Review: Hot Tamara

Meet Tamara Contreras. She is 26 and still living at home, but desperate to break out on her own. Especially after her boyfriend Ruben proposes at a family wedding, and Tamara turns him down in front of everyone. Now her mother is angry with her, and her family thinks something is wrong with her.

With her mother getting more and more controlling, Tamara decides to put her dreams to break free into reality. She gets a part-time job at a gallery in Los Angeles and a tiny apartment. Much to her mother’s strong protest and threats that she will no longer speak to her, Tamara moves out. And that’s not all – there is the handsome Will, with whom she went to kindergarten, and have always been attracted to. Now that she is on her own and forced to be in contact with him (because of her job), their mutual attraction begins burning out of control.

But Tamara’s mother is no longer speaking to her, and she will also surely disapprove of Will. Is Tamara going to be able to make amends with her mother? Is her burgeoning relationship with Will going to go anywhere, or is it just a fling?

Hot Tamara was a good, solid and well-written novel. The characters were all interesting, and it was fascinating to read about the Latino family culture and life. Tamara was also a good heroine because she was intelligent and very realistic. The story’s overall tone was romantic and charming.

However, sometimes the characters utter Spanish phrases, and the they weren’t followed with an English explanation. Being somewhat bilingual in Spanish, I pretty much knew what they meant, but other readers who don’t know any Spanish won’t. Some (if not all) of the phrases are explained in the back of the book Also, Tamara’s mother was really hard to like, because she was just plain rude and horrible to her daughter with no understandable reason.

Overall, I definitely recommend Hot Tamara for a light, romantic and engaging read. A plus to this book is the Q & A at the end of the novel, where the author explains the ins and outs of the story plot. Don’t miss this one!

4 Stars
reviewed by Rian

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