A Proposal They Can’t Refuse by Natalie Caña

e-Audio, 08:29:13
Narrated by: Valentina Ortiz
Release Date: June 7, 2022
Published by: Harlequin Audio
Read from: June 12-14, 2022
Vega Family Love Stories, #1
Source: Library’s Libby
TW: Cancer, Grandparent Death, Alcohol Usage
For Readers Interested In: Contemporary Romance, POC on cover, POC MC, Realistic Fiction, Adult

    Natalie Caña turns up the heat, humor and heart in this debut rom-com about a Puerto Rican chef and an Irish American whiskey distiller forced into a fake engagement by their scheming octogenarian grandfathers.
     Kamilah Vega is desperate to convince her family to update their Puerto Rican restaurant and enter it into the Fall Foodie Tour. With the gentrification of their Chicago neighborhood, it’s the only way to save the place. The fly in her mofongo–her blackmailing abuelo says if she wants to change anything in his restaurant, she’ll have to marry the one man she can’t stand: his best friend’s grandson.
     Liam Kane spent a decade working to turn his family’s distillery into a contender. Now he and his grandfather are on the verge of winning a national competition. Then Granda hits him with a one-two punch: he has cancer and he has his heart set on seeing Liam married before it’s too late. And Granda knows just the girl…Kamilah Vega.
     If they refuse, their grandfathers will sell the building that houses both their businesses. With their futures on the line, Kamilah and Liam plan to outfox the devious duo, faking an engagement until they both get what they want. But soon, they find themselves tangled up in more than either of them bargained for.

BETWEEN THE COVERS!
*This book is part of the new adult contemporary romance genre! It is more mature than YA. I have featured it in Between the Covers as a way to feature the few Adult and New Adult titles I am beginning to read!”

*MY THOUGHTS*

I have this thing where if I see that there’s a contemp romance and the main characters are people of color, I’m going to buy it. Even more so if its a bookish romance or a foodie romance. And this one just so happened to be a foodie romance where the FMC is a POC. So yeahhhhhh I was hella excited to get to this. And for the most part, I really enjoyed it.

As I said, it doesn’t take much for me to be interested in a book. And this one had all the things I like: it was foodie, it had an illustrated cover, and the FMC was a POC, Puerto Rican to be exact. So it had all the makings of being a 5 star read for me. But alas, I thought it was lacking something. Starting with the romance. Now Liam was hella hot and he owned a whiskey distillery. (If you don’t know, I’m a whiskey drinker, so this was hella interesting to me!) I wanted to hear some more about the process of it, but I know that I was probably the only one lol Anyways, I thought they were so cute together because they were so different. Kamilah was so fiery and passionate and Liam was passionate but quiet. They complimented each other in the best ways. And the way they went from enemies to friends to lovers was so cute to watch. But then once it was time to get to the spice……. It just fell flat. Yes I know every book doesn’t have to be spicy, but when you have a build up like that and the mood is set and you’ve already used certain words, why just make it a fade to black scene like that? It kinda threw me off how it went from open door to closed door so quickly. (I was even more frustrated because Liam seemed like a dirty talker…………………)

The plot was another place where I thought it was weird. I thought the whole thing that their grandparents did was kinda weird. And the fact that they did it was even weirder. I know it’s a fictional thing, but a marriage proposal? They couldn’t just start out with dating? I know they clarify why in the book, but even still. I thought it was a bit much. Especially since they haven’t even cared for each other in so long. And especially since it was obvious that they both needed to work on themselves first before they got together. This is definitely a book where I loved the information that came from the epilogue.

I also admired the family ties in this book. Kamilah’s family is a lot like mine. They were all ride for each other and they all make sure that everyone is being taken care of. They acted all tagged on each other and got on each other’s nerves, but in the end they looked after each other. And after all the crap went down, they didn’t like it, but they still stood behind them. And that’s the REAL meaning of family. I may not like you all the time, but I love you always.

The reason I still rated this so high was because I connected to her writing hardcore for some reason. I was sucked in to the food descriptions, the descriptions of the different whiskeys, and the reason why Liam was the way he was…. When it got to the point of the restaurant being sold, I was crying REAL TEARS. I don’t know, it was just too much for me. And I’m still not even sure why. I also cried when the Epilogue was abuelo talking to his friend and the sunlight beam? LISTEN, again, I was crying real tears. I hadn’t cried the entire book, but the ending was when it all decided to come out. It was just a lot.

Now seeing that there’s more books in this series, I am hella excited to get my hands on them. I hate that I read this so early because I’ll have to wait a year for the second book, but it is what it is. I will still be waiting on them. I can’t wait to see who ends up with who!

Overall, I give this

Real Rating 2.5 but rounded up on Goodreads