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Praise for Adriana Herrera

Praise for the novels of Adriana Herrera

“Herrera is consistently one of the most prescient, thoughtful romance writers today, always finding compelling ways to weave vital topics into her scorching-hot love stories.”

—Entertainment Weekly

“Herrera excels at creating the kind of rich emotional connections between her protagonists that romance readers will find irresistible.”

—Booklist, starred review

“Sweet and thoughtful, but delightfully filthy, too.”

—New York Times Book Review

“Herrera’s work remains compulsively readable. She crafts lively Latinx characters with instant, electric chemistry that sings on the page, and handles realistic obstacles in a relatable manner.”

—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Incisive and modern, navigating the complexities of privilege, purpose and power, all while exploring intense passion.”

—Washington Post

“Herrera…deftly charts the struggles of finding love and friendship in unexpected places.”

—Library Journal, starred review

“Adriana Herrera writes romance with teeth—you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll be refreshed and inspired to fight even harder to create the vibrant, welcoming America in which her books are set.”

—New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann

“[Adriana Herrera] is writing some of my favorite Afro-Latinx characters and giving us beautiful love stories along the way.”

—National Book Award winner Elizabeth Acevedo

“Herrera masterfully combines the fun, gooey, interpersonal, romantic stuff with plots that are firmly grounded in reality and involve social justice. The result is contemporary romance that matters, stories that reveal an abundance of
inconvenient truths about society.”

—Book Riot

Also by Adriana Herrera

Also available from Adriana Herrera
and Harlequin

Dating in Dallas

Here to Stay

Las Leonas

A Caribbean Heiress in Paris

Sambrano Studios

One Week to Claim It All

Just for the Holidays…

Dreamers

American Dreamer

American Fairytale

American Love Story

American Sweethearts

American Christmas

Also available from Adriana Herrera

Mangos and Mistletoe

Finding Joy

Caught Looking

Her Night with Santa

Monsieur X

Dedication

To my sister, Lorena.

A hustler like no other. Scholar, dogged researcher, firefighter, adventurer and a truly phenomenal tía.

Prologue

Alba

Julia: You can do this amiga! Drop that motherfucker like a bad habit and break free from that eight-pack addiction.

Nobody should have to put up with this much wiseassery from their best friend at five in the morning, but here we were. The eight-pack in question did not pertain to beers—or anything I was allowed to consume—but rather to my boss’s extremely off-limits abdominal muscles.

Alba: Julia what the hell are you doing up this early? It’s like four in the morning in Dallas?!

Julia: I set an alarm, boba! You think I was going to run the risk of you going to see that pendejo without a pep talk?