REVIEW: Kiss Me, Mi Amor by Alana Albertson

Kiss Me, Mi Amor by Alana Albertson is the second book in the Love & Tacos series. Enrique Montez and his family travel meet with Carolina Flores in an attempt to get her farm to partner with his family’s Taco King business. Carolina has heard about the Montez family and how they treat their workers and has no desire to partner with them. But when her father’s health takes a turn for the worst, she tells him that she’s dating Enrique to make him happy. Enrique goes along with it because he wants to get to know Carolina better, as he admires her business ethics. She soon realizes that Enrique isn’t like his father and truly wants to do better for his business and its employees and finds herself falling for him. But will her fake relationship end up costing her everything?

I appreciated learning more about traditional Mexican-American holiday celebrations. I found it informational. But, sadly, that’s about all I enjoyed about this book. Let’s start with Carolina’s family. She owns and runs a farm, but her entire family lives with her and her parents act like it’s their house. Her father has very misogynistic viewpoints and even jokes with Enrique that Carolina wouldn’t make a good partner because she can’t cook. I had to give Enrique credit because he was even disgusted with the way Carolina’s father treated her, but Carolina herself, who seems so strong and determined when it comes to her business and protecting her employees, doesn’t even attempt to stand up for herself. Neither does any of her family members. When her parents insist that she returns home while there’s a dangerous storm going on and then threatens to disown her if she didn’t, I almost stopped reading. Her safety should be more important than the fact that she would have to stay in a hotel with Enrique.

I didn’t feel much chemistry between Enrique and Caroline. There was much more chemistry between her younger sister, Blanca, and Enrique’s future cousin-in-law, Tiburon, who have a secondary romance in this book. Things between Enrique and Caroline felt forced more than anything.

I normally enjoy the fake romance trope when it’s done right, but this isn’t the case here. There’s more focus on Carolina, her family’s antiquated views of women, and religion than on the relationship between Carolina and Enrique. I honestly struggled to make it through this book because there wasn’t a lot that I liked about it. I would give another book in this series a chance to see if this was just this one that I didn’t enjoy, but if future books continue this way, I wouldn’t continue to read this series.

Book Info:

Publication: July 4, 2023 | Berkley | Love & Tacos #2

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.