The food truck had only just pulled up in Ithaca, NY, but we knew we were here for the long haul. ‘This may be jumping the gun,’ Kelsey messaged, ‘but I am prepared to go all in on the entire Dreamers series. I just drove for two hours listening and was grinning in delight the entire time!’ What can I say, in American Dreamer, author Adriana Herrera brings it in every possible way: two adorable, contrasting main characters, Nesto and Jude, fully immersed in their family and friends and jobs, a small town in the summertime, and a food truck.
Okay, I got very hung up on this truck, to the point of casually scanning any public space I walked through just in case it had pulled up and was serving the Afro-Caribbean flavours inspired by Nesto’s Dominican roots and the island cultures of his friends. Seriously, the descriptions of this food were detailed and intense.
So, yeah, it was a warm welcome. Honestly, I’d expected nothing less. While the point of this round of Book Club is to read big authors we’ve tragically overlooked to date, I may have read all of Herrera’s sapphic holiday novellas, including the one that features two Dominican bakers in a contest. Yum. But American Dreamers was the series that started her Romance career, (in 2019, a crazily short time ago in comparison to her diverse output.)
And what a story! On the one hand, Herrera hands us all the small town feels we want, quickly populating the place with a city hall, cute bars, and a library (with sexy librarian Jude inside, of course!) There is no immediate conflict beyond the very real fear that is opening yourself up to a new person. Kelsey sums up the vibe between Nesto and Jude thus: hmmmm yeah he’s into me… is he into me?… but I’m super busy… but maybe?… but holy shit he’s so hot… maybe I will run into him at the farmers’ market!” I agree with my esteemed Book Club colleague about how delightfully human sized the book’s drama is. We don’t have a dastardly villain or a galactic catastrophe to contend with. Instead, we have a Racist Karen fucking with Nesto’s business and Jude coping with religious trauma, aka real shit that people have to deal with.
Like so many road trips, our boundless, Slurpee-fuelled energy eventually wore down. But not before we listen to Nesto and Jude’s happy-tears HEA and the second in the series, American Fairytale, which takes us back to NYC. As we were listening to the audio version, we had a great guide too. (Shout to narrator Sean Crisden; the sexiness of his voice is verified by his stint doing IPB.) There’s much to be said for having an intermediary between you and the author when the book’s presenting a culture different from your own. However immersed in a story I might be, I’m still filtering everything through my white lady voice.
I checked the two final full-length books out of my local library over the 4th of July weekend. Herrera’s celebration of American immigrants felt like the right kind of book party. She’s always championing the potential of the United States while accounting for all the bullshit that makes it a struggle to achieve the American dream. Book 3 takes us back to Ithaca for another round of small-town politics and everyday racism. It’s a lot, I messaged Kelsey, but in a good way. Clearly my first love remains small town + eats. But the American Dreamers books are all wonderful in their way and I’ll bet other readers salivate over the big city champagne fundraisers just like I’m a goner for accidental meet-ups at the farmer’s market.
And I defy any Romance novel to have a more heart-warming conclusion. I don’t want to spoiler Nesto and Jude’s HEA but it features a food truck AND a mobile library. For kids! IM NOT CRYING YOU ARE CRYING, messaged Kelsey. We are so charmed that we are plotting to go on a real road trip this summer and visit Ithaca. Kelsey has even discovered a blue bungalow that someone (Jude?) is advertising on Airbnb. It’s like those library posters: books take you everywhere.
Up next, we are going on a metaphorical road trip to Ménage County Kansas with Sierra Simone on the SatNav. The AirCon will probably break before journey’s end.
