After Hours on Milagro Street really drew me in with it's cover but I stayed for the story. It's very well written and I couldn't put it down!

This story blew all my expectations out of the water! I’d expected a fun, sexy enemies-to-lover romance with a bar as backdrop. I got a secret family lineage, hidden treasure, emotional twists and turns, a haunted bar, love letters from the past, familia forgiveness, and a whole lot of fun. Throw in a devoted, sensitive and surprisingly sexy professor and you get why I absolutely loved this read! I highly, highly recommend After Hours on Milagro Street, It’s an absolute delight. A definite keeper. Buy it. Read it. Enjoy again and again.

I love it when I think a book is just a simple romance and it turns out to be more!
After Hours on Milagro Street, Alex returns home to run her grandmother's bar. But her grandmother might have other plans and Alex has to deal with handsome Professor Jeremiah who wants to turn the bar into a museum.

It took me a while to like Alex, she was just so abrasive. But I loved the themes of large families and Mexican American culture and mysticism all weaved into the story.

It was a good read!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing the eArc of this book. All opinions are my own.

This was a beautiful intricately woven take of love and family and understanding yourself. It was a mystery and romance and magical realism. So good. Highly recommend for all shelves.

After Hours on Milagro Street is beautiful homage to the Mexican-American culture! The love of family and identity of self is discovered within the pages of this magnificent story!! I really enjoyed this a lot

I loved this book and did not want it to end. Thank goodness it’s a series! Perfect mix of mystery, family, magical realism and romance.

I liked it but not as much as I wanted to. Alex was too angry from the beginning and the reason isn’t given, so it’s hard to support or sympathize with her for a long time. The ending was a little too rushed for me but it was a good resolution to the drama.

That said, major credit to an author for creating a story that feels more authentic than many others out there and focuses on the forgotten or unknown Mexican immigrant experience.

After Hours on Milagro Street is beautiful homage to the Mexican-American culture! The love of family and identity of self is discovered within the pages of this magnificent story!!

Alex and Jeremiah couldn’t be anymore different and yet their souls are the same! In a world that is sometimes scary to take on Jeremiah saw Alex truly saw who she was! For me I really connected with her character because a lot of who she was is who I am! I identified with this story and it’s characters on so many levels being a Mexican-American myself!

I loved the layer of mysticism weaved into the story! It may seem far fetched but it’s not! It wouldn’t be the story it is without it and honestly had me in tears!! I mean IYKYK!!

A spicy and fun romance that had me rooting for the “bad guy” while also dying to see him get his face smashed in lol.

I really enjoyed this story. The characters are complex and live realistic lives that I felt relatable. I wanted to see them succeed, or for a hot minute there I even wanted some to fail.

A story about family and how even when we’re dysfunctional and maybe a little crazy, the ties that bind us together can still be a beautiful thing.

And the smut was top tier. Which is always a plus in my book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

After hours on Milagro Street follows Alex, who is part of a huge Mexican-American family. After being away from her hometown for a while, she returns to take over her grandma's bar. But her grandmother Loretta has not only Alex as a possible candidate to lead the bar, but also the handsome and infuriating professor Jeremiah, who wants to turn the bar into a museum and a racist enemy of the past, who plans on destroying her family's dynasty. Alex quickly realizes that getting a hold of the bar won't be as easy as she had thought, and not falling for Jeremiah might be even harder.


I knew I would enjoy this story right from the first chapter. This book had everything I wanted. A great romance, a big family with different personalities and opposites attract. My favorite part of this story was definitely the romance between Alex and Jeremiah, they were adorable. Jeremiah was super protective and sweet, and I loved seeing Alex's character development throughout the book. If you're looking for a fantastic romance having both spicy and sweet scenes, I would recommend this book.

First of all, it's a quick read with short chapters.

The writing does not take its sweet time to let you know the characters and the plot.
It's hot, yes. If you're looking for a good short steam romance, go for this one.

I feel the beginning is a bit rushed. It's just my preference. Otherwise the story is solid and the characters are well presented.

A story about two very different people coming together to achieve the same goal that is to save the home they needed.

This one reminds me so much of the Mills and Boons romances witha very happy ending!

Thank you, Carina Press, for the advance reading copy.

At first glance of the cover this book appears to be a steamy rom com. Do not be fooled! This story is not only a steamy romance but it is also about small towns, history and family. We are introduced to Jeremiah who is quiet and reserved and Alex who is beautiful and the anything but reserved. The chemistry between her and Jeremiah is smoldering and hot. Alex is passionate and is truly devoted to her friends, family and of course her home town, Jeremiah is hiding his own hurt. He is looking to belong, to have family and also preserve the cultural history of the town/bar. Jeremiah is renting a room over the bar and when he meets Alex.....they clash immediately!
This book is about so many things. It is a rom com true, but it is also about family, culture/cultural history, hurt/pain, love/loss, and healing. The small town setting in this story is perfect! .

3.5/5!

Thank you Netgalley and Carina Press & Carina Adores (Harlequin) for giving me an epub in exchange for an honest review.

I was really intrigued by the blurb and the first few chapters however it kind of fell flat for me in the end. It was a fun read with dynamic characters and great relationships! I love how it talked about families and their history as well as the struggles BIPOC immigrants, specifically Mexicans, have faced in America.

This was so much fun, and also so much more than just a romance, which was pleasantly surprising?! I absolutely adored Alex and Jeremy, as individuals, and together. They balance each other so well and I love how prominent their character archetypes were as a shy professor who isn't so shy in 🛌🏻 and a tattooed bartender who purposely riles him up. I also wanna be Alex's friend so bad--she's definitely one of my favorite FMCs in romance. They both shine so brightly together and I was obsessed with how natural their chemistry and desire for one another felt. But as mentioned, this book is more than just a romance. The plot about Freedom's history and the mission to save Loretta's was super interesting. I think people who are interested in learning about the history of Mexican immigrants to the South would definitely enjoy how rich in history this book is. There's so much that the American public school system doesn't teach us about the history surrounding BIPOC who lived and immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1900's, and I definitely felt like I learned a lot from this book, even if the ultimate story is fictional.

4 stars overall! I'll definitely be picking up Angelina's previous works now.

“Somebody had a hot-for-teacher kink. It was her. Definitely her”
“Wanting you is a distraction I don’t need”
“His admiration for this woman he couldn’t trust made him want to eat her alive”
This book was Amazing!!
I cannot wrap my hand around how much I loved it and I couldn’t stop reading it not even tear my eyes away from the pages !!!!
A beautiful love story, captivating and enthralling with a plot developing between what is right and wrong and the meaning of being an outsider in a society made for white people!!!!
Alex and Jeremiah were amazing. Their relationship can easily be described as the perfect rivals to enemies to friends to trusting partners to lovers !!!
Their past trauma and their past relationship with their families, the reason why they were pushed away from the home they lived in, one for one reason and the other for a completely different one, was beautiful to read and completely heartbreaking!!!
I have to be honest a couple of tears came out from my eyes at the end of it but they were definitely worth it.
And the spice… oh my goodness Jeremiah was just … oh, this GUAPO PROBRECITO!!!!
I could literally feel my cheeks blushing and my toes curling every time, while reading what he was saying to Alex and how much he loved, respected and cherished her as a person and her body!!!
Alex is a badass Mexican Latino plus size character and I loved every second of her story!!!!
And honestly apart from the rivals to lovers relationship this book has one of the best tropes ever !!!! There even was the one bad trope and the forced proximity!!! And don’t let me start on the trope where they are forced to work together to find a common enemy to defend something they both love!!!!!
If you have another chance to check this book out then go and do it. It will be out in July and you won’t want to miss it !!!
“Wanting each other is the dumbest mistake we’ve ever made”
“When I go to bed every night wanting you so much”
“He wanted to show this powerful woman how powerfully he could please her”

4 stars
After Hours on Milagro Street has a great premise, strong characters and really cute romantic plot. It took me a little while to really get into it, but once I did I couldn't put it down. Definitely recommend checking it out!

*Received a copy for review.*

This book is one of the best I’ve read this year. I am going to have a hard time giving you all the right words to tell you why you must read it but YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!
First let me give you the tropes: grumpy/sunshine; forced proximity; cinnamon roll hero with a filthy mouth; found family; returning home. There are probably more but I need to tell you why this book is so special.
Now let’s meet the mains.
Alex is a prickly badasses bitch bartender who loses her job in a viral blow up at her boss. She is on her way back to her hometown that she left at 16, to help her sisters save the family bar. Her grandmother has fallen and needs support. What Granmo does not need is all these people taking over her life.
Jeremiah is a college professor who never fit in his rich family and has found this amazing family in a local bar called Loretta’s. He wants to make the bar into a museum to honor the families Mexican heritage because he loves this family and it will also help him achieve tenure.
The first meeting is fire. I do not want to give it all away but it starts with a bang. These two just cannot stay out if each other’s way. Alex can’t stop her mouth and she just spits out whatever she wants without considering anyone else’s feelings. Jeremiah pisses her off just by existing and the amount of things they misunderstand is astronomical.
There are so many layers to this book. There is history, community, family and how they hurt us, trauma, secrets, a ghost, and learning that your dreams don’t always s come true the way you expect them too. It is sexy as all hell and beautiful and emotional.
This book is AMAZING and I cannot wait to read the next book in the series.

Just the other day a friend asked where the alpha heroines are at. Well, I know one of them can be found in the pages of After Hours on Milagro Street by Angelina Lopez.

Lopez’s previous books all feature strong women who know what they want and do not let anyone stand in their way. The main character of After Hours, Alex, is written in the same vein but with a depth and breadth that makes her one of the more memorable heroines I’ve read in a long time. I have a feeling some readers will find her difficult – hooray for difficult heroines – because she is so strong. However, due to her circumstances and back story, there are also times where she is angry. A strong personality combined with anger can make for questionable choices and I urge readers to stay with Alex as Lopez subtly teases apart the instances of anger from Alex’s overall incredibly strong will and sense of fairness.

After Hours is a romance between Alex and her opposite in temperament, the handsome and reserved Jerimiah. The sexual tension between the two of them is off the charts and Lopez writes delightfully debouched sex scenes that are infused with a sense of joy. It’s tricky to write a hero who complements a strong heroine without either trying to dominate her or coming off as a welcome mat, and Lopez manages this perfectly.

Just as compelling as the romance is the plot that centers around Alex and her two sisters returning to their hometown in Kansas to help their grandmother keep her bar open. Lopez writes passionately about Alex’s family history and the story of the traqueros, the Mexican and Mexican-American laborers who helped build America’s railroads. Alex’s heritage is a huge part of After Hours and Lopez does an excellent job of weaving in the history without becoming pedantic. It’s a fascinating subject and hopefully some readers will walk away wanting to learn more about it.

Highly recommend to anyone looking for a change-up from lighthearted romcoms but not willing to go full-blown angst, anyone who appreciates an alpha heroine, and anyone who loves a big family, ghosts, and page scorching sex!

Jeremiah lives in an apartment above a bar in a Mexican American neighborhood. The family’s owners have adopted him but now the family has been invaded (his take on it) by one of it’s own, Alex.

Both have plans for the bar. She wants to renovate and modernize the bar. Her plans, she reasons, will revitalize the neighborhood and her family. He thinks she’ll turn it into something flashy and upscale that will price out the wallets of the community.
Jeremiah and the historical society want to turn the bar into a museum celebrating Mexican American culture which will save and celebrate the community. Alex thinks the museum idea will erase the center of the community as the bar is being used now.

Then some sleazy townsfolk decide to step in to buy or steal, if they can, the property. They will raze the buildings and develop it so no trace of the Mexican American community will be found. Opposing this behemoth gets Alex and Jeremiah on the same side. Well, and then there is their intense sexy attraction to one another that brings them together!

It is a sexy enemies to lovers story with a wonderful historical background. I learned a lot about the traqueros, the Mexican Americans who built the railroads largely after the Chinese were banned from the US. This history has piqued my interest but this story is one of the very few talking about the traqueros. It will be interesting trying to find other such texts. I love it when authors bring new information, bring history to life.

I look forward to other books. I would recommend this book to my patrons.

This book was amazing. My first note to you is to keep reading, the protagonist, Alex, seems really mean at first but there’s so many layers to Alex and her pain and they all unfold beautifully in this story.

This is a story about family ties and history, small towns and it’s magic, and how Mexican families and brown folks are very much part of those foundations; they always have and always will.

This is also a story about two people, Alex and Jeremiah, that have been alone for a long time. A story about two people in which home became a place of hurt, and how together they will fight and heal.

Alex is a protagonist that will take me a long time to forget. Her devotion to places and people she loves is masked under this hard exterior. She loves and wants to be loved just as deeply and as we get to know her, you can’t help but love her.

For me steam lovers, let me tell you, we jump into it quick. Suspenders, bow ties, and cable knit sweaters have never been hotter. Jeremiah is an absolute delight. As we get to know him throughout the book he becomes such an important part to this story with all his history knowledge and his love for Alex.

In this book we get some favorite tropes, one night stand, one bed, enemies to lovers, strangers turned into forever.

Honestly, a must read!

CW: racism, alcoholism, mentions of an abortion (not on page or detailed