Now eight months later, Rafie’s ready for one final win. What he didn’t plan for is his family moving to San Antonio before his senior year, forcing him to leave behind his group while dealing with the loss of the most important person in his life—his beloved abuelo. Another hitch in his plan: The Selena Quintanilla-Perez Academy’s Mariachi Todos Colores already has a lead vocalist, Rey Chavez—the boy Rafie made out with—who now stands between him winning and being the great Mariachi Rafie's abuelo always believed him to be. Despite their newfound rivalry for center stage, Rafie can’t squash his feelings for Rey. Now he must decide between the people he’s known his entire life or the one just starting to get to know the real him. (Pub Date: Apr 09, 2024)
I believe this was my first time reading Jonny Garza Villa, and he has his own style.
Rafael is the champion of the Mariachi Extravaganza with his school, and he has promise his grandfather in his death bed he'd also win his senior year. However, his parents need to move to another city and this another school. There he meets again Rey, the single boy who had managed to divert his thoughts from his grandfather's death during the last Extravaganza, but life continues to challenge him despite of that. He doesn't get to be the lead singer in the new school's group, instead, he loses his position and his mind to Rey. What he can't afford is to lose in the next Extravaganza and not fulfill his promise.
2.5 rounded up to 3, because not even someone as unbearable as Rafael could obfuscate the beauty of this story.
I'm glad I waited until I was into this type of read to start this book, because it was already hard to get through it. The first thing that got to me was how much Spanish there was. I know some Spanish, I've had to read whole books when getting my Master's, but street Spanish (or maybe Mexican slang?) was just too hard for me to follow. There are some conversations that half of it is in Spanish, but at least they're not the ones that are heavy on the slang. I can't speak for people who don't know any, but my guess is that you can still understand most of what is going on, and it definitely doesn't get in the way of the story like my other problems with this book did.
Yeah, the biggest problem was how hard it is to relate to Rafael. It wasn't instant hate. He's full of himself, but we know that's only so his fall will be from higher, so in the beginning I was only curious to see how that would go. However, he very inconstant. One time he's okay with how things are going, another he's very sad about how he's had to relinquish his position, then he's full of himself again. His progression was confusing to me. It didn't help that the big conflict in the end is caused by something that should have happened much earlier, and I couldn't buy the reason it didn't. Even worse, I couldn't buy Rafael's reaction.
However, there are points very worth it. I loved the family thing, all the culture transpiring from it. It was like being brought to a different world. All of the other characters were also great, especially Rey. There were countless moments I feel I learned something from, and even if I hadn't, it felt worth it living them. The depth this book has got is no joke, I loved it.
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
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