Sarah

This review contains light spoilers to early-revealed plot mechanics.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The authors take on the story of the titanomachy was one I haven't come across before. I did wish that more of the snippets we got of Hades was of his current form. The time-hopping to see events from the first book from his perspective was hit or miss for me personally. I did understand by the end why we needed those snippets, but it would have been nice to get a few more from current as well. Although, maybe we will learn more about what happened from his perspective in the third book. 🤔

My final thoughts are revolved around a deep third act reveal so I will just say that I was emotionally invested and moved. The author set that up so subtly and I didn't even realize what was happening until the MC did and that is a rare occurrence for me.

5 historical romance HEAs. Herrera is why I picked this one up and that story didn’t disappoint. The other authors were a nice surprise and I'll be looking into some of their works in the future!

A jazz singer on the run

A rum runner on the edge

A gangster ready to risk it all

Rosalía Ferrer dreams of leaving her island behind and sailing north to sing in a New York City nightclub. Unfortunately, the only way to escape her brother's suffocating clutches is to align herself with two ruthless men. Putting her fate and body in the hands of a rum runner and a gangster is a risky gamble, but Rosalía will do what- ever it takes to get what she wants...even if it means striking a dangerous deal.

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Adriana Herrera has a beautiful talent in writing heartfelt, multifaceted, and grounded characters in her historical romances. She also has the skill to maintain all of that while sending the spice factor through the roof!

This was a sweet cozy found-family fantasy story that also explored topics such as immigration, loss of culture, and exploring identity. The book also delves into the questions of fate versus free will as our MC wrestles with the various fortunes to be told. Intellectually, I appreciated this book and there were some very sweet heartstring moments. However, my typical genres have much higher stakes and so I kept wondering when the plot would peak. Instead it just meandered along its path, much like our main character(s), to the final destination. And you can just picture them continuing to do so after the final scene.