Kiss Me, Mi Amor

Last year, I loved reading Ramón and Julieta, a Romeo and Juliet romance retelling by Alana Quintana Albertson. Her Love and Tacos series continues with Kiss Me, Mi Amor, out today. This one is a romantic take on The Taming of the Shrew. It stars the middle Montez brother, Enrique, and a new character named Carolina, a farm owner from a very traditional Catholic Mexican family.

Special thanks to the publicists at Penguin Random House and to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Summary

Enrique Montez has a passion for sustainable farming, and to implement better practices among the farms that partner with the Montez Group, he arranges to meet with a farmer named Carolina to learn more. He and Carolina don’t hit it off right away, but after a few twists and turns, her father thinks they’re dating. Carolina’s family is extremely traditional: Enrique is supposed to get Carolina’s father’s permission before dating her, all dates should be supervised, they should always be chaperoned, and their dating should lead to marriage. Her family also expects her to become a housewife and raise children. But in spending more time with Enrique (against her family’s will), Carolina starts to seriously question what she wants, how she views her relationship with her family, and how Enrique could fit into the picture.

Review

Kiss Me, Mi Amor gets off to a somewhat slow start. There’s a lot of backstory squeezed into the first chapter, which felt mostly unnecessary. Much of the Ramón and Julieta recap could have been cut down, or at least integrated more gradually and naturally. While this book works as a standalone, it exists within the same world as the previous installment, and those characters are part of the story here. The Montez Group continues to play a vital role, with middle brother Enrique looking to make their farming partners more sustainable. 

Carolina Flores and her family—all of them new characters to the series—are very traditional. They’re a Catholic Mexican family with conservative values and what can look like outdated ways of thinking, especially about women. Carolina, 23, is the eldest of 10 daughters, and her younger sister Blanca isn’t allowed to date until Carolina does. Both are expected to marry a traditional man and become housewives. The Flores family’s traditional values, and Carolina’s increasing discomfort with them, are the biggest driver and source of conflict in this novel. 

I loved seeing the major differences between Enrique and Carolina. He’s progressive, a feminist, and a fan of yoga and meditation. Carolina’s family is devoutly religious and traditional, and though Carolina has been raised this way and shares many of these ways of thinking, she’s also just starting to break free to become her own individual. She doesn’t want to marry or have kids, and her actions throughout Kiss Me, Mi Amor put her at odds with her family. Is she willing to live with the rift in her family if it means living authentically to her own beliefs? Is she inadvertently using Enrique in the process? 

There are thoughtful discussions in this book about the fine line between traditional values and abuse. Where does the Flores family fall on that spectrum? Carolina and Enrique also have honest conversations about feminism, patriarchal family structures, political ideology, self-work, therapy, and even yoga. Carolina, in particular, is on a major personal journey, one that’s tied up in her rapidly evolving relationship with Enrique. 

As quickly as their feelings for one another grow, I appreciate how Carolina and Enrique ultimately choose to navigate their relationship. Things may come together too quickly and easily in some ways at the end, but I love the journey and where the characters end up. 

Side note: Kiss Me, Mi Amor is a surprisingly Christmas-y book (I didn’t anticipate that going into it!), especially given that it comes out on the Fourth of July! That said, it would make a wonderful holiday read. 

Final Thoughts

Kiss Me, Mi Amor is a great follow-up to Ramón and Julieta. It continues with dissecting the ethics of the Montez family and business, but also adds in new themes surrounding traditional values and a woman’s right to choose her own path. I already look forward to next Love and Tacos book, starring youngest brother Jaime Montez. 

Get the Book

You can buy Kiss Me, Mi Amor here – it’s available as a paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

Kiss Me, Mi Amor by Alana Quintana Albertson
Series	Love and Tacos (#2)
Audience	Adult
Genre	Contemporary Romance
Setting	Santa Barbara
Number of Pages	304
Format I Read	ebook (NetGalley)
Original Publication Date	July 4, 2023

Official Summary

It turns out that a fake relationship is the perfect recipe for a love that sizzles hotter than Santa Barbara’s spiciest salsa—when it’s between enemies.…

Enrique Montez, smooth-talking heir to the Taco King empire, is man enough to admit that he made a critical error when he underestimated Carolina Flores. The agricultural hotshot should have been an easy conquest—who would turn down the chance to partner with California’s largest fast-food chain? But instead of signing her name on the dotted line, Carolina has Enrique eating out of the palm of her hand, and when fate steps in with an unexpected opportunity, Enrique is willing to do whatever it takes to capture her heart.

Growing up as the daughter of farmworkers, Carolina spent her youth picking strawberries in the fields of Santa Maria and vowing to improve the lives of people like her parents. Now, as one of only a few Latina farm owners, she has no time for romance and she’s certainly not about to let the notorious Montez brother anywhere near her business—even if just being near Enrique makes her skin tingle.

But she is willing to let him help get her overinvolved family off her back. When Carolina’s father and her lovelorn sisters mistake Enrique for her (nonexistent) boyfriend, she reluctantly agrees to a series of pretend dates to their town’s traditional Mexican-American holiday celebrations. Soon the fake feelings turn real and both Carolina and Enrique must convince each other to take a chance on love before their vacation romance is over.