Hot Tamara

March 1, 2005
At 26, Tamara is sick of doing the right thing. She expects to shock her family when she breaks up with her boyfriend, Ruben, and announces that she's moving to Los Angeles to work at an art gallery, but she doesn't expect that her mother will cut her off completely. Though Tamara distances herself from the close-knit Hispanic community in which she grew up, she ends up running into a high-school crush who's now an L.A. firefighter. Between their unmistakable chemistry, her fire-breathing boss, and the tension with her mother, there's plenty of heat in Tamara's life. Castillo goes beyond typical chick lit by examining the cultural tug-of-war between first-generation Americans and their immigrant parents. And while her strong Latina characters are bound to draw comparisons with those of " The Dirty Girls Social Club " (2003), even though they're not as jaded, every woman will relate to Tamara's quest to build a life of her own. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)