This was a cute second-chance read!

The book is told from two point-of-views and they come from Saint and Lola. They knew each other back in high school and the first few pages explain their first interaction from one another at that time in the past. It was a nice way to understand their connection. I am not usually one for a second-chance romance but this one worked well. They may have been in love at one point in time but all of that was in the past and in the present they are at odds when it comes to their grandfathers and the shelter that Lola works at. It was fun to see them getting off on the wrong foot and running into each other unexpectedly. It made for a good laugh.

A lot has changed since their high school days and Saint is now a father. He was a very protective dad and wanted what was best for his daughter. I can definitely relate to that as a parent. Lola has had a run in with the cops when it comes to protesting and her past is never far behind her when it comes to how people perceive her. I felt bad for her since she was only doing what she thought was right and people judged her. She is very kind and puts others before herself.

There is a lot that goes on with the plot besides the romance. A lot of realistic and very real events happen in the book that are similar to what has been seen in our own world.

Overall, this was a good read. I liked jumping back in and seeing what the Vegas were up to.

A DISH BEST SERVED HOT 🎡👨‍👧🏳️‍🌈🥰
By: @nataliecanawrites

•Bi FMC
•Veteran MMC
•Plus size rep
•Single dad trope
•Second chance romance

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

I saw @nataliecanawrites say that if you liked her first book, you’re going to LOVE this one and she was 100% correct. I absolutely fell in love with the characters and their story. It was so fun to revisit Papo and his crazy shenanigans all over again. I can’t wait for the next Vega story.

There is so much to unpack here. Lola is a social justice advocate and an independent badass and then we have Saint, a single dad who is reserved but fully family oriented. He goes all in when it comes to those he loves.

I loved all the rep in this story, specially a plus size FMC! And she’s so confident! Yes, give it to me!!

Release date: OCT 31, 2023 🏃‍♀️

Thank you to @netgalley @htpbooks @_mira_books_ for this E-Arc.

3.75 ⭐️

I was so excited to read this after loving A Proposal They Can’t Refuse last year. I loved Saint and Rosie (who was adorable) and the relationship that Lola and Rosie came to have. It was nice to see Saint and Lola get their second chance after dating in high school and then being separated for so long. However, I wish we could’ve seen a little more of their relationship and romance throughout the book. I also felt like the 3rd act conflict/breakup was a lot at the end and resolved very quickly for what happened. We also got to see more meddling grandparents in this, which I was excited about before I started it! This book focuses on very important topics like gentrification, homophobia, racism, etc.

Love being back with the Vega family! This time around we learn more about the oldest brother, Saint. I loved reading Saints story, learning the history between him and Lola, hearing about Rosie’s mom and laughing at Papo Vega once again getting involved in helping his grandchild find their happiness.

I absolutely loved Natalie Cana’s (fix the n so it has a ~ on it on your phone) Proposal They Can’t Refuse, so I jumped at the chance to read this second book in her Vega Family Love Stories series, A Dish Best Served Hot.

As a kid, Lola had a bad attitude and was always getting into trouble. Now, she’s back in town to help with her grandfather and teaches Krav Maga at a local community center, one that serves the community’s needs, include a shelter for LGBTQIA+ teens who have been kicked out of their homes by their families not dealing with their gender identities. Lola’s hoping for a promotion and takes a job as a substitute pre-school teacher.

Saint (Junior) is Kamilah’s (FMC from book 1) older brother. He lives up to his name and always has. Not only is he named after one, but he also saved Lola and he has always been a good guy. He’s a widower with an adorable 4 years old who just happens to be in Lola’s new class. He also works in construction with his uncle and just got guilted into a project that could hurt his chances with Lola.

They haven’t seen each other in 17 years and didn’t leave things good between them. When a series of events pushes them together, it’s hard for them to stay away, but will Saint’s new project tear them apart again?

I really love this series. It’s funny, steamy, and sweet. I am plus sized, so I always appreciate a curvy FMC and an MMC who loves women like me. Especially when she takes control in the bedroom and he likes it. I’m not always a fan of kids in books, but I really love Rosie love the relationship she has with Lola.

The meddling grandpas are at it again! It’s like they’re running a matchmaking service at the senior home. They bring a lot of the humor to the series and I can’t wait to see what shenanigans they get up to in the next book. I’m pretty sure it’ll be Leo and Sofi in the next one.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley. I voluntarily read an early copy of this book.

I really really liked the main characters of this book. I also didn't read the first one, but still really enjoyed this one. It could have totally been a standalone.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ //5
A Dish Best Served Hot : A Novel (Vega Family Love Stories, 2)
by Natalie Cana

THOUGHTS:

I want to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for giving me the opportunity to read an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

If you love :
*Single Dad
*Second Chance
*Diverse Characters

This book is for you!

I devoured this book by Natalie! I love her writing and she delivered even more with this book. I absolutely loved Lola and Saint in this book. The first book was FANTASTIC and while it would be great if you read that one before this one, it actually isn’t necessary which I think it nice for some readers ( I highly recommend you do though because…well who doesn’t want more of this story…). These to high school sweethearts are just too adorable and I loved watching their story building even more in this book. This book wasn’t too slow and was not too fast—just right which I appreciate. I love how Natalie touches on many topics/issues that are relevant in lives today and did them respectfully and tastefully. This is a book that I do recommend that you browse the TW’s on because this may not be for everybody. This book is absolutely a must read and I will be sharing my thoughts and this book with all of my book besties! Bring on BOOK 3!!!!

I had a difficult relationship with Natalie Caña’s first book, A Proposal They Can’t Refuse. I liked so many things about it, but found the toxicity of Kamilah’s relationship with her family almost unbearable. I approached the second book in the Vega Family series with some trepidation, but A Dish Best Served Hot focused more on the community, and the Vega parents are on a cruise for most of the book.

Saint Vega is the eldest of the Vega children, and a single dad to Rosie. He had an intense romance with Lola León until he joined the Army after high school, and she left to finish high school in California with her mother for reasons. Now they are both back in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago. Saint is raising his daughter and working for his uncle’s construction company. Lola is working at the community center and Rosie’s new teacher. The two are drawn back together, sometimes acting in concert and sometimes at cross purposes. There were certain parts of the plot that don’t hold together if you look at them too closely, but the emotional growth that Saint and Lola experience is great. I adored the way they formed a unit with Rosie, even when they weren’t trying to date.

I appreciated the Vega family much more in this outing, and I especially appreciated Papo Vega acknowledging the sins of the past. In A Dish Best Served Hot, the family meddles a bit and there is plenty of teasing, but it doesn’t cross into meanness. One thing I would love to see less often in second chance romances though is lovers declaring that they never loved anyone else during their separation. It feels to me like there is an expectation that it can only be true love if they have only loved each other. I probably would have minded it less if I hadn’t just read four other second chance romances with the same conversation.

I am looking forward to the next installment, which I assume will be Leo and Sofi, who still deserves a truck load of apologies. I hope she has been healing and moving on with her life. Natalie Caña is so good at writing the intricacies of relationships and communities. She’s fantastic at showing how the things that can propel us forward can also hold us back. I love the way she loves her community and acknowledges where it needs to do better. She takes on a lot of deep topics without weighing down the plot. I haven’t loved everything about her books, but I love reading her books enough to stick with her as a reader.

CW: anxiety, ptsd, incarcerated family members, toxic family, familial abandonment, death of spouse in past, attempted kidnapping, children in danger, gun violence, police brutality off page.

I received this as an advance reader copy from MIRA and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.

I was thrilled to be approved for an eARC of A Dish Best Served Hot by Natalie Caña! Ever since I read A Proposal They Can't Refuse last year, Caña has become an auto-buy and auto-read author for me. In this second book of the Vega Family Love Stories, single dad and ex-marine, Santiago "Saint" Vega reunites with his high school sweetheart Lola León after Saint's enrollment in the military and Lola's disappearance due to her dad and brother's involvement with local gangs. However, this reunion is anything but sweet due to the nature of their reconciliation, and of course it has something to do with the Vega's mischievous yet lovable patriarch, Papo Vega. Saint and Lola's relationship becomes even more complicated when it's revealed that the construction company that Saint works for has a role in the closing of a local community shelter for unhoused LGBTQIA+ youths, which Lola is passionately involved with. As Saint desperately seeks a solution to fix both of his mistakes and somehow win back Lola and save the community center, stubborn and fiery Lola can no longer deny her overwhelming feelings for Santiago Vega.

I loved Lola's character and really saw myself in her. While she has a fiery and combative personality that is effective for fighting for her loved ones and community, she also possesses a softness that she reserves for the people she loves most. Lola's relationship with Rosie was absolutely adorable and I would not be mad if Natalie Caña ever decided to write a novella that detailed Rosie, Saint, and Lola's family life. As always, I loved how the epilogue was told from Papo's perspective and it is revealed to the reader that he was scheming the whole time. Papo Vega is the OG matchmaker and I love him for it. The foreshadowing to Leo's story was great and I am so excited for his story to be released next. In addition, reading A Dish Best Served Hot made me want to reread A Proposal They Can't Refuse because I loved the small moments with Kamilah and Liam, including the engagement party. Caña is such a fantastic storyteller because I always finish the books thinking these characters and these stories are real. I want to visit El Coqui and Kane Distillery so bad!

Overall, this was such a solid follow-up in the Vega Family Love Stories series. While technically this is a stand-alone, I highly recommend reading A Proposal They Can't Refuse first to get the full effect of Caña's storytelling and portrayal of Humboldt Park's most beloved family.

Thank you to NetGalley, MIRA Books, and Natalie Caña for this eARC!

A Dish Best Served Hot is another fun story about the Vega family. Saint and is daughter Rosie have such a sweet relationship and it is great to see how Lola fits in to their family.

I loved a lot about this book, from the second chance romance between Saint and Lola to their bickering grandpas to Saint's little girl. While I don't always love a dual timeline, I did love the romance. The extended family dynamic was great. It was sexy when it needed to be and soft when it needed to be but what really bothered me was the 3rd act breakup. I know there are a lot of people who require their romances to have a 3rd act breakup and while I'm basically ambivalent on that topic, I will say I need the 3rd act breakup to be cohesive and make sense in the overall structure of the story and not be resolved haphazardly. In the particular instance, the 3rd act breakup sort of comes out of nowhere and results in the 2 MCs hurling some pretty hurtful accusations at each other. The resolution of this drama comes about in a way that feels a little bit convenient and mostly done to set up who I imagine is the MMC of the next book.

Content Notes: on page gun violence and attempted kidnapping, off page loss of wife, off page loss of best friend, imprisoned family members, gang violence, fat phobic commentary by minor character, mention of queer kids being kicked out of their homes;

This book had A LOT going on, and it felt much longer than its 400 pages. It is raw and real, rife with depictions and descriptions of gang violence, LGBTQIA+-related hate crimes, and PTSD (please read content warnings before starting this book!). To counteract these heavier themes, Natalie Caña provides lighthearted humor with feuding and matchmaking grandfathers who cause trouble in their nursing home. This is what ultimately reunites our two main characters, Santiago "Saint" and Lola, who were high school sweethearts before Saint enlisted in the military and Lola had to run away with her mom for her safety. Now, seventeen years later, Lola is back to care for her grandfather and work with the community center (El Hogar) for unhoused LGBTQIA+ youth, a cause near and dear to her heart.

Saint is a single dad to four-year-old Rosie. He left the military to raise her after his wife died. Rosie is one of the BEST (portrayals of) children I've read in romance novels, probably because she acts her age (not younger or older). She has selective mutism, only speaking when she's with her family (i.e., not at school). Lola is Rosie's new teacher, and she doesn't try to change her or punish her for not speaking. She provides a safe space for Rosie to learn, and she doesn't take it personally when Rosie still doesn't speak to her outside of the classroom. The connection they form is so pure and wholesome. Rosie wants to be exactly like Lola, dressing like her and doing her hair like her. So cute. And when Rosie utters her first words to Lola? I had tears in my eyes. Be still my heart.

The Vegas have to be one of my favorite fictional families. This book confirms my love for meddling families, ESPECIALLY grandparents. I liked the... unconventional "friendship" (camaraderie?) that forms between Benny (Lola's abuelo) and Papo Vega. Those two are adorable in a way that only old people can be.

I LOVED the representation in this book. Not only that, but the discussions that the characters had about social justice-related topics. Every character is Latine/Latinx (with the exception of one white teacher who quit at the beginning); Lola is half Mexican and half Puerto Rican, and Saint is Puerto Rican. Lola is fat and bisexual (the author is also bisexual). There is talk about the effects of gentrification, the slow acceptance of LGBTQIA+ people in some Latine/Latinx communities (because they are not a monolith), white saviorism, and fatphobia/discrimination.

A forewarning to those who do not speak Spanish: there is a lot of untranslated dialogue that isn't always easy to figure out through context clues. I can't be mad at this, because the author clearly envisions her primary audience as other Latine people. But if this is something that will bother you because of how much time it will take to type into Google Translate, then this book might not be for you. As someone who does not speak Spanish, though, I can say that I still found this book worth reading. I personally did not choose to translate the text. From knowing another romance language, I was able to piece together the gist of some dialogue, and the rest I knew I would figure out if it were consequential to the story.

I think some of the conflict, especially the conflict involving Lola's brother that leads to the third act breakup, is unnecessary and doesn't add to the storyline. I could have done without the third act breakup. I would have liked to see more intimacy (not just physical!) between Saint and Lola. The heavier themes, as well as the characters' individual personal growth, overshadowed the romance; that is to say, the romance was secondary to other subplots. There is only one short sex scene, so this book is not spicy (that's either a pro or con, depending on your tastes!). I usually read character-driven books, and this one felt mostly plot-driven. It is incredibly slow-paced, which is probably why its 400 pages felt like they dragged on. I wouldn't necessarily call it a slow burn, but it was a slow read (for me). Although this book is written in third person, it somehow felt like a first person book (I can't explain why or what that even means, but I do usually prefer first person narration). The ending perfectly set up Leo and Sofi's impending romance (all best friend's brother lovers, be prepared!), so I can't wait for book three!

I recommend this book if you love:

🎃 badass, fierce FMCs
🎃 duty-driven MMCs
🎃 single dad romance
🎃 second chance romance with (secret) high school sweethearts
🎃 "it's always/only been you"
🎃 social justice
🎃 family loyalty and shenanigans
🎃 meddling relatives
🎃 feuding grandfathers

Thank you SO much to the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest, voluntary review.

I had a really hard time getting into this novel. It was difficult to follow at the beginning and I had to reread a couple times. This is limited romance in this novel, one spicy scene, which is totally fine - I just wouldn't classify this as romance.

The novel follows 2 MCs, with dual POV. They knew each other in high school but haven't seen or heard from each other in 17 years. The FMC is fighting to save a building and the MMC's daughter is a student. There are many obstacles they must overcome in this story.

For me personally this book was just OKAY, but what doesn't fit for me, might be better for someone else!

This is an easy 5 of 5 for me.

Natalie Caña has done it again for me. A Dish Best Served Hot will be in my list of comfort reads.

This is a slow burn second chance romance between Saint Vega (Kamilah’s older sibling) and Lola Leon. Saint is quite with a lot of unprocessed trauma including his time in the military. He has been mourning his late wife for 5 years being on single dad duty to Rosie ever since. Lola on the other hand is this fiery, assertive woman who comes from a line of political activist and social warriors, some of which veer of path and end up in the criminal world. Her passionate activism and desire for the underrepresented LGBTQIA+ to have a place when their parents kick them out of their house is what brings Saint and Lola together, also Lola is Rosie’s teacher. There is a good amount of emotional issues, a lot of internal struggle, and some meddling old folks.

I loved both of these characters because I felt connected to some part of their struggle. Their dynamic felt fresh, but also seasoned in a way. They talked through the resentment they had for each other from their youth which I applaud. I also loved how much effort Lola put in her dynamic with Rosie, there is a moment between the two of them that made me cry because I was so happy.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It has many things I enjoy like crazy Latine family dynamics, lovable characters, a sweet slow burn that has a sizzling payoff. Topping it off with the fact that “he falls first, and harder” with a side of “it has always been you”. Overall another fun rom-com, with good tension and emotional moments.

I did not finish this one, it was not for me, I couldn't relate to the characters, and just did not care for the story.

Natalie Cana does it again! Her sophomore album is absolute perfection! Every time I read her books I feel as if I'm watching a movie. But I gotta say this one was better than the last. I definitely fell in love with Saint and Rosie. Lola is so relatable. I fell for their love story as second chance love stories are my favorite tropes. There's plenty of suspense and drama there. So much character representation. I love the therapy on page and the mention of anxiety and the actual panic attacks and the reality of them. The books are so realistic especially to marginalized communities without victimizing them, we need so much more of this in our community.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review as always, all words are my own.

definitely such an improvement from her last book! i thoroughly enjoyed A Dish Best Served Hot and have already added the next book to my TBR. there was so much growth in the writing, plot, and character development of this book. the only area that was cringe for me was some of the dialogue.

An action packed, family filled, second chance journey! The amount of times I yelled author Natalies name was comical. It happened at every tear, laugh, and angst filled moment!
Lola & Saint brought all the feels. We got to see how it all began, and all that occurred in between. There was a bit of angst, humor, cariño, and much more! I felt like we could have been given a bit more info in certain areas, but thats just me as a reader who loves & doesn’t mind every/any little detail.
Also have to acknowledge that the diverse characters throughout the story felt authentic and liberating to read in a Latinx/e novel.
Honestly love this series, and secretly hope every Vega/Cruz member gets a HEA. Selfishly speaking.
But thats how great this series has been so far. Im glad we’ll get the chance to see Papo Vega work his magic, and hopefully get some answers about a certain relationship.

So, I didn’t initially realize that “A Dish Best Served Hot” was a sequel, which I really think would have helped me connect more to the characters and the story. I still enjoyed my time with this book, but I think there was a lot to gain with reading them in order, especially since the side characters are such a highlight! I also personally wish there had been more spice, tho I know that’s not everyone’s preference.
Thank you, NetGalley, for the chance to read this book before it comes out!

Abuelo Vega is back and up to his same old antics, and I was so ready to see it. I fell for the Vega family in the first book and was highly anticipating this next installment in the series.

This one follows the oldest of the Vega siblings, "Saint" who is a single dad to a sweet little girl (and boy, do we get some swoon-worthy moments of him doing daddy things). Saint goes to the school to meet his daughter's new teacher, and finds Lola there, the one that got away when he committed his young adult life to serving in the military. The beginning sets up their story, during which Saint is sworn to secrecy in helping a family member on a project that sells out their community to a developer with money. For the sake of his own morals, he offers to help Lola find new locations for the community centers which have been displaced as a result of this project.

I loved both of these main characters - they are both fiercely loyal to their values, even though those values have them fighting against one another at times. Unfortunately, I struggled with the execution of this story. There was a lot more telling than showing here. Weeks would go by between chapters and it often felt as if the plot and relationship development was happening in those time gaps. Additionally, there was minimal dialogue which left me wanting in terms of the romance and character development. Overall, the premise of the story was interesting, but I didn't get the romance or plot details I was hoping for.