situation.

I was completely drawn into Julia and Rocco’s lives. Ms. Herrera made them come to life with not only their business dilemma, but all the family and friends that were a part of their lives. I feel Julia and Rocco’s romance built at a realistic pace as they both tried so hard to fight their attraction, but the chemistry is just too hot.

I thoroughly enjoyed this contemporary romance and its glimpse at Dominican culture.

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Witness the formation of a found family and the buildup of a steamy romance between two people who are working far from home and relatives. Julia and Rocco were wonderfully realistic characters with job concerns, family issues, and the anxiety of dealing with attraction and a new relationship.
#NetGalley

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I loved this book! Julia and Rocco had such a fantastic, slow-burn romance. It kept me on my toes until the very end, though! It was amazing to read Julia really come into her own. Her family is wonderful and added a delightful layer to the story. Rocco was a delicious cinnamon-roll of a man, who had an incredibly filthy mouth (YES!). I appreciated how he normalized therapy. The social justice story line in regards to Julia's job was really heartfelt and well-done. I hope we get to read more about the Gotham Exiles Club soon!

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Thank you to Carina Press and Netgalley for the free review copy of Here To Stay. I loved this book so much and am feeling book hungover after turning the final page.

Julia left NYC and moved to Dallas, TX for her boyfriend Matt only to break up shortly after arriving. She’s determined to still make it on her own. She takes a job at a department store’s corporate office running programs in their foundation to help local kids and their families. Sturm’s department store is considering going public and Rocco is a consultant who came in to help make it happen - including advising on whether the charitable programs should be cut. Professionally they are on opposite sides of the table - so why are their sparks so hard to ignore?

Julia also puts together a group of former New Yorkers who are new to Texas. As much as I love the romance in this book, I love the found family group of friends even more. I can’t wait for others from the Gotham Exiles to get their love stories in future books. I miss these characters like they became my friends as I read.

I also loved the ways Julia’s and Rocco’s families were part of the story. There are so many different family relationships and I loved how Herrera showed two very different families and how a healthy relationship with a family can mean very different things.

The only part I didn’t love was the business side of things - but definitely willing to look past that for all the rest of this wonderful story. Highly recommend and I can’t wait for the next one!!

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I struggled to get into this book. The story was interesting in that the main female gets paired up with the main male, who is there to evaluate a company restructuring. This could mean she loses her job.

The story has a strong cultural element which I liked. At the same time I think this was part of the reason I struggled with this book as I did not understand a lot about the culture.

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Julia is starting a new chapter in her life in Dallas, living far from her NYC family, running nonprofit programs for a high fashion retailer, and doing it on her own. Rocco is hired by the retailer to analyze how to make it profitable and go public - what's not profitable is the charity Julia manages...

Adriana Herrera is now an auto-buy for me. No matter what the setting, her characters are rounded people full of complex emotions, usually surrounded by a found family of secondary characters. In Dallas, we have the Gotham Exiles - a group of NYC folk living and working in Dallas who become an amazing friend group.

The attraction between Julia and Rocco is immediate, but the conflict is obvious - Rocco needs to be even handed when making recommendations to the department store's board, and a relationship can't color that. Julia feels the same pull. I really enjoyed the push-pull while they tried to resist their feelings and chemistry, even if the emotional side effects are a bit wringing.

One of my favorite parts is Julia's family and how warm and welcoming they are to Rocco. Rocco's own parents are abusive and negligent with a side dish of alcohol dependence. There's a scene of Christmas dinner with his parents that will ring true to anyone with an alcoholic parent.

Ultimately, this story brought all the feelings. Plus there's a kitten involved. Who doesn't love a kitten?

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Here to Stay
Rating: 5 (if possible I would give 10) amazing stars!!
Thank you to the publisher for the ARC given through NetGalley for review. All opinions are my own.

Here to Stay is the first book I have read by Adriana Herrera... and it will not be the last!!! I loved it!!! I highly, highly recommend it!!
I don't know where to begin with this review...there was just so much sweetness and hot sexual tension between Julia and Rocco. Because this book is in both their POVs we get to see their feelings for each other are the same from the very beginning. They want to cross that line, but because of their jobs it's a big no. So there was a great build up to finally see them kiss and it was so worth it. The tension there was between these two was so big even their friends could see it. You could see them easily falling for one another.
Here to Stay showed us two sides of how families can be. On one we have Julia's, who could be a little overbearing but with lots of love and on the other side we have Rocco's. His was just so sad and bitter. As a reader you could see why he fell in love with Julia's family. I loved Julia's family, especially when they embraced and welcomed Rocco to their gatherings. Sadly, it is his commitment to making a better life for his sister and niece that he feels torn in doing his job or helping Julia with keep hers.
These two characters had big hearts and when they found each other they just got a little bigger.

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Let me start by saying that this book is all heart. From the job Julia Ortiz has to the family dynamics that both Julia and Rocco Quinn deal with, it’s all just heart. I was also introduced to a term I didn’t really know before - “found family”.

At the heart of the book is Julia Ortiz. She’s working with a foundation that provides education to kids of displaced families and she takes her job seriously. And she’s also very good at it. Julia is such a brilliant character, with an incredible family and a group of friends that become as much her family as her family already is. Julia’s family - mother, father, maternal grandmother and younger sister - are really just so incredible and seeing that kind of love and connection is always so warming. They’re not struggling to make ends meet and they’re not in trouble of any kind, they are just a warm group of people who love each other so much that it makes your heart ache for your own family as you’re reading. And to see a family of colour from the Dominican Republic who totally embrace their culture is fantastic too.

But the person who has Julia’s heart is Rocco Quinn. An Italian-Irish finance guy who is the one person that could destroy everything Julia has worked towards at this job. Rocco is all man and all kinds of alpha hero. He’s very straight up, no-nonsense kind of person. Till you get him into the bedroom, and he’s also very good at his job. So good in fact that it’s a little difficult for him to separate what he’s meant to be doing and the way he’s feeling about actually shutting down what he was hired to do.

The storyline is familiar, but the characters are refreshing. But what I definitely had trouble enjoying was the relationship between Julia and Rocco. It’s very physical and they’re constantly needling each other and it’s fun and exciting when their clothes are on. But the minute their clothes came off, it almost felt like two different characters. I’m all for confident men and women in the bedroom, but the connection between who they are outside of the bedroom and who they are in the bedroom was a little too much.

Given all that’s happening in America right now, having a book that addresses the deportation of immigrants and the mistreatment of them is incredible. While it doesn’t go into the details, you can sense the struggle these characters are facing and dealing with.

While Julia and Rocco’s relationship and Julia’s job and the foundation are an integral part of the book, the thing that I absolutely loved was the Gotham Exiles group. Made up of former New Yorker’s, the Exiles have a whole host of characters who are so much fun. I hope they all get their own books, because it’s clear they have so much more to offer.

This is my first Adriana Herrera book and I look forward to seeing what else she has in store!

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin/Carina Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Gahhh this book! I'm obsessed with Adriana Herrera and this book just further cemented that for me. I get so lost in her writing and I fall headfirst into the worlds she creates. I loved Julia and Rocco and the life that they make for themselves while far away from home.

There's a big central theme of found family in this book. I loved that so much. They are far away from New York and Julia basically creates this club with people from the city and they definitely become each other's family and support system in Dallas. I loved how they could always call on each other and they'd be right there for support or celebration.

Rocco, what can I even say about Rocco. I love him. He's one of those guys, the guy that thinks he has to carry the whole world on his shoulders. But, in Julia he really finds someone ready to share that weight for him, ready to take some of it from him and I loved them so much. He's just the absolute biggest softie, how can you not fall in love with him? But, also, his dirty talk game will for sure have you blushing. If he can do all that, he's definitely my perfect guy.

I love Julia so much. She's strong and determined and such an understanding person. I love how she's always going for what she wants, standing up for what she believes in. We also get to see her vulnerable, but even when she's down, she's never out. She lets herself be sad, sure, but at the end, she gets up and fights for herself and her happiness. I also loved her family so much. You really get to see how she became who she is through them, through her mom's pushy support and her dad's quiet encouragement. I loved every second we spend with her family in this book.

Julia and Rocco have this undeniable chemistry from the moment they meet, and I loved watching them trying to fight it as much as I loved them finally giving in to it. This was a book I did not want to put down and definitely see myself rereading in the future.

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Included as a top pick in bimonthly August New Releases post, which highlights and promotes upcoming releases of the month (link attached).

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Here to Stay gave me so many feelings, my chest actually hurts because I was so invested in the storyline. Normally, I feel like the external conflict in a book is like... Whatever, you know? I'm here for it, but I don't get super invested in that OTHER plot but y'all, let me tell you how I was ready to rip this board of a high end department store I could never afford a new one if they made the wrong decision. And this Phil guy? Ooh, buddy, he was enemy #1 in my mind!! And meanwhile, I kept getting salty that this board's decision was threatening to interfere with Rocco and Julia who so clearly belong together. Y'all. The emotions.

Anyway, to clarify, this book is about Julia and Rocco, who have both relocated to Dallas, for Julia that's for at least two years and for Rocco, just a few months. Julia is working for the Sturm Foundation running the most incredible after school program for immigrant children and their families. One of the best parts about Adriana Herrera's books is that every time she crafts a social work program, she is so, so careful to remind readers that people in need of services are first and foremost people, and while meeting their basic needs is obviously important, it's just as important to give them the opportunity to paint or move their body or mediate. Anyway, so Rocco is the consultant brought in for Sturm Department Store, the board of which is considering going public. Capitalism at its finest here. So Rocco's job is basically to figure out what needs cut from the store as it is so it's appealing for investors, which puts him and Julia at professional odds. Since Julia's still reeling a bit from her jerk of an ex-boyfriend whom she moved to Dallas for, only for him to leave her for his side piece, this is an uncomfortable place to be. And Rocco really needs a promotion so he can get his sister and niece away from his parents.

My only criticism of this book is that I think it's actually a little long. That said, did Herrera perfectly use all of the pages? Yes, yes she did. So is that a real criticism? Not necessarily from me, but I think others may disagree. Basically, if you like found family (Herrera excels at writing friend groups like you would not believe) and you like a good mix of internal and external conflict, this is the book for you. And even if you don't like those things, I would encourage you to try it anyway because I've done a terrible job explaining how this book is so marvelous! I mean, it's just so well done. OH and I almost forgot to talk about Julia's incredible family! And there's a cat!! Y'all, just read this. It's so good. Rocco can be so dumb, but also he's such a soft hero (with the DIRTIEST mouth, I swear) and the chemistry between him and Julia is so hot.

Anyway, thanks SO much to Carina for the opportunity to read and review this book early via Netgalley! Now to go figure out how to buy myself a print copy...

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Adriana brings us another tale of starting over and embracing the self throughout the journey. In Here to Stay we follow Julia Del Mar Ortiz and Rocco Quinn on their individual journeys of self discovery while finding each other in the process. This is a brilliant slow burn that will have you up all night reading just to get to their well deserved happily ever after.

I adored this book. Then again, I adore everything that Adriana is writing. She has written another gorgeous tale of found family and finding your HEA in the most unexpected places. Julia and Rocco’s courtship is sizzling hot. Rocco came in with constant consent and I am here for it. The man is always asking Julia if he can touch her or kiss her. I cheered every time it happened. I love when authors normalize consent in books and would love to see more work like this.

There were moments where I was so frustrated with Julia for not reaching for what she really wanted with Rocco because she was afraid of making the same mistakes she did in the past. I was equally as frustrated with Rocco for his constant martyrdom and refusal to put himself first. These two stubborn fools end up figuring it out and diving into their happily ever after. In addition to Julia and Rocco’s story, you also get Julia’s incredibly supportive family and the love and care from Rocco’s sister and niece, oh, and the Gotham Exiles! The story is full of so much heart and genuine love that will leave you thinking about the story for a long time after you’ve read it. Snark also plays heavily throughout and it's the most incredible thing you will experience!

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An excellent romance and found family story from Herrera. I always love the author's ability to make you feel like her characters could be part of your own friend group or family and this one did not disappoint. Although I was a bit worried to start off with because the potential for power dynamics related to Rocco and Julia's jobs, my mind was put at ease pretty quickly based not only on how it was actually written into the story and how both characters took that seriously within the story itself. I really appreciate how the characters are allowed to be unabashedly themselves, both with how they interacted with their friends, family and peers, but also their inner monologues. Definitely a slow burn, but also a great story of family and allowing someone to both leave on their own and still keep their friends and family close. Overall, it's a well written and relatable story that definitely needs to be told!

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5⭐️

Adriana Herrera is becoming one of my fave contemporary romance authors. Her books sweep me off my feet & the hero of her upcoming release Here to Stay is so heart-grabbing, the heroine so inspiring, that I wanted more than one Epilogue. Or for the Epilogue to be longer. I just wanted more .

Julia del Mar Ortiz is very close to her family but she moved to Dallas from NY so that she could support her boyfriend. & then he broke up with her.

In the time since she’s thrown herself into her rewarding job as Program Director for the philanthropic arm of a major department store. Now she wants to make friends, specifically with other former NYers in her work orbit.

Unfortunately that includes Rocco Quinn, the gorgeous analyst who’s come to assess her company & determine what can be jettisoned before it goes public.

As Julia discovers, Rocco is secretly a big mushy marshmallow. Despite his confidence & sometimes performance of confidence, she notes that he’s also occasionally shy, uncomfortable, etc & in each of those moments my heart is as touched as hers. Rocco’s never had someone take care of him the way that he feels compelled to take care of others (cue the tears ).

And Julia is fantastic. She’s brave, confident, into fashion, & as she reveals to Rocco, passionate about her role in providing safe spaces for children who are undocumented immigrants and/or have parents who are. Throughout the romance Julia has to learn how to negotiate fighting for herself & making a potential compromise for a beloved.

I kinda wanted more specific introspection on the ethicality of them pursuing a relationship when so much is on the line, but otherwise their relationship plays out beautifully. There’s a lot of yearning, a lovely slow burn, & it’s ultimately super sexy.

Add to all of this a nuanced & often loving portrayal of family life (especially Julia’s Dominican mother & Puerto Rican father), humor, & shared bonding over Queens, & Here to Stay gives me nearly everything I could ask for.


Here to Stay is out on 08/25. Thanks to @harlequinpublicityteam & Netgalley for my complimentary copies of the book; all opinions provided my own.

​#Sponsored #HarlequinPublicityTeam #HarlequinBooks #CarinaPress #AdrianaHerrera #HereToStay #latinxrom #ContemporaryRomance #EnemiesToLovers #WorkplaceRomance

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3.5 stars

Thank you to Harlequin Books, Carina Press for a gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This was my first book by Adriana Herrera and I enjoyed it! It's a slow burn with lots of tension but once Julia and Rocco got together, it got quite steamy. The story reminded me so much of The Trouble with Hating You and The Boyfriend Project, so if you liked the writing style and plots of either of those, I think you'd be a fan of Here to Stay. I loved the diverse characters in this book - I haven't read too many books featuring Latinx characters (something I'm trying to fix), so this book gave a good insight into the the Dominican, Puerto Rican culture. The food sounded so delicious! Herrera did a great job inserting Spanish into the dialogue with context so a non Spanish speaker can still follow along. Herrera also incorporated the undocumented immigrant issue in the country within the story and I thought she did it in a way that raised awareness without being too strong handed.

TW - Domestic violence and deportation of immigrants. These were included at the beginning of the book and I thought that was nice since not too many authors include trigger warnings.

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Oh, Julia and Rocco- they were just so darn cute. I am really loving these office/workplace romances. If you enjoyed The Boyfriend Project or The Trouble With Hating You, I would definitely recommend Here to Stay. This was my first book by Herrera that I have read, but I am definitely looking forward to more of her romance books in the future. I really enjoyed the incorporation of family and culture in this book. I thought that Rocco was so cute and adorable, and there were many relevant aspects that the author touched on. Julia's culture and family were a lovely addition to the story, and I enjoyed getting to know all of the characters. I thought this was a fun book, and I enjoyed reading it. My only complaint about the book was that I felt like it took a little too long for the characters to actually connect. I think it was a little more than 200 pages in before they finally had any physical contact, and I think I wanted a little more steam (which I can't believe I am even saying)! I will be posting a review on my bookstagram account. Thank you to Harlequin Publicity Team for giving me the chance to read this book!

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I did not know what to expect when I picked up this book. I knew I was in for a sexy and spicy romance, but the depth of characters and the friendship sprinkled throughout the book made this one I couldn't put down.

Rocco was sweet and sensitive, but not TOO sweet and sensitive. He did his job so he could save his sister and niece from the verbal abuse he put up with when he lived at home. He thought he came to Dallas to do a job, but when his office crush endangers his dream of getting his sister away from his parents, he will have to choose between love or family.

Julia is a fierce, strong, independent Dominican-Puerto Rican woman. She has the job of her dreams, running a center for newly immigrated children and families, but she knows the company that funds the program is considering getting rid of it as it goes Public. Rocco should be her nemesis, but the more she learns about him, the less she is able to separate her work life from her love life.

This is definitely a slow burn romance and when our heroes get together, the sparks fly. I was thankful that the ending wasn't drawn out and I got the HEA I wanted to see.

I loved the incredibly diverse cast both in culture and sexuality. A must read for romance fans who like their romances on the hot and heavy side.

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In interracial workplace romance Here to Stay, a social worker who has sworn off men resists her attraction to the financial consultant who could shut down her after-school program for immigrant children. Herrera's deeply emotional story about claiming the love you deserve will give you the feels long after you've read the last page.

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I am still fanning myself y'all because this was one Hot and steamy book that kept me from snoring . This was my first Adriana Herrera and sign me up for more of your books. Here to stay tells the story of Julia whose dream is to better lives big immigrants and Rocco the 'hotshot' consultant brought in by the company. They bicker and have that office tension but you can't deny the attraction sizzling through the pages . If you are looking for a contemporary romance with Dominican culture , an office romance and parts of the books to have you fanning yourself then you need to read this book . The characters were written beautifully , the plot was amazing. Thank you Carina press for my ARC in exchange of an honest review

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I loved the chemistry between the two characters. I also loved that friendships built from Gotham City Exile club. The family bond that Julia has with her family was great, I wanted eat every dish that her family made.

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