Classic opposites attract in a very unexpected setting.
Plot: Alex has a huge chip on her shoulder. Growing up as a third (fourth?) generation Mexican American in Kansas to a huge family meant always fighting to be seen for herself, and as an American. She fueled her rage into a wildly successful bartending career with huge social media presence. But when her beloved grandmother has a bad fall, she’s thrust back into small town Kansas life, even further complicated by a rich white dude from across town who’s living above her grandmother’s bar and trying to buy it from her. And he’s not an asshole?! Impossible. Shenanigans ensue.
I love me a bad bitch, but Alex really tested my limits. Alex is the closest I’ve seen to an alphahole heroine (Scarlett Pekham says she writes alphaholes but she really just writes assertive women). She is relentlessly abrasive, fighting against anyone and everyone who isn’t 100% in agreement with her on anything. In fact, the idea that other viewpoints exist seems foreign to her till well after the middle of the book. Unlike an alphahole however, her aggression and manipulation are not Cured By Penis nor are they waved away as cute because she’s the protagonist so what she’s doing must be okay. Alex learns and evolves and it’s hard and requires accepting both her own imperfections and those of the people around her.
Dr. Jeremiah Post, our rich white dude, is the complete opposite of Alex. His waspy upbringing left him emotionally frozen because he has been told his whole life he is too needy and grasping. But he is not a spineless rug for Alex to stop over. He understands that power dynamics create instant inequalities between them and he tries really hard to be understanding and patient, but when Alex pushes unreasonably, Jeremiah holds her accountable.
The history of this fake Kansas town is very much rooted in historical fact, with hundreds of thousands of Mexican immigrants coming to help build the transnational trains once America banned Chinese immigrants (and yes Canadians – we had one of those laws too). While I’ve always thought of folks of Mexican descent as being just as American as anyone else (especially in the south where they predate every “real” American by a good long while), it hadn’t occurred to me that of course, there would be these kind of old Latinx neighborhoods even in places we think of as pretty thoroughly covered by folks of European descent. As the story evolves we learn more about the lives of those early rail workers, and those of their families, and how through grit and determination and resilience, created thriving communities all their own.
There’s also a conspiracy and a treasure hunt and an Encanto level of family trauma being healed through long-overdue conversations. What’s not to like?