You Had Me at Hola: A Novel: 1 (Primas of Power, 1)

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Her self-proclaimed moniker reinforces Hola's themes of diversity, consent, and agency because it reimagines who a Leading Lady can be, and in turn, rebels against our cultural restrictions. Jasmine fights for herself but she also has the space to take risks and push the boundaries of her identity.

I was interested in the plotline more than the romance, to be honest. I loved the Jasmine and I'm still not convinced that Ashton is quite right for her. The drama was a bit much at the end, and I left the story not being in love with the relationship and how everything went down. There were odd pauses in the middle of sentences as though each comma was a full-stop period. The last words in those sentences had weird breaks in them, too. I don't even know if I can explain it right...

What makes a truly great romance are strong character dynamics and palpable chemistry between the two love interests. Ashton is an adorably awkward character who tries his hardest not to let Jasmine past the walls erected around his heart, and then we have Jasmine, eager to ignore the press shadowing her every move after a bad breakup and to make it big as a Leading Lady. Together, as they slowly grow closer while being on set, they can’t deny the electricity that courses between them. I thought the actual story was cute. There were problems with it but nothing when compared with the terrible reading of this book. I really liked the tv show chapters, they were really funny and I truly felt that I was watching a telenovela. I felt like I was 10 years again and me and my mom were watching telenovelas in our living room while I was trying to do my homework.

But this story is the perfect example of how love is not made of big gestures and great gifts, but by simplicity and being there for the other person. Meaning, you should always feel free to freak out in front of your loved ones, no matter how scared you are to expose that part of yourself. Of course there were other things I enjoyed about this romance, the banter, the Latinx representation, and the drama of a telenovela. It just wasn’t enough to make it an outstanding romance for me.

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She and her cousins have put together a “Leading Lady Plan” for her to live by, which includes knowing she doesn’t need a man to make her happy and vowing not to mess around with her costars.