This was just such a sweet and emotional book!

Madi is finding herself after a breaking up with her boyfriend (who she hoped would be her fiancé). I love that this book was more about Madi and looking after herself then it being a romance. It overall just made me so happy to read. I love a little eat pray love, turned romance!

Thank you to the author Yamile Saied Méndez, publishers Kensington Books, and also to NetGalley, for an advance digital copy of LOVE OF MY LIVES. All views are mine.

ʟᴏᴠᴇ ᴏғ ᴍʏ ʟɪᴠᴇs is both a playful romance and a clever fantasy scifi mashup with elements of time travel and dream walking. I had so much fun riding the wave of this story! I wasn't expecting any fresh takes on favorite tropes, but that's what I found!

Three (or more) things I loved:

1. This book begins right at the inciting incident. It's very propulsive. It sort of reminds me of the movies. I love how it drops me right into the deep development of the protagonist,

2. I love that this is at least in part a story about a girl getting her mensus. There are not enough of these stories, and so this part of life remains shrouded in mystery and myth. It could do with a little romanticizing.

3. This book, from the beginning, is completely romantic. Pages after losing her aunt, fmc finds her in a dream so real it fills her bed with sand. There she sees the love of her life: Quote loc. 172

4. I adore the feminist thread throughout this book! Not too in your face, but omnipresent: Quote loc. 1220

5. The story starts with a prediction, which sort of becomes the primary conflict, in a way. I just love how all this plays out.

Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. She talks about saliva a lot. Too much. Okay it's only three times, but it's pretty gross.


Rating: 💭💭💭💭 / 5 vivid dreams
Recommend? Yes!
Finished: Sep 30 23
Format: Digital arc, Kindle, NetGalley
Read this book if you like:
💓 love stories
⏳️ time travel
💤 dream walking
💇‍♀️ girl's coming of age
👭🏽 feminist stories

Final 2.5/5

I really enjoyed Twice a Quincera, so that made me want to read this one. However, as a romance, this was a bit of a snoozefest and did not measure up to Twice a Quincera at all and the magic with that one.

I was never invested in Madi as a person, and I was never invested in her and Peter.

I did appreciate the culture infused in the book and the discussions on the sociopolitical and economic happenings and environment in Puerto Rico.

One thing I loved about this book is about the struggles that one has to go through regarding immigration. Not that I am one but I know a lot of people who are but thankfully have surpassed this ordeal. To add, thr writing was great as well.

What doesn't appeal to me (but may be for others) is the insta love. It's just me. I am cynical and jaded about this one. Things happened all at once and too fast buy overall it was a great story.

This is a fun eom com the hat tops the beauty of Puerto Rico. It was a sweet and fun read that being how to HEAs for us all. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

I’ll start off by saying I love Puerto Rico and have been there but this book just felt short for me because of its description of the island and its community.

I really wanted to love this book, but found that I just wasn't rooting for the characters as much as I wanted to. I love the setting and the twist on the 'soulmates' trope, but found that things happened a bit too quickly for me to really believe in Madi and Peter's love story. I love how much of Puerto Rico the author packed into this story - all of the settings were beautifully described and I felt like I was along for the ride with the characters!

The part i liked this book was the way it showed about the struggle immigration causes in people. that part struck with me and made the book better, the romance was good.

I loved this book! The writing was great and the characters were wonderful! The author has great imagination and I love a good romance novel!

Such a great book! I believe in fate too... and, yes, maybe sometimes it's just too much. But if that leads to a beautiful relationship as Madi and Peter seemed to have it's all worth it. I would love to read more from you, specially if you keep coming up with characters as Madi, Peter, Audri and Reyna.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this work.
I have loved Furia and Twice a Quinceañera by Yamile Saied Mendez and was very excited for Love of My Lives, especially because of the setting. However, reading this felt off. The main character seemed young and the insta-love was not for me. I really loved the male main character however. I will continue to look for this author’s work in the future despite my disappointment in this particular work.

Thank to netgalley for this copy. This was a sweet a cozy romance read. I liked it.
This was a 3.5 stars read for me

An interesting read and I liked the setting of Puerto Rico.
Many thanks to Kensington and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I really enjoyed Furia so wanted to try out Saied Mendez's newest book- it had beautiful representation of Puerto Rico and was very atmospheric but the romance element didn't knock my socks off due to the main characters lack luster chemistry. Not a terrible book but not richly developed

This was a cute cozy romance, I look forward to sharing this book with other readers who will want to escape the winter months.

Thank you for allowing me to read and review this book. I have to say, I love a good rom-com and this book completely hits the spot, down to the happy ending. I thought this was an extremely quick read and also quickly fell in love with the characters. Definitely a feel good book.

Madi has it all - yet she still feels like something is missing, especially when it comes to her boyfriend. When she has the opportunity to take a business trip to Puerto Rico she jumps at the chance, and the opportunity for a little space from Jayden, her boyfriend, thinking it will be just what their relationship needs. But in Puerto Rico she meets another man and everything becomes more complicated.

This book is a beautiful love letter to Puerto Rico, and with the incredible descriptions of the setting and so much information about the culture, I want to book a trip there immediately. I loved the descriptions of the location as well as the history and culture within the story. I thought this was truly the highlight of the book. Unfortunately, while I adored the setting, the romance fell a bit flat for me. Instalove and miscommunication are tropes that can be tricky for me to get into, and in this case, I never fully felt the chemistry.

Thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Love of My Lives by Yamile Saied Méndez is an excellent story and portrayal of a modern day immigrant family. The book follows the life of 12-year-old Lucía, a girl living in Utah with her father, stepmother, and two siblings, and her mother who is living in Argentina. For the duration of the novel, Lucía is embroiled in the ever-evolving proceedings and intricacies of her parents’ divorce as well as her mother’s deportation back to Argentina.

Love of My Lives does a fantastic job of displaying the struggles of modern day immigrant families, how difficult it can be to manage two cultures living so far apart, and yet how meaningful it can be when the family comes together. Méndez does an excellent job of showing the reader the internal political debate through the eyes of 12-year-old Lucía, who finds herself in the middle of her parents’ debate much like a child of any family in a divorce might think that he or she is “damned if they do and damned if they don’t.”

The book springs alive with beautiful imagery of Lucía’s home in Argentina as well as her life in Utah as she tries to balance two lives in different countries. Méndez manages to show the reader what it’s like for immigrant families to be separated and the struggle to keep a tight connection with those far away. The story also highlights a bittersweet attempt to become a citizen when Lucía gets chosen to speak at a scholarship event in front of politicians hoping to use her image as a beacon of hope for immigrant children everywhere.

The characters Méndez introduces us to are vibrant and full of life. Lucía is a strong female protagonist that is easy to root for and her parents are real and approachable. Additionally, Méndez’s usage of the Spanish language to represent Lucía’s thoughts and conversations allows the reader to more fully grasp the culture of the family.

Love of My Lives is an excellent work of fiction that weaves a powerful narrative of a modern day immigrant family. Méndez shines a light on the struggles of keeping a family together while so far apart and the importance of creating a home, no matter how different it looks from the one before it.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher and all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

The book follows Madi who is winning at life and to top of her winning season her boyfriend proposes . She should be excited but find herself not that excited to marry Jayden. She battles with this feeling as she saw the initials JR in a dream once upon a time, Madi ends up going to Puerto Rico where she not only scatters abuela's ashes but meets someone else. Love of My Lives is an exploration of what it means to love someone , dream meanings and the power of being true to self.

Actual rating: 3.5

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.