Ramón and Julieta, by Alana Quintana Albertson

Ramón and Julieta, by Alana Quintana Albertson, is a fresh, interesting, compelling, and dramatic contemporary romance about star crossed love.

Ramón’s father owns a large chain of fast food restaurants. Julieta is a phenomenal cook and runs the best restaurant in her neighborhood which uses authentic family recipes. Here’s the catch. One of the recipes Ramón’s dad uses in the fast food places is actually Julieta’s mom’s recipe, and he (Ramón’s dad) stole it. And broke her heart.

Fortunately for us, they don’t learn this about each other until after they meet and sparks fly. The book then delves into how they work through this conflict, the sense of trust and understanding complicating further when Ramón and his father’s company buy the block that Julieta’s restaurant is on, intending to change it into one of the fast food nightmares.

Themes of gentrification, cultural experience, learning how to fit in and find your place and your way when you don’t quite feel accepted in a lot of the world are explored well throughout the developing love story. I loved the thoughtful way that Albertson manages to blend so much cultural context into this book and folks who have Mexican heritage will likely feel like this book has part of home inside of it.

The mentions of traditions and the Spanish words throughout were lovely and added a lot of context and I was impressed with how much depth is in the love story of Ramón and Julieta.

The steam is pretty hot, but not very frequent if I remember correctly. I would place it at mid level and door open. If you’re looking for spice you will find it here. You will also be hungry reading this because the food descriptions legit made my mouth water, so bring your snacks.

The way the book resolved the conflict both romantic and plotted out for the fate of Julieta’s neighborhoos, is so satisfying. I love the way that it works out and wish things like this would happen more often. The good guy gets the girl and she chooses him just as much and the bad guy gets his comeuppance and the wrongs are righted and it’s a lovely HEA all around.

I’m excited to see what Albertson writes next! Ramón and Julieta is out now available wherever you get your books

My thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Romance for the e-galley review copy, all opinions are my own.