Adriana Herrera review
Adriana Herrera’s books page puts a rum heiress in 1889 Paris and a food-truck owner in present-day New York on different shelves. I’d pick a setting before choosing a book. “A Caribbean Heiress in Paris” opens Las Léonas, and “American Dreamer” starts the contemporary Dreamer series.
Stay in Paris with a different lead
Luz goes to the 1889 Exposition Universelle to find buyers for her family’s rum in “A Caribbean Heiress in Paris.” “An Island Princess Starts a Scandal” returns to the fair with Manuela, an artist who’s showing her paintings, and Cora, a duchess with a proposition. “A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke” is book three and follows Aurora, a doctor running a women’s clinic. The title pages give each book its number, so I can tell where I am even when the lead changes.
With Cecilia Tan’s Struck by Lightning series, the three books stay with Karina and James. I’d pick Tan to follow one relationship from book to book, and Las Léonas to see the same circle from a different woman’s perspective each time.
Leave the period setting behind
For a contemporary story, I’d go straight to the Dreamer shelf and open “American Dreamer.” It follows Nesto as he brings his Afro-Caribbean food truck to upstate New York and meets Jude. The author’s page labels it book one and links to a reading option. I’d start with that listing if what drew me to Herrera was the work her characters build around their lives.
Anabel’s take
I’d read Las Léonas in order. Luz’s search for a market gives me a way into the world of the fair before I follow Manuela into its arts scene. If I wanted something set closer to home and the present, I’d save “American Dreamer” for another night.