Thank you NetGalley for the eARC. I liked this book. It had a lot of spanish in it with translation of course. I love to see mi gente displayed on the book covers. This was realistically written. Loved it.

This book has been in my TBR pile for quite some time, largely because after downloading it, I realized it had a first-person narrator. Never a fan of first-person narration, I've had a tendency to leave those books at the bottom of the stack. However, I've read a couple of decent ones lately, so I decided to give this one a go. I'm glad I did. Or maybe I wish I hadn't. Ack, I'm of two minds with this one.

On the one hand, I really like Dina, the heroine and narrator of the story. She's smart about everything but men (more on that later), valiant, and funny. She especially shines in her willingness to go the extra mile to help bring her cousin and her son to the States to get away from the cousin's cartel-boss husband. Nuts and somewhat unlikely (her being part of a DEA plan), but it's fiction, so I decided to go with it.

On the other hand, her taste in men? Gaaaaaaaah, I just cannot accept a "hero" who cheats, even if said cheating is in the past. I just...uuuuugh. I kept waiting for some kind of reveal to redeem Rick--an unknown misunderstanding, a revelation that they "were on a break" at the time, perhaps a roofie slipped into his beer the night of the cheat--but I never got one, at least not to my satisfaction. There's an effort made ("He's so generous! A real caballero!"), but for me, just no. Yick. Feh. Nope.

Far more interesting was the story to rescue Teresa, Dina's cousin. I think the story could have focused only on that, with the Rick part left off. (Though I suppose that Rick part was necessary to give weight to the slightly subliminal theme about the power of forgiveness.) Anyway, the escape from Mexico...though a lot of it seemed far-fetched, it was still exciting enough to keep me reading. Er, at least reading those parts.

It's true. At about 60 to 70 percent in, I was so fed up with Rick (and creepy Steve, but I won't get into him here) that I nearly gave up and logged a DNF. Instead, I flipped past the whole middle part about Dina and Rick and went straight to the rescue. And I don't think it really made a difference.

So overall, I'm giving it 3 stars though it really skirted the line several times (and I was relieved to finish it). Romance purists might want to take a pass, but those looking for a more general piece of fiction might enjoy it.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher and Netgalley. I'm writing this review voluntarily, and it reflects my honest opinion. Thanks!

Interesting and engaging adventure plus romance. Intriguing characters. Lots of bits of wisdom. Enjoyable page turner. I would prefer the sexual references deleted, but that is just me. I like my romances squeaky clean. Bilingual persons would probably enjoy the grandmother's sayings even more than I did. Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy via NetGalley.