Review by Dany Caballero
Simon and Schuster, 2024
320 pages, Hardcover, $26.99 CAD 9781665915366
Young Adult
Contemporary, Romance
He flags my attention and pulls the device away. “Dominic’s in Los Feliz on a boba tea run, You been to either Boba Freeze or Feliz Tea?”
“Aren’t you Echo Park’s resident foodie?” His food obsession goes miles further than designer donuts. Last year I found out Emilio has a bucket-list goal of consuming the official food from every state. There’s even a map with pictures.
“Foodie or not,” he says, “I can’t stand boba.”
“Your loss. And I like Boba Freeze,” I tell him.
An actual demon crosses Emilio’s face, and I know exactly what’s coming when he raises the phone and tells his buddy, “Do the Feliz Tea place, bro.’
Hilarity.
Clary Delgado has grown up in Echo Park admiring her Cuban history and treasuring the legacy of her community. But times are changing, and now fewer signs remain of the original Cuban immigrants that settled in that corner of LA than before. La Rosa Blanca, Clary’s family business, is one of them.
When one of her favourite Cuban murals is in danger of demolition, Clary has to try and find a way to get her community’s history officially recognized and save the mural. Along the way, Clary meets her long lost sister, Jada, who appears suddenly and deals with feelings she begins to develop for Emilio, her life-long rival.
Throughout the whole book I was fascinated by Clary and Emilio’s relationship. Emilio, another Cuban kid whose family owns the bike shop across the street from La Rosa Blanca, has always been in Clary’s life. And despite Clary’s insistence that she hates him, it is evident they know each other inside and out, from what food the other likes and dislikes, inside jokes, and clever and funny banter that kept me wanting more.
I didn’t know about Echo Park until I read this book and it was beautiful to read about characters that are so deeply in love with it. The images of Echo Park are amazingly vivid, from the mural of Varadero Beach to the lake with swan boats. Clary’s love and nostalgia for the neighborhood she grew up in is tangible and you can see it through how hard she fights to keep her community’s history alive.
Another thing I loved about the book was the attention to detail, from all the different flowers Clary uses to build bouquets, to every Spanish word seamlessly blended into the dialogue. Even Emilio’s niche knowledge about the official foods from all 50 of the United States is fun and interesting to read.
With Love, Echo Park is an amazing rivals-to-lovers rom-com with a lighthearted atmosphere and beautiful themes of identity and belonging masterfully woven in.
Dany Caballero is an aspiring writer who loves fantasy and has a soft spot for mythology. She is currently studying Creative Writing at UBC and spends her days trying to turn her daydreams into stories.
YOUNG ADULTING 