Guapo pobrecito her grandmother calls him. The “poor handsome man.”
Professor Jeremiah Post, the poor handsome man, is in fact standing in the way of Alejandra “Alex” Torres turning Loretta’s, her grandmother’s bar, into a viable business. The hot brainiac who sleeps in one of the upstairs tenant rooms already has all of her Mexican American family’s admiration; she won’t let him have the bar and building she needs to resurrect her career, too.
Alex blowing into town has rocked Jeremiah to his mild-mannered core, but the large, boisterous Torres clan is everything he never had. He doesn’t believe Alex has the best interest of her family, their community, or the bar’s legacy in mind. To protect all three, he’ll stand up to the tough and tattooed bartender with whom he now shares a bedroom wall—and resist the insta-lust they both feel.
But when an old enemy threatens Loretta’s and the surrounding neighborhood, Alex and Jeremiah must combine forces. It will take her might and his mind to save the home they both desperately need.
Review:
So good!
After Hours on Milagro Street is a steamy, rivals-to-lovers contemporary romance with a delicious paranormal thread running through the plot. After (literally!) starting with a bang, it settles down into a slow burn romance as well, at least for a while 😉
At first glance, Alex and Jeremiah seem to be opposites, but as the story unfolds we–and they–learn that the tattooed, boisterous bartender and the buttoned up professor have more in common than not. They both yearn for family and a home, and they both believe Freedom and Milagro Street can help them achieve their goals, though in wildly different ways. As they come together to try and save Alex’s grandmother’s bar from a shady developer, their animosity soon turns to…something else.
I’ll admit, Alex was a bit hard to sympathize with at times–she often comes across as very abrasive, and it’s not clear for quite some time what emotional pain is hiding behind her ‘tude. Once we do find out, her apparent animosity makes sense, and by the end I was 100% in her (and Jeremiah’s) corner.
Jeremiah is the most cinnamon-y of all cinnamon roll heroes, and OMG when he and Alex’s cousin Joe started talking about local (and family) history? I can’t even. (fans self)
The author’s note at the end seems to imply that this could be the first in a series, and am I here for it! I was absolutely not ready to say goodbye to Alex and Jeremiah when I got to the last page…
Rating: 4 stars / A-
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
About the author:
Angelina M. Lopez writes sexy, contemporary stories about strong women and the confident men lucky to fall in love with them. She has been writing professionally her whole life: first as a journalist for an acclaimed city newspaper, then as a freelance magazine writer and a content marketer for small businesses, and now as a romance author. She lives with her family outside of Washington, D.C. You can find more about her at her website, AngelinaMLopez.com .