ARC REVIEW: Kiss Me, Catalina – by Priscilla Oliveras

Title: Kiss Me, Catalina
Author: Priscilla Oliveras
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
First published: November 1st 2022
Publisher: Montlake
Finished reading: October 15th 2022
Pages: 284

“Satisfaction swelled in Catalina Capuleta’s chest like churro dough plopped into a pan of hot oil.”

*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Montlake in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

REVIEW

WARNING: please get ready to board the unpopular opinion train again!!

Well… Shoot. I sure didn’t expect to be in this situation back when I added Kiss Me, Catalina to my shelves, because the premise sounded like music to my ears. The focus on mariachi culture and music, the concert tour and the promise of two strong and passionate characters and sparks flying seemed like a perfect match, and I fully expected to have a great time with this book. Especially since I enjoy reading stories with latinx influences in the first place… But in the end sadly this story ended up being a total dud for me. I’ll try to explain briefly why.

First of all, I do have to say that I still love the premise of this story. The focus on Mexican and mariachi culture is a true pleasure to have, and it’s probably the only reason I kept reading. There were many references to mariachi music and culture as well as Mexican culture in general, and I liked the focus on the importance of family as well as the descriptions of Mexican food. There is also quite a lot of Spanish incorporated into the plot, giving the characters a more authentic feel. As a Spanish philologist, I usually love the incorporation of Spanish in my stories, but I do have to say that there was something about the use here that didn’t work as well for me. The use itself wasn’t incorrect or anything, but the switches felt too random at times and I also think readers without any knowledge of the Spanish language will struggle to understand everything just relying on the context.

One of my main issues was probably with the main characters though. I have to confess that I didn’t like Catalina AT ALL. She came over as extremely arrogant and having to spend time seeing the world through her eyes became very frustrating very soon. The whole feminist rant all the time about the mariachi world being too macho got old fast as well… However right she might be about things. I also couldn’t care less about the male lead Patricio, and there was just something about their connection and interactions that felt off. I just never bought their romance, our at least I wasn’t invested to see where things would lead.

I also struggled considerably with the writing itself. There was just something about the writing style and tone that irked me so much that I came close to DNFing more than once. Not only the ‘forced’ sassy tone, but also the seemingly random Spanish words thrown in as well as the awkward similes and metaphors used (see the quote for an example). And then I’m not even talking about the extremely cringeworthy descriptions of the attraction between Catalina and Patricio and what they would like to do to each other… Which mostly made me feel like I wanted to vomit instead of rooting them on. I confess that I started skimreading way before the halfway mark, and I probably should have just thrown in the towel instead.

I know that I’m in the minority when it comes to this one, because most people seem to love Kiss Me, Catalina. It’s probably simply not the right fit for me, but I decided to throw in my two cents just in case I’m not the only one struggling with this story. Definitely don’t give up on my account if you think this story could be for you though! I blame my fickle reading mood.