Audiobook Review: A Lot Like Adios (Primas of Power #2)

Author: Alexis Daria

Narrator: Seraphine Valentine

Audiobook Length: 9 hours 45 minutes

Hi Mich. It’s Gabe.

After burning out in her corporate marketing career, Michelle Amato has built a thriving freelance business as a graphic designer. So what if her love life is nonexistent? She’s perfectly fine being the black sheep of her marriage-obsessed Puerto Rican-Italian family. Besides, the only guy who ever made her want happily-ever-after disappeared thirteen years ago.

It’s been a long time.

Gabriel Aguilar left the Bronx at eighteen to escape his parents’ demanding expectations, but it also meant saying goodbye to Michelle, his best friend and longtime crush. Now, he’s the successful co-owner of LA’s hottest celebrity gym, with an investor who insists on opening a New York City location. It’s the last place Gabe wants to go, but when Michelle is unexpectedly brought on board to spearhead the new marketing campaign, everything Gabe’s been running from catches up with him.

I’ve missed you.

Michelle is torn between holding Gabe at arm’s length or picking up right where they left off—in her bed. As they work on the campaign, old feelings resurface, and their reunion takes a sexy turn. Facing mounting pressure from their families—who think they’re dating—and growing uncertainty about their futures, can they resolve their past mistakes, or is it only a matter of time before Gabe says adiós again?

A Lot Like Adios is the second novel in the Primas of Power series which feature connecting characters but can be read as standalone stories. Michelle, first introduced in You Had Me at Hola as Jasmine’s cousin, last spoke to her childhood best friend and neighbor Gabe thirteen years ago after he relocated to LA. When Gabe returns to New York to work on the expansion of his gym, he finds that his partner has hired Michelle as the graphic designer for the project. The two are now forced to interact again. As Gabe needs a place to stay, he ends up staying with Michelle, who happens to be living at home while her place is being renovated. This forces Gabe to face his family again after a previous falling out with them.

As Gabe and Michelle each are career-oriented, they must figure out their connection with each other. On top of their current chemistry, there are the issues from their past to deal with after Gabe moved to LA. As they are working together, the two must navigate this type of relationship. Gabe is going through a lot with his family after their falling out, so there is a lot of focus on this part of his story.  The emotional journeys the characters go through in this story was well-done. I enjoyed how they opened to those around them over time, which added some nice realism to the story as it was not instantaneous. While both characters are in their early 30s and seem to have their lives together, at first, it is soon discovered that there is still more growth to be done. Again, this added some realism to the story where some other novels make this time where everything is already perfect is every aspect, but love, when in reality there can be ups and downs in every area.

Like the first novel in the series that used the tv scene filming to run parallels to the main story, this novel uses the sci-fi fanfiction story that Gabe and Michelle wrote together when they were younger. While the story itself was not my favorite compared to the tv show in the first novel, I enjoyed how their fanfiction showcased their past relationship with each other. The fanfiction and the inner thoughts of each character helped to create a foundation for why the reader should care in the first place if the couple is worth rooting for before their current relationship begins. When Gabe and Michelle interact in this novel, I greatly enjoyed the chemistry between them. I do with there was more exploration into their relationship as each has difficulty opening up to the other. There is some of this throughout the novel, but I just wished there was a little more.

Overall, this was an enjoyable story and I liked Gabe and Michelle as characters. Each has a great career on paper, but neither think it is perfect for them. They each have family dynamics that they deal with throughout the story, and I enjoyed how different they were as they fit the characters. Both are confident in themselves in many ways yet insecure in others, which made them relatable to readers.  The relationship between the two has a lot of ups and downs throughout and I enjoyed their journey. This novel was a great addition to the series, and I greatly enjoyed the evolution of both characters.