American Fairytale

I haven't been this conflicted about a book for sometime but I think I wanna give this a 3.5.

I haven't read the first book in this series but I have heard great things and really got excited when I got this ARC. I love stories with fairytale-esque themes and this book was very adorable and swoony for the most part.

Camilo is a social worker and I loved the passion he had for his work. Every time he talked about the work he did at the shelter and the ideas he had for how to help his clients, it was wonderful to read and I could totally see why Tom fell in love with him. Tom on the other hand is such a thoughtful amazing person, very connected to his roots and this drive to support causes that are close to his heart. Except the part where Tom tries to solve issues with money, which made Camilo uncomfortable, these two were literally perfect for each other. The attraction was instant since the first time they met and the slow organic progression to love was beautiful to watch. And the scenes with Tom's daughter Libe were an absolute delight.

The writing in this book is just so easy to get through, I was done in a single sitting. The author does a great job of showing us the culture that both Tom and Camilo come from, and it was awesome to read their conversations about their heritage, the ethnic food or even the issues related to their community. The friend group in this book is also very very diverse and I liked getting to know them, even if I couldn't keep track of all of them sometimes. While I understood why the conflict occurred in the story, I didn't completely like how it played out and I felt that some very thoughtless accusations were thrown around, which never did get a proper resolution. Also, despite hearing so much about Camilo's passion for his work, we don't get to see much of him actually doing it and I think that was a missed opportunity.

Overall, this is a swoony sweet romance featuring very good characters and some emotional angst thrown in. I recommend this book if you like reading romances about people who are proud of their cultures and it reflects off the page and who are very eager to do something for helping those in society who need it. It also works very well as stand-alone and I never felt that I was missing out any references. I also have a feeling I'll be checking out the next one in the series because I really liked the author's storytelling.