"Here to Stay," by Adriana Herrera
Contemporary Romance
1 Smooch ~ Cozy
2 Smooches ~ Warm
3 Smooches ~ Simmering
4 Smooches ~ Red-Hot
5 Smooches ~ Scalding
Book Blurb
“Hot, heartwarming, and hilarious...This is a knockout.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
Award-winning, highly-acclaimed author Adriana Herrera delivers the sexy, modern enemies-to-lovers romance you’ve been waiting for.
Starting over is more about who you’re with than where you live…
Julia del Mar Ortiz is not having the best year.
She moved to Dallas with her boyfriend, who ended up ditching her and running back to New York after only a few weeks. Left with a massive—by NYC standards, anyway—apartment and a car lease in the scorching Texas heat, Julia is struggling…except that’s not completely true. Running the charitable foundation of one of the most iconic high fashion department stores in the world is serious #lifegoals.
It’s more than enough to make her want to stick it out down South.
The only monkey wrench in Julia’s plans is the blue-eyed, smart-mouthed consultant the store hired to take them public. Fellow New Yorker Rocco Quinn’s first order of business? Putting Julia’s job on the chopping block.
When Julia is tasked with making sure Rocco sees how valuable the programs she runs are, she’s caught between a rock and a very hard set of abs. Because Rocco Quinn is almost impossible to hate—and even harder to resist.
My Review
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of this book. I am providing a voluntary review. All thoughts and views are my own.
I was excited to get my hands on Here to Stay by Adriana Herrera because I’ve seen her Dreamers series all over the place and haven’t had a chance to read it yet. (Reviewing for a book blog can make finding time purely for pleasure reads a bit of a challenge! 😅)
Ms. Herrera has a very fluid and easy writing style. You can really feel her culture and personality come out in her words, which made reading Julia’s POV so delightful. I adored her saucy, spunky, self-assured, independent self so much. And then there’s Rocco. Man oh man, he was such an amazingly sweet, shy cinnamon roll. Except when things got sexy… His personality did a complete 180. Dang near gave me whiplash. I do kind of wish there was a bit of build up to that dirty-mouthed, sex-monster side of him so it didn’t feel so out of the blue and ill-fitting with the rest of his personality, but hey… Who am I to judge? Maybe the guy is just a gentleman sweetie pie on the streets and one heck of a filthy freak in the sheets. 😅😏🔥 But seriously… I adored Rocco. He was everything and a bag of chips. And I adored how much he loved his sister and niece. It was beyond precious.
The story itself was a bit heavy—for my taste—on the side-plot revolving around their work and the conflict it portrayed. I think it was a great plot device and obviously very well researched, but because so much time and energy was spent developing that side of things, we didn’t really get to see as much of Julia and Rocco’s relationship. So much of the romance was off page. In fact, after the first time they have sex, the book flashes forward almost a month and we’re told how much their feelings and relationship had developed. Prior to that, the first 70% of the book was them keeping a very safe distance and talking themselves into reasons they shouldn’t be together. I found it didn’t feel like a developing romance until well past the 50% mark, which was a bit of a bummer considering how much I adored the characters and really did want them to start falling for one another—beyond just the eye-banging, of course. 😉
Overall, I’d say this is less of a classic romance and more of a women’s fiction with a romance side plot. Only with dual POV. That being said, I didn’t even realize that fact until after I hit about 73% in and the whole establishment of their romantic relationship zipped by off page. I started thinking about how the first 2/3 of the book had played out and realized how very different this book was from your stereotypical romance. Sure, there was lust between Julia and Rocco, but no real feelings development beyond a burgeoning friendship until much later in the book than I’m used to in contemporary romance.
While it might sound like I’m being negative, I’m not! I’m seriously impressed with Ms. Herrera’s ability to weave a unique and intriguing story with engaging and lovable characters. I’m not someone who usually enjoys chick lit, so the fact I didn’t even realize that’s what I was reading until I was dang near finished with the book proves how effective she is at storytelling. Plus, it definitely had the HEA, so it’s safe to say the last quarter or so fit nicely into the romance genre. A black moment, a resolution, then all the happies.
SNeak Peek of Here To Stay!
Title: Here to Stay
Author: Adriana Herrera
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Imprint: Carina Press
On-Sale: August 25, 2020
Format: Ebook (Trade Paperback & Audiobook formats also available!)
Julia
I stepped into the elevator and shoved my phone into the pocket of my dress, took a moment to send a prayer to the employee discount that let me buy bomb clothes on a nonprofit worker budget, and did some mental math of what could be going on.
Was the program really in trouble? Could we actually get shut down?
Nope, I would not go there. I would not think about what it would be like to get on a plane back to New York dumped and unemployed. Not happening.
A distraction. That’s what I needed. Just as the door to the elevator was about to close, someone got in. The fact that I was eye level with the base of his throat was a good clue as to who it was, but when he opened his mouth and the now familiar knee-weakening baritone echoed off the walls of the elevator, I got my confirmation.
“Morning, Ms. Ortiz.” That voice could be used for interrogation tactics. Every muscle in my body loosened at the same time whenever I heard it.
I squeaked out a “Morning” and took my time lifting my head all the way up to look at the last person in the world I wanted overhearing my conversation with my mother.
Him.
Rocco Fucking Quinn, otherwise known as the “Team Leader” for the consulting firm looking to bag my job. The guy with the New York City-est name on the planet. I hadn’t exactly gotten personal with Mr. Quinn, but I picked up on that accent the first time we met.
“What’s good?” I really tried to sound polite, but my Queens jumped out in situations like this. I did not gulp, because I could not let this fucker see me sweat. I managed not to cut my eyes at him, but it was a close call.
I took him in, ramrod straight, every hair in its place, not a wrinkle in sight, and decided he could not be the proprietor of the laugh-choke from before. The man seemed to be completely lacking a sense of humor. I knew he must have teeth but I’d never seen them.
Yeah, definitely not him. That fact rallied my spirits a little bit as I stood close enough to pick up on how he smelled. Like the ocean and something woodsy. That was not helpful information.
Without saying another word, I ran my eyes over him. It struck me that he was not wearing something bespoke like pretty much everyone here. Don’t get me wrong, he still looked good enough to eat, but he was clearly on a budget. And at a place where everyone looked like they were heading to a New York Fashion Week photo shoot, it was sort of jarring. Still, the suit fit him well. And there was no question, this guy could wear the fuck out of a suit. I held back a whimper when I envisioned him in a Brioni or a Zegna. They’d have to put out a heat advisory for the building if that ever happened.
“I thought I could detect a familiar accent when I was coming down the hall.” His perfectly blue eyes twinkled at what I was certain was an expression of utter mortification on my face. He sounded pleasant enough, but he was also alluding to the fact that I was yapping on my phone. This wasn’t the first time he tried to be cute. Rocco Quinn seemed to like fucking with me. And it was only a matter of time before he stepped on my last nerve and I reamed him out.
Thankfully, just as I was scrambling to respond to his comment, the elevator got to my floor. I was planning to just leave him hanging and run off, but he was hot on my heels.
Dammit.
“Sounds like your mom misses you.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. Why did he have to act all fake nice?
I nodded without looking at him. “She does. Listen, Mr. Quinn—”
“You can call me Rocco.”
Nope, that was not happening. I was not letting this sexy bastard talk me into getting all chummy with him. I was already on thin ice as it was. He could keep his pheromones and his slick-as-fuck expressions to his damn self. I came to a dead stop a few feet away from the conference room door where my boss—and whatever shitty news she was about to give me—was waiting.
When I turned around, Rocco was looking down at me with an expectant smile. God he was handsome, that jet-black hair so dark it almost had a tinge of blue and those eyes, piercing. And I guess he had teeth after all, and of course they were perfect. Asshole. I shook my head hard when my traitorous brain started wondering what Pantone color his eyes would be.
Get your head in the game, Julia del Mar.
I straightened my back, determined to fight off the debilitating effects of those gleaming teeth and perfectly pink lips. I had to remember this niceness was probably his way of getting us to let our guard down. He was here to find ways to cut jobs. I was not about to mouth off and get myself fired, but I needed to get some things clear.
“Look.” I was proud of myself for not rolling my neck or pointing at his face. “I know you’re trying to be nice, but you make me nervous.” I pulled on the hem of my blue polka-dot dress and smoothed my yellow cardigan, avoiding eye contact at all costs.
“Why do I make you nervous?”
Uh, maybe because you’re here to close down as much of the foundation as you can.
I refrained from actually saying that because I had not been raised by a Puerto Rican man and Dominican woman just so I could act like I had no home training with the guy who could get me fired. But it was a close call.
“I’m sorry for saying that. You don’t make me nervous.”
Lies.
Rocco Quinn didn’t just make me nervous. He made me want to run my hands all over that big-ass body and moon over his almost but not quite curly hair and blue eyes, in spite of the fact that I knew he was out here gunning for my entire program. And yet, I still wanted to kiss the hell out of him while I climbed him like a sequoia.
Copyright © 2020 by Adriana Herrera
Adriana Herrera
She/Her
Adriana was born and raised in the Caribbean, but for the last fifteen years has let her job (and her spouse) take her all over the world. She loves writing stories about people who look and sound like her people, getting unapologetic happy endings.
When she’s not dreaming up love stories, planning logistically complex vacations with her family or hunting for discount Broadway tickets, she’s a trauma therapist in New York City, working with survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
Her Dreamers series has received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist and has been featured in The TODAY Show on NBC, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Library Journal and The Washington Post. Her debut, American Dreamer, was selected as one of Booklist’s ‘Best Romance Debuts of 2019’, and one of the ‘Top 10 Romances of 2019’ by Entertainment Weekly. Her third novel, American Love Story, was one of the winners in the first annual Ripped Bodice Award for Excellence in Romantic Fiction. Adriana is an outspoken advocate for diversity in romance and has written for Remezcla and Bustle about Own Voices in the genre. She’s one of the co-creators of the Queer Romance PoC Collective. Represented by Taylor Haggerty at Root Literary.
Connect with Adriana below!
So, what are you waiting for? Here to Stay is available for your reading pleasure on or after its release date, August 25th, 2020! Get your copy today!! 📖
