American Sweethearts by Adriana Herrera

Narrated by Sean Crisden

American Sweethearts is the fourth and final book in Adriana Herrera’s Dreamers series which is about the life and loves of four friends who grew up in the same neighbourhood in New York City, all who are or are the children of (mostly) Latinx/Afro-Caribbean immigrants.

Juan Pablo is the lucky last. He and Priscilla Guttierez (Nesto’s cousin) have been circling around one another for years. Teenage sweethearts, they thought they’d be together forever but they split up when Juan Pablo decided not to go into the NYPD, a plan they had previously shared. It created a gulf between them which, despite continuing chemistry and love, has proven impossible to bridge.

Now in their mid-thirties, each has grown up and JuanPa in particular, has had therapy to get over some of his issues and get better about not pushing Priscilla’s buttons just because he can. He wants for them to really try and be together but he won’t try to force it.

The story begins with Camillo and Tom’s wedding which was a lovely call back to American Fairytale (which I think is my favourite of the series – I do love a fairytale!), held in the Dominican Republic. Thrown together by the festivities, Pris starts to realise that JuanPa has matured and begins to edge toward interest in more than the occasional, unplanned hook up.

The story is very unusual because the couple has been having sex on and off for years. Sex has never been the problem between them. In fact, love has never been the issue either. So the conflict is more about resolving their differences – in that way at least, it is not dissimilar to a marriage-in-trouble story even though JuanPa and Pris aren’t married.

It took me until well into the story to get a handle on exactly what the problem between Pris and JuanPa was. Even then, I needed a little more showing because I struggled to really see it. Apparently, Juan Pablo had been critical of Priscilla’s job and said a lot of shitty things but because I never really saw them, there were easy to discount. I didn’t really ever understand why it was such an issue for JuanPa to change his mind about joining the police force.

I’m very much a hero-centric listener so I know I have a bias but, as much as I liked Priscilla, I didn’t understand why she hesitated so hard about getting back together with JuanPa. I guess if had though, I may not have liked JuanPa so much and that could have been a problem!

Priscilla has been in the NYPD for around 15 years and has dealt with misogyny and racism her whole career. It was only lightly touched on in the story though. I was a little surprised that her side hustle of her sex toy business and her sex-positive/sex education blog and podcast hadn’t caused her a significant amount of trouble at work. I suppose she kept it very quiet from her coworkers and/or was very lucky?

The chemistry between Juan Pablo and Pris was off the charts and I liked how kinky they got together (smokin’ hot pegging FTW!). Priscilla’s sex toy business came in handy is all I’m saying.

I liked that JuanPa had been going to therapy to work on his issues (even though I didn’t see them on the page). I was glad he had taken responsibility for fixing them and wasn’t magically sorted by true love alone.

JuanPa is bisexual. It’s not a cause of any contention. It’s just part of who he is and I liked that representation.

Sean Crisden has narrated the entire series and has distinct voices for most of the cast. American Sweethearts is however the only book in Dreamers which features a M/F pairing. The books are first person, dual POV, so this time, Mr. Crisden was narrating a female character’s perspective and thoughts. Sean Crisden’s female character voices aren’t bad but they’re also not the most amazing I’ve heard either. For dialogue from a secondary or tertiary character, they work well but for a main character? It wasn’t quite as convincing. Still, given Mr. Crisden had narrated all of the other books alone, it made sense for him to read this one too. Perhaps if the series had a dual narration structure, a female narrator may have taken Priscilla’s part in American Sweethearts but that’s not how it was.

Overall, the narration nevertheless worked for me. My consistent criticism has been that sometimes Mr. Crisden talks too fast, leaving insufficient pauses between sentences or phrases which sometimes can lessen the emotional impact of the words. But otherwise, his accents, rhythm and emotion are very good. I like how familiar Mr. Crisden obviously is with the Afro-Caribbean and Latinx accents and cultures represented. He’s obviously very comfortable with the setting and the characters.

One of my favourite things about the Dreamers series has been the found and biological family displayed and American Sweethearts leaned into that even more, as the connections between JuanPa and Pris straddled both kinds. Seeing all four friends (five if one includes Pris and why not?) find their HEAs has been such a treat.

Kaetrin

Buy American Sweethearts by Adrianan Herrera on Amazon