You Had Me at Hola is a swoony first entry in the Primas of Power contemporary romance series by Alexis Daria (4/5 stars)

You Had Me at Hola is a swoony first entry in the Primas of Power contemporary romance series by Alexis Daria.

I borrowed the audiobook from my local library via the Hoopla app and really enjoyed listening to the narrator!

Our main characters are two former soap opera and telenovela actors cast in the leading roles of a bilingual romantic comedy produced by the nation’s number one streaming service. Both of them see this as a potential stepping-stone to get on the radar for Hollywood agents. And there’s a big bonus, too: not only is the full cast Latinx, but so are production and the crew!

Family is important to both of our MCs. Both of them are close with several generations of their nearest and dearest. I loved the family dynamics throughout, and especially the relationship between the series eponymous Primas of Power, our FMC and her cousins.

If you’re a fan of mixed media, there’s a bit of that here in interstitials showing scenes from the Carmen in Charge tv show they were filming. This was super fun, and I kinda want to watch the show? I got pretty invested in that storyline too.

A friend told me “the author writes characters that very much feel like actual people,” and I wholeheartedly agree. I really dig Daria’s prose so I’ll absolutely be working my way through this series and then the rest of her backlist. She writes pretty good steamy scenes, and I also really appreciated how she portrayed an intimacy coordinator on the set of the fictional tv series.

Lastly, I have to mention that the cover is absolutely STUNNING. Chef’s kiss, no notes.

Rep: FMC is Filipina and Puerto Rican American, MMC is Puerto Rican

Tropes: slow burn, workplace romance, forced proximity, meet disaster

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