Synopses & Reviews
For fans of GILMORE GIRLS and TO ALL THE BOYS I'VE LOVED BEFORE, this effervescent love story from debut author Nina Moreno will sweep you away.
Rosa Santos is cursed by the sea-at least, that's what they say. Dating her is bad news, especially if you're a boy with a boat.
But Rosa feels more caught than cursed. Caught between cultures and choices. Between her abuela, a beloved healer and pillar of their community, and her mother, an artist who crashes in and out of her life like a hurricane. Between Port Coral, the quirky South Florida town they call home, and Cuba, the island her abuela refuses to talk about.
As her college decision looms, Rosa collides-literally-with Alex Aquino, the mysterious boy with tattoos of the ocean whose family owns the marina. With her heart, her family, and her future on the line, can Rosa break a curse and find her place beyond the horizon?
Review
"A love song to family, diaspora, and girls on the verge of discovering who they want to be." Zoraida Cordova, award-winning author of Labyrinth Lost
Review
"Don't Date Rosa Santos is magical in every sense of the word. Moreno deftly sails her readers through huge swells of emotion, highlighting the confusion and longing of both love and diaspora. If Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote YA, it would feel like this." Lily Anderson, author of Undead Girl Gang and Not Now, Not Ever
Review
"A lyrical and enchanting story about love, loss, the sea, and sassy grandmothers. Nina Moreno writes beautifully, pulling you into the story so wholly that you can almost feel the sea breeze as you read." Adi Alsaid, author of Let's Get Lost
About the Author
Nina Moreno is a YA writer whose prose is somewhere between Southern fiction and a telenovela. She graduated from the University of Florida and writes about Latinas chasing their dreams, falling in love, and navigating life in the hyphen. She lives by a swamp outside of Orlando where she enjoys listening to carefully curated playlists, hunting through thrift stores, drinking too much Cuban coffee, and walking into the sea every chance she gets. Don't Date Rosa Santos is her first novel.