Early Book Review: Here to Stay by Adriana Herrera

Here to Stay by Adriana Herrera is currently scheduled for release on August 25 2020. Julia del Mar Ortiz is not having the best year. She moved to Dallas with her boyfriend, who ended up ditching her and running back to New York after only a few weeks. Left with a massive, by NYC standards, anyway, apartment and a car lease in the scorching Texas heat, Julia is struggling, except that’s not completely true. Running the charitable foundation of one of the most iconic high fashion department stores in the world is serious #lifegoals. It’s more than enough to make her want to stick it out down South. The only monkey wrench in Julia’s plans is the blue-eyed, smart-mouthed consultant the store hired to take them public. Fellow New Yorker Rocco Quinn’s first order of business? Putting Julia’s job on the chopping block. 
When Julia is tasked with making sure Rocco sees how valuable the programs she runs are, she’s caught between a rock and a very hard set of abs. Because Rocco Quinn is almost impossible to hate—and even harder to resist.

Here to Stay has it all. Julia is newly single and Rocco is not staying in Dallas long term. They are also in conflicting positions at work, and members of a new group of friends built of new Dallas residents from NYC. The chemistry is high, and the tension is too. I loved getting to see them build a friendship with each other, and build up a found family of friends. Some of their interactions were funny, but most were sweet. I really enjoyed how well I got to know each of them, and their circle. I also like that even when they messed things up it was not because of being silly or making a bad decision, but out of protecting each other and themselves at the same time. The work conflicts, the family dynamics, and the efforts of both to do the right thing for the greater good really made me like them each even more. The only thing that ever took me out of the story was my own hopelessness with Spanish. Thankfully with context and my limited understanding of romance languages I was able to translate the occasional conversational usage and dive right back in. My lacking, not an issue with the book, since it was exactly what these characters would say in the situation, and there were not stymied by my limitations. I really enjoyed how open and honest they were in the sex scenes too, something I have come to expect from the author. They communicate and make consent and  talking about what they like and want important and key to the moment. 

Here to Stay is another great romance from Herrera. Fans will need to read it, but I think most contemporary romance fans should give it a read.