West Side Love Story by Priscilla Oliver
What's It About?
One of my favorite things about a romance is the yearning. The delicious sparking connection, between two people, that comes with a deep knowing that they are exactly right for each other. This layered over an awareness that something larger than themselves stands in their way; the strength of their attraction at odds with the very existence of the world as they know it. It’s the heart of every great romantic journey, crossing that distance, reconciling it. And Priscilla Oliveras’ West Side Love Story (Montlake) does yearning as well as it’s possible to.One of my favorite things about a romance is the yearning. The delicious sparking connection, between two people, that comes with a deep knowing that they are exactly right for each other. This layered over an awareness that something larger than themselves stands in their way; the strength of their attraction at odds with the very existence of the world as they know it. It’s the heart of every great romantic journey, crossing that distance, reconciling it. And Priscilla Oliveras’ West Side Love Story (Montlake) does yearning as well as it’s possible to.
Much like Romeo and Juliet, who served as inspiration for their characters, Angelo Montero and Mariana Capuleta belong to feuding families hungry for each other’s metaphorical blood. The Capuleta/Montero divide is a thing of legends with the two family patriarchs having nursed their massively bruised egos for decades. The battlefield upon which they seek to defeat each other is a mariachi competition between their family’s bands.
Stuck in the middle of all this hate and anger are the two most endearing romantic leads I’ve read in a long time. The eldest children of their respective families who feel a strong sense of familial responsibility, Mariana and Angelo have put their own needs second to those they love for most of their lives. But when they meet accidentally one magical New Year’s Eve and share an impulsive and completely out-of-character kiss, without knowing who the other is, something inside them falls in place.
Then fate, and the mariachi competition their families take very seriously, throws them back together. As they fight their attraction, they are assigned the role of playing peacemaker by the contest’s organizers. It’s a joyful journey to watch them navigate everyone else’s hate and anger as they find themselves helpless in the face of their own love and ability to understand each other. The more they give into their feelings, the more they discover themselves and what they really want.
Set in a part of San Antonio that’s losing itself to gentrification, this beautiful romance is filled with heartwarming sibling relationships, simmering sexual tension, passion for music, cultural and familial pride, and protagonists who treat each other with the kind of respect and tenderness that made my heart melt. The cherry on top? It has all the romantic yearning and simmering chemistry of Shakespeare’s original but with a hard-won and happy ending that left me with a big, deeply satisfied smile on my face. Much like all of Oliveras’ stories, I highly recommend this one.
