I tried my best to finish it and the only reason for that it’s because I truly appreciate when authors bring important conversations in fiction books, specially when they are latino-related. In this case we continue with the gentrification topic from the last book but it mostly centers in LGBTQ+ kids and teens abandonment. However there’s not a lot of depth to these social problems. It made sense for the character to be in this kind of context and there are mentions of these kids and a community center/refugee but they are superficially explored or forgotten.

I couldn’t connect with the main characters and didn’t understand the main conflict that kept them apart, even the grandparents had to explain it at the very end and then I had to side with Saint mainly because he has a kid, someone who truly depended on him, the consequences of his actions and decisions wouldn’t only fall on him, so his concerns for Rosie’s safety and having a solid home for her felt valid to me. Lola’s strong beliefs and continuous fight for her community were absolutely brave and admirable but she was constantly whining about Saint’s intentions even after they cleared all the misunderstandings from the past. I truly could not see him being embarrassed of her or wanting to be her savior.

Also I hate when kids are only used as tools to make the couple get together. Rosie’s anxiety disorder that affected her at school never had a conclusion and then she had a traumatic event that made it worse but it was taken too lightly by the author, it’s like it was only important that she could speak to Lola and nothing more.

The two stars are because the author was brave to include important social topics and all the books in this series revolve around gentrification and latin neighborhoods.

I'll read the next books because I love family series and get to see glimpses of previous or future couples and Natalie nails that.