Reviewed by Jasmine Sov, age 16<\/p>\n
To eighteen-year-old Pen Prado, the center of her life is her father\u2019s restaurant, Nacho\u2019s Tacos. However when she confesses to her parents that she’s been skipping school and that what she really wants is to start her own bakery, she is fired from the restaurant. She is kicked out of her house and forced to find her way in the world by herself while simultaneously managing her anxiety. Xander Amaro, a new hire at Nacho\u2019s, is an undocumented immigrant searching for his father that left long ago. Soon enough, he finds himself seamlessly integrated into the dysfunctional family of employees at his new workplace. When Pen and Xander meet at Nacho\u2019s during Pen\u2019s last shift and Xander\u2019s first, sparks don\u2019t fly right away. Nevertheless, with every encounter they grow even closer, and the possibility of romance grows and grows.<\/span><\/p>\n I loved the food descriptions in <\/span>Somewhere between Bitter and Sweet<\/span><\/i>. The author, Laekan Zea Kemp, truly succeeded in emphasizing the importance of food to one\u2019s culture. The bustling atmosphere and attention to detail with Nacho\u2019s staff and workflow also contrasts well to a few other restaurant settings in the book, such as a fast food joint where the staff simply reheat frozen food to serve to customers. I appreciated how multiple perspectives were elaborated on later in the book regarding Pen\u2019s family situation, and several of the side characters prove to have depth beyond the role of \u201cother worker at Nacho\u2019s\u201d. Unfortunately, Pen and Xander\u2019s romance felt too rushed to be believable. <\/span>Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet<\/span><\/i> explores the ideas of a cultural community, complicated family dynamics, and the role of food in human relationships.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 4 stars.<\/p>\n Find this book in our catalog: N\/A<\/p>\n Catalog Number: N\/A<\/p>\n 343 pages<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Reviewed by Jasmine Sov, age 16 Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet by Laekan Zea Kemp To eighteen-year-old Pen Prado, the center of her life is her father\u2019s restaurant, Nacho\u2019s Tacos. However when she confesses to her parents that she’s been skipping school and that what she really wants is to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":7020,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[120,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-teen-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/18\/files\/sites\/18\/2022\/06\/Somewherebetweenbitterandsweet.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ZwbD-1O3","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6979,"url":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/2022\/not-my-problem-teen-book-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":6947,"position":0},"title":"Not My Problem — Teen Book Review","author":"Teen Blogger","date":"June 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Reviewed by Amber Elias, age 15 Not My Problem by Ciara Smyth Dispite how rough Aideen\u2019s home life was, along with the father who was married to another woman with a completely different family, and her mother who let that wretched man use her over and over while struggling with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Book Reviews","link":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/category\/teen-reviews\/book-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/18\/files\/sites\/18\/2022\/06\/Notmyproblem.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/18\/files\/sites\/18\/2022\/06\/Notmyproblem.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/18\/files\/sites\/18\/2022\/06\/Notmyproblem.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/18\/files\/sites\/18\/2022\/06\/Notmyproblem.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4041,"url":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/2017\/the-nerdy-and-the-dirty-teen-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":6947,"position":1},"title":"The Nerdy and the Dirty — Teen Review","author":"Teen Blogger","date":"September 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"review by Kira Toal, age 15 The Nerdy and the Dirty\u00a0by\u00a0B.T. 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