Belinda Acosta’s Damas, Dramas, and Ana Ruiz could be labeled a chica lit book for it’s focus on the life of one woman as a mother, wife, and worker. Pero given all the Spanglish (more than I ever use) and the centering of the story as a Latino one, let’s call it chica lit.

The story centers around Ana Ruiz, named in the title, a mujer who is a high level administrator at a university struggling to balance her life raising her two teenage children, Diego and Carmen, after separating from her husband, Esteban. Diego is dealing with the separation better than his sister Carmen, escaping into his music and into his role as “man of the house” in his father’s absence. Carmen, on the other hand, a “daddy’s girl”, isn’t as accepting, and taker out her anger at her mother. Ana, desperate to make peace with her only daughter decides that a quinceñera, or “sweet fifteen” if you will, will help to bring them all closer.

Claro, it wouldn’t have drama in the title if it all worked out. I won’t spoil the book for you, but there is mental illness, love children, miscarriages, and a sexy artist manchild.

I will admit I had trouble with this book at first. The Spanglish seemed like too much, even for me. After a while though I got used to the narrator as comadre “voice” and could get into the novelaesque drama filled plot. However, once finished I felt like the characters were a little too one dimensional. They were good or bad and most of those lines were drawn between men and women. The adult men in the book are all either immature selfish artists or stererotypical providers with side secret lives or absent emotionally. And trust me, I know as a (mostly) hetero cis Latina that sometimes it can feel like that’s how all our men are. I know the book is about the women, especially Ana as she relates to her daughter Carmen. Ana and the tone of the book invite the reader to nod their head in sympathy, pero I just wasn’t there.

Maybe you will be though.

Check out Damas, Dramas and Ana Ruiz By Belinda Acosta.