Love Reads!

By Alisa Valdez-Rodriguez

July 2008

St. Martin’s Press

ISBN-10: 031234967X

ISBN-13: 978-0312349677

Those fabulous sucias you have come to know and love are back in Dirty Girls on Top! We begin the story five years after the fact; each of the five friends has gone in their own separate directions, but have decided to come together in New Mexico to catch up.

This year Rebecca has decided to host the now yearly get together at a posh resort. She has a new house nearby and thought some quality time in a warmer climate would be just the ticket for a stress free girls weekend. For a number of years now Rebecca has been married to the perfect man and is mulling over the possibility of selling her super-successful Latina magazine so that she can be focused on starting a family.

Usnavy’s, whose name I still cannot pronounce correctly to save my life, has now been married to Juan for five years and they share a very tomboy daughter. She still, however, can’t seem to feel fulfilled with her life. Juan who is a great Mr. Mom is getting on her nerves; it is almost as if he is too perfect and too emotionally even. She’s bored and has started looking elsewhere for affection, specifically at the moment from a former golf pro named Marcus.

Elizabeth is still dating her partner Sel and they together adopted a beautiful baby boy. Sel though is disgustingly self involved and cannot stand the baby or the lack of attention she feels she is getting from Liz. Liz still is head over heels in love with Lauren and thanks to some strong alcohol finally has a chance to publicly profess it to her. Will it be reciprocated or will she feel worse then before?

Lauren is still pretty immature, the boyfriend she is with is a huge loser in my opinion and she could do so much better. She still writes for the Boston Gazette and has started to get quite a following, but her self esteem is not much better then it was before and before she can be happy with the world around her she has to be happy with herself.

Sara now along with Elizabeth has her own cooking show which is running quite successfully and her sons are thriving now that their abusive father resides in Argentina, hiding out so that he doesn’t get arrested for killing their former maid which happened in the last book. Robert is slowly trying to worm his way back into Sara’s life though which given his track record could get very dangerous. Can she finally stand up to him and get him out of her life for good?

Cuitical is now a rock star and just finished her second album. She is still her fun loving and free spirited self able to get her message out to a much larger group of people. She still hasn’t been very lucky in love, which is only made harder by the fact that she is famous now. Every guy that shows interest in her she has to wonder, do they like her genuinely or because she is famous. She still has her best friend and manager Frank to lean on though; he from the beginning has been there for her and continues to be the sole person who understands her completely.

Sorry for the long review, but these five larger then life personalities cannot be cut short as it would be a huge mistake. Alisa has again woven a funny, thought provoking and heart tugging story. The characters are very real and their thoughts and emotions are totally relatable and if your Latin descent or not does not matter. The story is more about women banding together and realizing their inner strength, then where they come from.

5 out of 5

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