¡Caramba! A Tale Told in Turns of a Card
By: Nina Maria Martínez
Nina Maria Martínez’s meandering novel is a delight. It follows its two twenty-something heroines and an assortment of wacky secondary characters through a sleepy California town, Lava Landing, located at the base of an inactive volcano. Natalie and Consuelo provide necessary relief for fans of women’s fiction who are tired of chick lit. The girls sport Payless shoes instead of Manolo Blahniks, wear K-mart not Versace and there’s not a glamorous media job to be found. The pace of the novel, like that of its setting is slow. This is no page-turner, but a book to spend time with. The hardcover version of the book is a work of art. It’s packed with bonus features such as colored pages, Lava Landing themed Lotería cards and artifacts such as menus, paper dolls and letters.
Reviewer: Pamela Mann
