You Had Me at Hola – Book Review

Leading Ladies do not end up on tabloid covers. 

After a messy public breakup, soap opera darling Jasmine Lin Rodriguez finds her face splashed across the tabloids. When she returns to her hometown of New York City to film the starring role in a bilingual romantic comedy for the number one streaming service in the country, Jasmine figures her new “Leading Lady Plan” should be easy enough to follow—until a casting shake-up pairs her with telenovela hunk Ashton Suárez. 

Leading Ladies don’t need a man to be happy. 

After his last telenovela character was killed off, Ashton is worried his career is dead as well. Joining this new cast as a last-minute addition will give him the chance to show off his acting chops to American audiences and ping the radar of Hollywood casting agents. To make it work, he’ll need to generate smoking-hot on-screen chemistry with Jasmine. Easier said than done, especially when a disastrous first impression smothers the embers of whatever sexual heat they might have had. 

Leading Ladies do not rebound with their new costars. 

With their careers on the line, Jasmine and Ashton agree to rehearse in private. But rehearsal leads to kissing, and kissing leads to a behind-the-scenes romance worthy of a soap opera. While their on-screen performance improves, the media spotlight on Jasmine soon threatens to destroy her new image and expose Ashton’s most closely guarded secret.

This was in my TBR list for a very long time and finally I started reading this–and I must say, even though I am not a fan of romance novels, this book actually, I enjoyed it.

Jasmine after a nasty break up with her boyfriend McIntyre and how the media almost ruined her moves to New York to act in a Latin telenovela. She meets Ashton Rodriguez, a uprising Latin actor with a secret that he is busy to maintain. While working on the set, the two become friends and realize that they were in love with each other. So the story starts from there..

I do like the chemistry between Jasmine and Ashton and the sex scenes between Jasmine and Ashton wasn’t so cringe worthy although I skipped those parts. There were some funny parts in the book and I like the fact that Jasmine was half Filipino half Latina as well. I do like the multi cultural aspect of the book as well. The writing was really great and overall, I actually enjoyed reading this book. The television scenes in which Jasmine acts as Carmen and Ashton acts as Viktor were bonus points to me in my opinion. And honestly, I felt like I was watching some soap opera but interesting television series while I was reading through this book.

So if you like a romantic novel with a Latina setting, this book is one for you–worth four stars!