The Enchanted Hacienda

I found a review on Goodreads that sums up J.C. Cervantes' book The Enchanted Hacienda quite nicely: "like encanto but boring." The main character, Harlow, is from a magical family, only she alone doesn't have magic. She tried to move to New York and be an editor. But when she's let go, she finds her way back to her family's hacienda to try to figure out her next steps. There she encounters Ben, an intriguing guy who is trying to stay away from his journalist ex-girlfriend by hiding at Harlow's table in the local cafe. Circumstance after circumstance keeps throwing them together and they get caught up in a whirlwind romance until Harlow starts to question whether what they have is real or not.

The Enchanted Hacienda has a really good the beginning.  I was swept away with the Hacienda and learning how all the magic worked, as well as the bond between all of the women in Harlow's family. But then the story became a straight up romance, and it really started to lose me. Harlow and Ben had this amazing connection. He said he wasn't romantic, then did a lot of really romantic gestures. They kept almost having sex, but something made them stop. I found it really boring and almost stopped reading (but I was already so far into the book that I decided to just finish it and be done).

But then, something happened that made the whole romance part make sense, plot-wise. I was still bored reading it, but at least I appreciated it from that point on.

I also found there were some weird inconsistencies. For one thing, for someone who was unemployed, Harlow seemed to be blowing a lot of money (new clothes after her wardrobe had already caught up with her, flying to New York, etc). For another thing, I found it really difficult to tell how much time was passing through most of the book. Did Harlow go to Quebec City immediately after the events with the bouquet, or did some time pass? What time of year was any of this even happening? The book also didn't really explain why certain things happened (William's dream of Harlow, as one big example). And it glossed over other things (what happened with the journalist, even sometimes an event would happen, a chapter ends on a cliffhanger, then the next chapter is a day or two later and has glossed over what happened during the cliffhanger).

While in the end, I didn't mind the story of The Enchanted Hacienda, I definitely wasn't in love with it. I don't think I'll be reading any further in the Estrada family saga.