Nina Moreno

For fans of GILMORE GIRLS and TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE, this effervescent love story from debut author Nina Moreno will sweep you away.
Rosa Santos is cursed by the sea-at least, that’s what they say. Dating her is bad news, especially if you’re a boy with a boat. But Rosa feels more caught than cursed. Caught between cultures and choices. Between her abuela, a beloved healer and pillar of their community, and her mother, an artist who crashes in and out of her life like a hurricane. Between Port Coral, the quirky South Florida town they call home, and Cuba, the island her abuela refuses to talk about.

As her college decision looms, Rosa collides-literally-with Alex Aquino, the mysterious boy with tattoos of the ocean whose family owns the marina. With her heart, her family, and her future on the line, can Rosa break a curse and find her place beyond the horizon?

“Don’t wait to read this novel about a Cuban girl living in a seaside Florida town (hello tropical Stars Hollow) with a bunch of nosy neighbors, one cranky abuela and three generations of a curse. It’s incredibly sweet (literally, the boy bakes!) but doesn’t shy away from examining the impact of the Cuban diaspora on first and second generation Cubans and immigrant children in general. Come for the romance, stay for the magical realism & pastelitos!”
– Cristina R., our children’s book buyer

About the Author

Nina Moreno is a YA writer whose stories are somewhere between Southern fiction and a telenovela. She graduated from the University of Florida and writes about Latinas chasing their dreams, falling in love, and navigating life in the hyphen. She lives by a swamp outside of Orlando where she enjoys listening to carefully curated playlists, hunting through thrift stores, drinking too much Cuban coffee, and walking into the sea every chance she gets. DON’T DATE ROSA SANTOS is her first novel.

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