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This book is a pure delight. That simple. It even has tropes that I would normally be extremely turned off by, but carries them out so differently they don't feel quite like those tropes at all.
The book takes place in the Spanish Caribbean in the summer of 1911, in a small town on what does not seem to be a large island to begin with. Our female lead, Emilia Cruz, is a typist by day for appearances' sake, but is actually supporting herself and her older sister Susanna, as well as their alcoholic father, through her serialized story about a courtesan, written under a pseudonym.
Since their mother's death and their father's decline into drinking, Emilia and Susanna have been shoved to the edges of society in their town and while Emilia finds it a bit lonely, it doesn't bother her much. Susanna, on the other hand, misses it, and often when they are invited to parties, Emilia will go because Susanna wants to badly and cannot as a woman alone.
It is at one of these events, a boating party, that Emilia meets Rubin Torres, a friend of Susanna's long-time beau Luis. Both men are in town for the summer before heading back to the city. Rubin has one book published and is well known for it, he also writes in a daily news publication, and is also the editor of another publication, although that one he runs under a pseud, where, you guessed it, he savages Emilia's stories.
The thing is, despite these two not agreeing with each other, and the fact that Emilia keeps accidentally dumping Rubin in bodies of water, this isn't a flirtatious screwball enemies-to-lovers, so much as a story about two people who realize they enjoy each other because neither fits into the boxes designed for them.
Emilia was one of the most relatable characters I think I've ever read in a romance. She mostly just wants to be left alone to write. She wants her sister to be happily married to Luis, but is scared of being left behind. She messes up recipes, she gets sticky and gross in the heat, and she says things she shouldn't all the time.
Rubin is dealing with a lot of his own damage from discovering that his father has simultaneously been keeping two other families on the side his whole life. This plot-line is not made simple or clean, and in fact, Rubin's black-and-white approach is torn apart by his sister and implicitly, by the choices his mother makes.
Of the many things I love about this book, it is that while the characters are attracted to each other, and enjoy intimacy, it feels secondary to their emotional intimacy: something that heightens it, but doesn't drive it. They can talk without getting distracted by the other's looks. And they do, a lot. In fact, the level of communication in this book borders on intoxicating.
As if all of this weren't enough, there's a fantastic secondary plotline regarding the suffragist society on the island and one element's push for censorship of Emilia's writings, and the pushback from other women, opening up a dialogue about what it means to be taken seriously as a woman.
The only complaint I have, and it's so minor I feel ridiculous bringing it up, is that there are more typos than I'm used to in the book. My guess is that she either self-pubbed first, and then was picked up, or her editor wasn't as good at their job as they should have been. Weighed against the true fucking loveliness of the rest of this work, it's not even a drop of water in the ocean.
The book takes place in the Spanish Caribbean in the summer of 1911, in a small town on what does not seem to be a large island to begin with. Our female lead, Emilia Cruz, is a typist by day for appearances' sake, but is actually supporting herself and her older sister Susanna, as well as their alcoholic father, through her serialized story about a courtesan, written under a pseudonym.
Since their mother's death and their father's decline into drinking, Emilia and Susanna have been shoved to the edges of society in their town and while Emilia finds it a bit lonely, it doesn't bother her much. Susanna, on the other hand, misses it, and often when they are invited to parties, Emilia will go because Susanna wants to badly and cannot as a woman alone.
It is at one of these events, a boating party, that Emilia meets Rubin Torres, a friend of Susanna's long-time beau Luis. Both men are in town for the summer before heading back to the city. Rubin has one book published and is well known for it, he also writes in a daily news publication, and is also the editor of another publication, although that one he runs under a pseud, where, you guessed it, he savages Emilia's stories.
The thing is, despite these two not agreeing with each other, and the fact that Emilia keeps accidentally dumping Rubin in bodies of water, this isn't a flirtatious screwball enemies-to-lovers, so much as a story about two people who realize they enjoy each other because neither fits into the boxes designed for them.
Emilia was one of the most relatable characters I think I've ever read in a romance. She mostly just wants to be left alone to write. She wants her sister to be happily married to Luis, but is scared of being left behind. She messes up recipes, she gets sticky and gross in the heat, and she says things she shouldn't all the time.
Rubin is dealing with a lot of his own damage from discovering that his father has simultaneously been keeping two other families on the side his whole life. This plot-line is not made simple or clean, and in fact, Rubin's black-and-white approach is torn apart by his sister and implicitly, by the choices his mother makes.
Of the many things I love about this book, it is that while the characters are attracted to each other, and enjoy intimacy, it feels secondary to their emotional intimacy: something that heightens it, but doesn't drive it. They can talk without getting distracted by the other's looks. And they do, a lot. In fact, the level of communication in this book borders on intoxicating.
As if all of this weren't enough, there's a fantastic secondary plotline regarding the suffragist society on the island and one element's push for censorship of Emilia's writings, and the pushback from other women, opening up a dialogue about what it means to be taken seriously as a woman.
The only complaint I have, and it's so minor I feel ridiculous bringing it up, is that there are more typos than I'm used to in the book. My guess is that she either self-pubbed first, and then was picked up, or her editor wasn't as good at their job as they should have been. Weighed against the true fucking loveliness of the rest of this work, it's not even a drop of water in the ocean.
