Rubi Ramos's Recipe for Success is an adoring coming to age YA novel! This is another YA book I wish I had read growing up! It follows Rubi, a mixed Cuban senior in high school dealing with the frustrations of following in the footsteps her immigrant parents, specifically her mom, had planned for her. In order to follow this "recipe for success", Rubi is expected to get accepted into the prestigious Alma University focusing solely on academics and extra circulars, causing her to be banned from baking and assisting with her family's bakeries. The only problem is that Rubi is waitlisted for the program and might have sneakily entered a bake-off without her parent's knowledge.

We get to see Rubi navigate the life of being a first-generation daughter, trying to keep her parents proud and unaware of the lies that she tells. We also see Rubi experiencing her first relationship, dealing with an annoying privileged nemesis, and being a good friend. There were times in this book I really felt the pressure for Rubi, at times I saw a high school version of myself trying to wear so many hats as well. My only con of this book is that Rubi does go through so much not leaving enough time to truly "feel" the gravity of some situations. For instance, her best friend comes out to her but I feel like the magnitude of this moment is a bit rushed. The romance in this book also felt a bit insta-lovey, but honestly, in high school, I was in love with someone new every other month so I didn't mind that much lol! Major pros for this novel are the family dynamics, Latine representations, the family growth, and the food! Holy crap, did I search for bakeries in my area once I started reading this.

Overall, I think Rubi's story would be great for any reader in high school, even middle school! For any readers like me, that enjoy reading YA to heal my teenage soul, I definitely recommend it!

Thank you Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the arc in exchange for my honest review!

Where to start? Oh yeah…I loved this book! I gave Rubi Ramos’s Recipe for Success 4.75 stars.

I loved reading about Rubi's story as a first generation Afro-Cuban American born to Cuban immigrant parents. She feels this pressure to strive for her parents expectations because of everything they have done and sacrificed to get her to where she is. They want what's best for her and in doing so places a Ban on one of things she's most passionate about. Rubi lives breathes and eats baking and I love how the writing reflects that with it's baking metaphors describing how she feels in the moment or how she views things through the baking lens. You could really see Rubi's passion for baking! It practically lept from the page! And the recipes themselves sound delicious. I loved the relationship she had with her dad, the relationship she was forming with her mom getting better and how the Ban on Baking affected and shaped them! Rubi was a very well developed character in my eyes. The only thing I didn't like was the romance. Ryan was meh and boring and the way they got together felt weird, somewhat rushed and disjointed but I’m not too put off by it because the romance is not a big part or remotely the point of the book. We could have also gotten a little more background from other characters like her friends Devon or Torie.

Overall I really enjoyed this and am likely to purchase a copy when Rubi Ramos comes out on May 16th and I highly recommend it!

This is a beautiful coming of age story about Rubi discovering what she really wants in life. I really enjoyed seeing her love for baking and how she really wants to be connected to her Cuban roots. The recipes she made sound so good. I do think that having Ryan on the cover is a bit misleading because the romance is definitely a side plot but it's pretty so it's fine.

I received an arc through netgalley.

The sweetest book!

Literally. You will want all the sweet desserts while reading this book. And be inspired to bake.

And Rubi! The sweetest daughter who wants to please everyone. She struggles trying to please everyone and be the best and not crumble under the pressure.

Go on this journey with her while she finds the right balance between chasing and her dreams and doing what’s expected of her.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read and review.

I love reading a book that just feels fun to read, and this book definitely hit that check mark. The story follows Rubi as she tries to navigate reaching the goals her parents have for her, while allowing her passion for baking to finally break free. She's definitely got a lot of pressure and high standards that she is trying to live up to, yet from the beginning Rubi has a bright and creative personality that shines through. And it does so through my favorite thing – food. While this book does not honor us with fully written out recipes for all of the wonderful things Rubi makes throughout, it does give us a Great British Baking Show style competition that almost feels like watching the show itself, with a lot of the same fun and pizzazz. I loved seeing what Rubi would come up with next, and this story really celebrated the joy and connection that food and cooking bring to people.

The story also touches on family and friendship, and I personally like the fact that while romance exists, it is not the sole focus of the book or even the main source of conflict. Rubi simply meets a nice guy who cheerleads her and can also relate to her in important ways. There is definitely struggle and growth for Rubi, who tells a few lies in trying to balance all the different parts of her. But overall it's a fun, light and celebratory story that I really enjoyed reading.

The other big aspect that I loved is the cultural element. Rubi is Cuban-American, a first-generation kid who loves her culture, but sometimes has struggles connecting to it fully because of the things her parents have been through. Her experience is unique but also relatable, and it makes her such a strong and interesting protagonist. I especially loved the way that her food and baking connected her to her culture, and through food she got to express a passion for her heritage in such a beautiful way.

I was really excited to read this one because almost any story involving characters who love to bake automatically is a yes for my TBR. Unfortunately, I ended up not loving it as much as I expected.

Rubi has a big heart, and it shows through her voice as she describes baked goods, her college dreams, and her love for her parents and Cuban heritage. I rooted for her and loved seeing her overcome her inner doubt as she competed in Bake-Off.

Along the way, she meets a boy named Ryan and he becomes her math tutor so she can raise her grade as a way of getting off the waitlist for her dream college. I get wanting to add a sprinkling of romance, but I didn’t find their relationship added anything to the story. Her math grade was the least of her worries when trying to get off the waitlist, so it felt like a random excuse to bring a boy into the mix. Not to mention their relationship was instalovey and even when they got into a fight it seemed forced.

This story was not the perfect recipe for me, but I still think YA contemporary fans will enjoy Rubi’s perseverance and passion.

Come for the baking, stay for the cute romance, the competitive streak, the big dreams, and everything else in this wonderful book! Rubi Ramos is supposed to get into a prestigious university and become a lawyer. What she’s not supposed to do is bake (a distraction from academics) and especially not get waitlisted at that university instead.

Amid all the fast, fun competition and debate scenes and delicious-sounding bakes, there’s a heartfelt exploration of what it means to have a dream that your parents might not fully support. For Rubi, this comes with the socio-political layers of being one of the few brown, working class people at her private school and the first in her family to aim so high academically. A sweet treat of a read, to the very last bite.

This was a cute little teenage romance. I loved all the references to baking, but was a little confused sometimes, not being particularly familiar with Cuban pastries. One thing that did kind of bug me about the whole thing was Rubi's obsession with Cuba. I just didn't understand it. She wasn't born or raised there and her parents fled there because of awful things happening so I just didn't understand her obsession with it and wanting to go there so badly. Also all her lying was getting irritating. Overall it was cute, but I never really felt compelled to read more of it and I'll honestly probably have forgotten a lot of it in a year or so.

While RUBI RAMOS’S RECIPE FOR SUCCESS was giving me Emma Lord & A CUBAN GIRLS GUIDE TO TEA & TOMORROW (which I absolutely loved & you should read 😉) vibes it unfortunately missed the mark for me.

My thoughts:
-YA dealing with family dynamics
-this book will make you hungry & have you craving Cuban pastries
-not a fan of teenage insta love

Overall, I was just underwhelmed and this isn’t one that will stick with me.

Thank you Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.
I was not able to read the book. Unfortunately, this one wasn’t for me and I had to DFN.
This is my opinion, purely a personal thing.

*I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this ARC!*

What a sweet story! (pun fully intended 😉) I went into this book expecting it to be mainly a romance. I was incredibly satisfied when I found that it was mostly about finding who you want to be, even when it goes against the wishes of those you love.

Rubi was such a great character to get to hang with! I loved how passionate she was about baking, but also how passionately she loves. She loves her parents so much, and wanted to make them proud of her. She was willing to push her own dreams aside in order to make her parents happy. She reminded me, a bit too much, of myself as a teen. She was fun and funny and stressed and anxious. Just a tornado of emotions haha

I loved Rubi’s relationship with her Dad. She had this really sweet bond with him over the ‘baking ban’ where he would allow her to stretch it just enough to keep her sane. I loved how supportive he was of her in all things. Her best friend, Devon, and her potential boyfriend, Ryan, were great supporting characters.

The star of this book though, was the baking! I loved how vivid the descriptions of all the things Rubi baked for the competition were. It made me so hungry! I even looked up Hispanic bakeries in my area (I found one, and I will absolutely be visiting it soon). It is rare that a book makes me want to try a new food, and this one achieved that rarity.

I loved seeing Rubi grow as a person, and as a baker throughout the novel. It was such a lovely coming-of-age story with some family drama, overcoming racist behaviors and sweet romance thrown in. And baking, we can never forget the baking!

My Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I gave Rubi Ramos’s Recipe for Success 4 Stars!

Wow!! I cannot believe that this book was a debut novel—it was so well-written. Rubi’s story has so much heart, from falling in love for the first time, navigating her parents’ high expectations, trying to find her Cuban roots, and most of all, discovering who she is and what she wants from her future.

As someone who is currently in law school myself, I definitely resonated with the pressure that Rubi felt to get into a law program, as well as her desire not to let that overcome other parts of herself. I was expecting this just to be a cute YA romance (which it definitely still was), but it was also a wonderful story about family and personal growth. I would definitely recommend it as a summer read!

Pub date: 5/16/23
Genre: YA ownvoices, coming of age with romantic elements
Quick summary: Rubi's parents want more for her than their professional bakery lifestyle, and Rubi decides to do all she can to get into Alma University off the waitlist. Mix in a baking competition (don't tell mom) and a super cute math TA to help raise her trig grade, and this recipe is going to get complicated.

I love coming of age stories and baking competitions, and I was an ambitious high schooler, so this book was a perfect match! I loved getting to know Rubi - narrator Karla Serrato did a great job bringing her to life. I felt for Rubi as she struggled with her love for baking and her lack of parental support for this endeavor. Rubi also longed for Cuba, the land her parents left behind, and Parra explored this theme well. The romance was super cute too - but make no mistake, this is Rubi's coming of age story, not Rubi's romance story. I was rooting for her 100%.

If you enjoy YA reads, this is a really fun one on audio! Just don't listen to it hungry :)

Thank you to Wednesday Books for my e-ARC and Libro.fm & Dreamscape Media for my ALC.

Rubi is the daughter of Cuban immigrants who have worked really hard to succeed with their bakery (now two bakeries!) in wealthy Orange County, California. Rubi’s parents are firmly set on her going to college to become a lawyer (their American dream) and she has worked hard to make that happen. She’s gotten good grades, although she’s struggling with trigonometry, and is the captain of her school’s debate team. She shares a love of baking with her dad but her mother in particular is dead set against her following in her dad’s footsteps. In an extreme move, which honestly didn’t sit right with me, Rubi has been forbidden to bake at all. She tries hard to get around their rules, while helping in the prep area of their main bakery, but she’s really not the kind of girl who will flat-out disobey her parents. She’s very inventive, while still being true to her culinary heritage.

One day she notices an article in the newspaper about a local Bake-Off contest and she enters without telling her parents.

Will Rubi follow her heart or make her parents happy?

There’s a lot going on in this book, not just baking, although the food descriptions are mouth-watering. We have issues of haves and hove-nots, striving immigrant families and wealthy families who have been in the area for generations. We have academic competition, seasoned with a bit of “mean girl” action. We have prejudice and assumptions. But we also have wonderful friendships and a blossoming romance with Ryan, a red-headed surfer who is also a math wiz and tutors Rubi in trig. And of course, we have the exciting bake-off action!

A few things bothered me, in addition to the extreme Ban on Baking:
-How Rubi dealt with the wait-list letter - she acted impulsively (as many teens tend to do) and her lies had to get bigger
-One of her good friends came out to Rubi as gay but this subplot didn’t go anywhere at all
-The gorgeous cover was something that attracted me to the book in the first place but I think it gives the wrong idea of what the book is about. There’s romance and I liked the Ryan character but this book is really Rubi’s coming-of-age story, not a romance novel.

I bounced between the audiobook and the ebook for this title, which was very convenient. The audiobook was beautifully narrated by Karla Serrato. I loved hearing the Spanish words spoken with her wonderful accent. (While most of the words were not explicitly translated, you could always tell what they meant by the context.)

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book and to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

Rubi Ramos has been raised by her parents with a clear plan for her future. She is banned from baking and following in their footsteps. Instead, she must attend an elite university and achieve the dreams they made in fleeing from Cuba. But the book begins with her being waitlisted at university and having an opportunity to pursue baking.

Told in the first person, Rubi was an excellent character Ramos was an excellent character. And I was so impressed with the description of her parents and their different reactions to immigrating to southern California. The book did a great job addressing racism and bias in ways that made sense for the story and characters.

But some of the other characters, especially Rubi's best friend, love interest, and nemesis fell a little flat. Additionally, I found the description of the admissions process for elite colleges took more suspension of disbelief than I would expect in a YA book.

My favorite aspects of this story were the amazing baked goods and the depiction of family. I didn't really feel the love interest added to the story and would have liked to see this just be a stronger coming-of-age tale.

Karla Serrato did an amazing job narrating. I had to double check it really was just a single narrator. She slipped seamlessly between Cuban, French, and other accents, and she handled a wide array of different voices and contexts. I was so impressed and will be looking for more of her audiobooks to listen to.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for the advanced reader copy and to LibroFM for the complimentary audiobook. These opinions are my own.

Rounded up to 4 stars

I had to dnf at 15%

I love the young adult genre, it'll always have my heart but i really felt disconnected to this story, I wish I could relate to the characters but they were 17 years old and talking about college and I'm in my late twenties and could not relate to that at all anymore,

I absolutely love the cover and would def recommend this to anyone if they like ya and baking.

This was a cute coming-of-age story. I thought the cultural influences and differences really set this book apart. You can tell the lies Rubi tells is because she feels so much pressure from her parents who just want her to have a better life than them. I think there are a lot of parents out there like that so it’s good to see how to get through it and overcome that pressure. The romance was really sweet! I'm excited to see what this author writes in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This new YA book releases on the 16th of this month. There is a lot going on in Rubi’s life. She is a senior who got waitlisted to her only school, trying to measure up to her parents dreams for her, secretly entered into a baking contest, and also kinda has a thing for her math tutor. It was a cute fun fast read.

Looking for a fresh and inspiring YA read that'll have you cheering on the protagonist all the way to the top? Check out Rubi Ramos' Recipe for Success!

Bakery - Rubi’s parents are Cuban immigrants who run a bakery, which they named after her.
Law School - and as much as Rubi loves baking, her parents expect her to go to law school. But she gets waitlisted.
Cooking Competition - so she enters a baking competition and discovers that she may be able to use this to get herself off the waitlist
Decisions - She will need to decide if she need to concentrate on her parents dreams, or her own.

It seems like this year seems to have a lot of these tropes coming out. Main character wants to do something and their parents don’t listen, so they do something secretly behind their back, and then they also have a tutor to help them with that thing their parents are forcing them to do. This take was super fun because I love a cooking competition, and the Cuban recipes were so delicious sounded. Definitely a quick YA read.
If you're looking for a captivating and empowering YA read, I highly recommend checking out this book!

I couldn’t put this book down, I loved the Cuban culture representation, the loveable characters, it was a breath of fresh air, and I love the baking/cooking phrases used in this book. Rubi has a recipe for success, everything she needs to achieve that is set in stone, but she has something else she loves, which is baking and that’s banned from the Recipe. But when her best friend tells her she should join Bake-Off, Rubi was hesitant, but there is a shift in her plans to attend her dream college, so she goes for it. Did I add the fact that she also found love??????. This is a great coming of age read, Rubi was really inspirational. Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.