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The Win Over
The Mendoza twins are back! From the author of Stef Soto, Taco Queen comes this follow-up to THE DO-OVER. The Mendoza family is growing!After a rocky beginning getting to know each other while quarantining together in a pandemic, Raquel, Lucinda, and Juliette are finally getting along as stepsisters--and actually liking it! Now they get to make it official. Their parents are getting married… in Mexico! But, when they arrive they find bringing together the two families won't be as easy as they had hoped. Sylvia's favorite aunt does not approve of the match.Lucinda, Raquel, and Juliette know just what to do. If they can show Tia Enriqueta that their parents are meant to be together, they'll have to support the wedding! But in all their scheming, doubt starts to creep in. The sisters start wonder if they can really trust each other at all. Suddenly they have to ask themselves...are they better off apart after all?
- GenresRealistic Fiction
256 pages, Hardcover
Published February 7, 2023
3 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 2, 2023
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
After coping with the pandemic by staying at their father's ranch, Lucinda and Kel have realized that their mother and father aren't going to get back together. Instead, their father, Marcos, is getting married to his girlfriend, Syliva. They've made friends with Sylvia's daughter, Juliette, during the time that they were all living on the same ranch. For the wedding, everyone is traveling to Mexico to be with Sylvia's family. Not everyone is thrilled with the wedding, especially Sylvia's Tía Enriqueta, the matriarch who runs the Viramontes family farm outside Casa Grandes. Enriqueta doesn't feel that Marcos and his girls are really "family" to Sylvia yet, and that things are progressing too quickly. Even though everyone has traveled to her because Sylvia didn't want her to miss the wedding, the aunt says she won't attend. This is disquieting, and everyone reacts in different ways. The girls all try to think of things that they can do to prove that they are really family, such as helping to prune the apple orchard which has been neglected, but everything they do further angers the aunt. The farm has been failing for a while, and Sylvia is concerned that it will fold. One of the earlier successes of the farm was selling family recipes for a special cookie, obleas. Kel finds a diary that Enriqueta had written when she was young, and finds the recipe as well as a long kept secret about it. Just when Enriqueta is about to share this with Sylvia, she finds that the recipe has gone missing, and Kel doesn't know what she did with it. The girls try to figure out the ingredients, working together with cousins who live on the farm. Will they be able to succeed, and win over the aunt in the process?
Strengths: It's good that each girl has her own interests, and a lot of the drama revolves around their devotion to their individual pursuits. Raquel even wants to miss the wedding because she doesn't want to be in Mexico, far away from the school newspaper. I'm always a fan of getting to know far flung relatives, and of traveling to new places, and this has a little bit of the flavor of Cartaya's Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish. There really should be more books about blended families, and I would really love to see more about children who have never had fathers in the picture, since that reflects the lives of so many of my students. This had a lot of humorous moments as well, and is generally upbeat in tone.
Weaknesses: There is a lot of great stuff about blended families working together, but since the first book is firmly set during the pandemic, readers in ten years might need some background information! The style of illustration on the cover makes this seem younger than it is, which might make it harder to get into the hands of middle schoolers who otherwise would really enjoy the traveling and family antics. On the other hand, the cover and plot is somewhat similar to Fajardo's Miss Quinces, so maybe readers of that graphic novel can be enticed to read this series even though it's not in that format.
What I really think: I enjoyed Stef Soto, Taco Queen, thought the fair setting of Flor and Miranda Steal the Show was fun, and ADORED The Fresh New Face of Griselda. Sadly, The Do-Over doesn't circulate as well as I'd hoped (few pandemic titles do), so I may pass on purchasing this worthy follow up.
After coping with the pandemic by staying at their father's ranch, Lucinda and Kel have realized that their mother and father aren't going to get back together. Instead, their father, Marcos, is getting married to his girlfriend, Syliva. They've made friends with Sylvia's daughter, Juliette, during the time that they were all living on the same ranch. For the wedding, everyone is traveling to Mexico to be with Sylvia's family. Not everyone is thrilled with the wedding, especially Sylvia's Tía Enriqueta, the matriarch who runs the Viramontes family farm outside Casa Grandes. Enriqueta doesn't feel that Marcos and his girls are really "family" to Sylvia yet, and that things are progressing too quickly. Even though everyone has traveled to her because Sylvia didn't want her to miss the wedding, the aunt says she won't attend. This is disquieting, and everyone reacts in different ways. The girls all try to think of things that they can do to prove that they are really family, such as helping to prune the apple orchard which has been neglected, but everything they do further angers the aunt. The farm has been failing for a while, and Sylvia is concerned that it will fold. One of the earlier successes of the farm was selling family recipes for a special cookie, obleas. Kel finds a diary that Enriqueta had written when she was young, and finds the recipe as well as a long kept secret about it. Just when Enriqueta is about to share this with Sylvia, she finds that the recipe has gone missing, and Kel doesn't know what she did with it. The girls try to figure out the ingredients, working together with cousins who live on the farm. Will they be able to succeed, and win over the aunt in the process?
Strengths: It's good that each girl has her own interests, and a lot of the drama revolves around their devotion to their individual pursuits. Raquel even wants to miss the wedding because she doesn't want to be in Mexico, far away from the school newspaper. I'm always a fan of getting to know far flung relatives, and of traveling to new places, and this has a little bit of the flavor of Cartaya's Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish. There really should be more books about blended families, and I would really love to see more about children who have never had fathers in the picture, since that reflects the lives of so many of my students. This had a lot of humorous moments as well, and is generally upbeat in tone.
Weaknesses: There is a lot of great stuff about blended families working together, but since the first book is firmly set during the pandemic, readers in ten years might need some background information! The style of illustration on the cover makes this seem younger than it is, which might make it harder to get into the hands of middle schoolers who otherwise would really enjoy the traveling and family antics. On the other hand, the cover and plot is somewhat similar to Fajardo's Miss Quinces, so maybe readers of that graphic novel can be enticed to read this series even though it's not in that format.
What I really think: I enjoyed Stef Soto, Taco Queen, thought the fair setting of Flor and Miranda Steal the Show was fun, and ADORED The Fresh New Face of Griselda. Sadly, The Do-Over doesn't circulate as well as I'd hoped (few pandemic titles do), so I may pass on purchasing this worthy follow up.
August 22, 2023
It's
interesting
interesting
May 21, 2024
I loved this book! It was an amazing read, and I absolutely adore the cover art. The characters are realistic! Very fun to see them work together!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews