Here to Stay by Adriana Herrera

Starting over is more about who you’re with than where you live…

Julia del Mar Ortiz is not having the best year.
She moved to Dallas with her boyfriend, who ended up ditching her and running back to New York after only a few weeks. Left with a massive—by NYC standards, anyway—apartment and a car lease in the scorching Texas heat, Julia is struggling…except that’s not completely true. Running the charitable foundation of one of the most iconic high fashion department stores in the world is serious #lifegoals.
It’s more than enough to make her want to stick it out down South.
The only monkey wrench in Julia’s plans is the blue-eyed, smart-mouthed consultant the store hired to take them public. Fellow New Yorker Rocco Quinn’s first order of business? Putting Julia’s job on the chopping block.
When Julia is tasked with making sure Rocco sees how valuable the programs she runs are, she’s caught between a rock and a very hard set of abs. Because Rocco Quinn is almost impossible to hate—and even harder to resist.

In the end, I exhaled and just let this moment of feeling understood be what it was: good.

Once in a great while, I read a book that makes me question my past 5-star reviews because it somehow sits above those other titles. Here to Stay is one of those books. From the steamy AF office romance and amazing friendships near and far, to characters passionate around diversity and social change, this book is a rare gem.

I’ve always loved all the versions of you, and I’m so glad the one you’re becoming […] fits you.

My favorite aspect of Here to Stay is the platonic love – that alone makes this worthy of the rating because it’s SO good. Surrounding our badass heroine Julia, there is a whole network of amazing support: a long-distance best friend, new friends who prove it doesn’t matter how long you know someone but how well, a boss who has her back, a family that nurtures and challenges Julia and her values. It is an absolute lovefest for the families we choose (or as my mom would say, “framilies”). These are people who see all the good and all the bad, and say, “I got you.” It’s a shining example of the growth and beauty life has to offer when we have people radiating care in our direction.

As she came closer, all I could think was she knows about me and she’s coming closer instead of pulling back.

I have been a pretty good streak lately of finding an MC who I relate to deeply, and this book was no exception. It’s not Julia – although I really wish it were because that lady has her priorities together – but our hero Rocco that I couldn’t stop nodding along with (rippled bod and piercing blue eyes excluded). His difficult past and messy fam seep into everything he does, making it necessary for Rocco to sacrifice his happiness to do the right thing by the people he is responsible for. It was a powerful thing to watch that struggle and drama unfold while knowing an HEA was waiting for him in the end.

“Where you came from matters, but where you are going matters more.”

This book made me wish I had some boy drama to chat about with my girls, miss watching baseball in person, and filled me with the utmost joy when I needed a heaping spoonful.

XOXO