ARC Review: A Lot Like Adios by Alexis Daria

“It feels fresh and realistic, with a dash of Caribbean nostalgia.”
~ Under the Covers

Alexis Daria’s novel, You Had Me at Hola, was one of my favorite romances of last year. Before that, I had never read a romance with Puerto Rican leads. As a Puerto Rican myself, I can’t even begin to describe how it felt to finally read about people who look like me and talk like me, fall in love. Since I loved You Had Me at Hola so much, I was ecstatic to read an ARC for the second book in the series, A Lot Like Adiós.

The book follows our previous main lead’s cousin, Michelle Amato, and her romantic journey with her former best friend, Gabriel Aguilar. We don’t really know what happened between them, but when they unexpectedly have to work together after years without seeing each other, romance is sure to blossom. It’s the always great friends to enemies to lovers trope, and we are all here for it.

I really enjoy Alexis Daria’s writing style. It feels fresh and realistic, with a dash of Caribbean nostalgia. However, although I ended up liking A Lot Like Adiós, I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first book in the series. Mainly because friends to lovers is not necessarily my preferred trope in romance, but also because I wish it had been a more slow-burn read. Our leads get together in the first chapters of the book, and although they obviously face some obstacles that set them apart, I didn’t find myself actively rooting for them. That’s not to say the romance is not enjoyable, it is. But for some reason, it just didn’t keep me as engaged as much as You Had Me at Hola. Even so, Daria manages to craft an equally steamy book, and I mean steamy. The leads have chemistry and obviously a lot of history, which they very well carried into the bedroom.

One aspect I was not expecting but ended up loving about this book, is its emotional intelligence. There are some incredible presentations about toxic masculinity in the Latinx community and family relations, especially between fathers and sons. I commend Daria for tackling this topic and making it flow seamlessly with the romance aspect of the story. I absolutely recommend this book (and the series) to any romance lover out there. This series will always have a special place in my heart, and I can’t wait to see what Daria writes next!