Title: Her Perfect Affair Series: Matched to Perfection #2
Author: Priscilla Oliveras
Published: March 27, 2018
Genre(s): Romance: Contemporary
Page Count: 321
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:Rosa Fernandez doesn't act on impulse—she's the responsible one, planning her career with precision, finally landing a job as the librarian at conservative Queen of Peace Academy, confining her strongest emotions to her secret poetry journal. But she's been harboring a secret crush on dreamy Jeremy Taylor, and after one dance with him at her sister's wedding, Rosa longs to let loose for the first time. She deserves some fun, after all. So what if she doesn't have a shot with Jeremy, not with his wealthy pedigree and high profile lifestyle. But one dance leads to one kiss, and soon Rosa is head-over-heels . . .
The adopted son of a prominent Chicago lawyer, Jeremy has a lot to live up to—especially with his birth father in prison—the perfect example of a bad example. With a big promotion and a move to Japan in the works, Jeremy is worlds away from settling down. But sweet, steady Rosa is a temptation he doesn't want to deny himself, at least for now. Yet when their simple fling turns complicated, everything they've both worked for is threatened—except the red-hot intimacy they've found together. Can forever really grow from just-for-now?
After being massively impressed with Priscila Oliveras’ debut romance, I fully expected to have a similarly successful experience with Her Perfect Affair. Unfortunately, that wasn’t meant to be, and instead I spent most of the book trapped with a moody, hormonal heroine, a bland whitebread hero, and a style of drama that I can only describe as “much ado about nothing.” Oh, and Catholic Guilt. Never forget the Catholic Guilt.
Her Perfect Affair is a fairly textbook example of the “surprise pregnancy after a one-night stand” trope. Rosa and Jeremy hook up at a wedding, don’t speak to each other until the test comes back positive, and then Jeremy proposes instantly while Rosa balks for ~reasons~ that may or may not make much sense. It’s not usually my favorite kind of story—mood swings, strange cravings, and morning sickness rarely send romantic signals, in my opinion. (Sometimes an author can make it work, though!) This was especially the case with this book, since Rosa’s pregnancy does not progress smoothly at all, and her doctor prescribes bedrest. Ick.
In general, Rosa Fernandez already has a lot of issues re: guilt and insecurity. She holds herself responsible for her mother’s death in a car accident (the reasoning for this is super flimsy), and overall, she thinks of herself as ugly, a failure, etc. Toss in a pregnancy out of wedlock that she feels will surely disappoint her entire Catholic Latino community, and there is a lot of self-flagellation going on in a single book. Being completely honest, I understand that the “shame” of getting pregnant without being married is a reality for many, many people…but yikes, I don’t want to read about it in a romance novel. Or any novel. And I’m also not down for the “shy and bookish” heroine who’s convinced no man could possibly love her (even though she’s described like some kind of sexy Latina hot librarian fantasy). No. Stop. The shy, unsexy librarian trope needs to die.
So…yeah. Not to be that reader who hates on the female protagonist, but Rosa was really not working for me. And, all thing being equal, I found Jeremy to be an absolute snore-fest as well! He has the weird angst about not be his dad’s “real” son because he’s adopted and his bio dad is a criminal or whatever. Considering his parents obviously loved him, I felt that point of tension was just as contrived as Rosa self-flagellating for causing her mother’s car accident. It felt like both protagonists were just reaching up their butts to find reasons to hate themselves, you know?
Anyway.
So there’s the pregnancy, and Jeremy wants to get married but Rosa doesn’t. That it, that’s the plot. Obviously, Jeremy eventually wins Rosa over. Rosa accepts his proposal by reading a super cheesy poem in public (so cheesy! why god, why). And all is right with the world. Except it’s not, because what a weird book? Most of the conflict in Her Perfect Affair felt contrived and, again, like Oliveras was making a big deal about very small issues.
Bonus note: Jeremy’s vapid blond ex-girlfriend is the “villain” of a couple scenes, and I really could have done without that. Because of course we must contrast the shy, Latina librarian heroine with the tall, skinny, blonde bitch who’s out to steal her man. Also Oliveras wrote that the ex-girlfriend’s “sidekick” was (and I quote): “a few too many candy bars shy of being slender” and just NO. This person’s weight was not relevant, except as evidence for how awful a person she is. Way to code fatness as synonymous with evil. WHY do authors do this? Yeah, gross. I was not impressed by the author’s treatment of either the ex-girlfriend or the ex-girlfriends “sidekick.”
In sum: this book did not really work for me. Rather than doing something unique with the tropes and archetypes she picked out, Oliveras just wrote a samey-same story. I felt that in comparison to the first book in this series, the characters’ Puerto Rican culture wasn’t explored nearly as much (except in the context of Catholic Guilt), so that was a let-down as well. All in all, I finished Her Perfect Affair with an indifferent shrug and a bit of an eye-roll.
