My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I am a huge fan of Herrera’s Dreamers series, so I was super excited when I saw she had a new book coming out and couldn’t wait to jump in.
Perhaps I’m spoiled by the Dreamers series or maybe I had higher expectations than this story could deliver, but I this book fell flat for me. I liked Rocco and Julia just fine, and I enjoyed their diverse group of friends. One thing Herrera is excellent at is creating fleshed out side characters without taking away from the MCs, and she knocked it out of the ballpark again with Here to Stay.
Individually, there was nothing bad or off about each character. However, I missed the connection between Julia and Rocco. I didn’t feel that these two belonged together.
While I enjoyed the diversity and social justice themes, the romance wasn’t there for me. Had this book been pitched as something other than romance, I would probably give it 4 stars, because everything else about the story was wonderful.