American Dreamer

By: Adriana Herrera

Narrated by: Sean Crisden

“A fresh and vital new voice in romance.”—Entertainment Weekly

From award-winning author Adriana Herrera comes a novel hailed as one of Entertainment Weekly’s 10 Best Romance Novels of 2019 and a TODAYShow Hot Summer Read.

No one ever said big dreams come easy

For Nesto Vasquez, moving his Afro-Caribbean food truck from New York City to the wilds of Upstate New York is a huge gamble. If it works? He’ll be a big fish in a little pond. If it doesn’t? He’ll have to give up the hustle and return to the day job he hates. He’s got six months to make it happen—the last thing he needs is a distraction.

Jude Fuller is proud of the life he’s built on the banks of Cayuga Lake. He has a job he loves and good friends. It’s safe. It’s quiet. And it’s damn lonely. Until he tries Ithaca’s most-talked-about new lunch spot and works up the courage to flirt with the handsome owner. Soon he can’t get enough—of Nesto’s food or of Nesto. For the first time in his life, Jude can finally taste the kind of happiness that’s always been just out of reach.

An opportunity too good to pass up could mean a way to stay together and an incredible future for them both...if Nesto can remember happiness isn’t always measured by business success. And if Jude can overcome his past and trust his man will never let him down.


Dreamers
Book 1: American Dreamer
Book 2: American Fairytale
Book 3: American Love Story
Book 4: American Sweethearts
Book 5: American Christmas

Dating in Dallas
Book 1: Here to Stay
Book 2: On the Hustle

Sambrano Studios
Book 1: One Week to Claim It All
Book 2: Just for the Holidays

Las Leonas
Book 1: A Caribbean Heiress in Paris

Wonderful Story

Wonderful multicultural story. I am so thankful to Ms. Herrera. These are the stories reflected in my life, family and friends.

loved it 🥰 Love the narrator.

this is an excellent introduction to the series, I love the way this author captured essence of her character and emotions. highly recommended.

Very Nice Guy Gets His HEA

This story has lovely characters and I was happy to see Nesto and Jude interacting with their friends, family, and the community and to see them get their HEA. Good narration, too. Also, it made me hungry for foods I have no idea where to get where I live.

Yowza!

I can't tell you how much I loved this story. Okay, maybe I'll try to use my words...

I lived in the Dominican Republic when I was a kid and the idea of a young Dominican man trying to make his dream come true by owning his own food truck - spoke to me. Plus the love story is both sweet and hot.

I want to add that Sean Crisden does an amazing job as a narrator. I noticed in some other reviews for other books that people didn't like his narration, but I think he is terrific and highly recommend his work as a narrator and of course, highly recommend the very awesome Adriana Herrera's stories

Brings the food and books and love

Charming tale of family and community helping (and in some cases hindering) Ernesto and Jude to spread Caribbean food and books in upstate NY. Sadly, the “I’d like to speak to your manager” nemesis and “I’ll pray for your soul” frenemies are all too realistic. (May we rout out all such bad behavior in real life even if if leaves future authors scrambling for villains.) Two guys are trying to balance work and love for each other and all their cultural histories. They get it right then goof up and try again and it is mostly* sweet.

(*see nemesis, grr.)

American Dreamer, aptly titled, was recommended to me by an internet stranger who clearly has good taste in books. I enjoyed Crisden’s narration. The spanish flowed easily with translations worked into later text for monolingual listeners. Recommend both book and audiobook.
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Spoilers
Spoilers in this paragraph:
Ernesto means well but falls back on his long established hustle when stressed. When Jude kicks him to the curb, he is right to do so. Then There is a dilemma. No means no. How do you honor someone’s “go away” without trampling their consent? I think the author handled it well by establishing that the guys still cared for each other enough to give up something for the other with no promise of reconciliation. Partly this worked because it fit the characters. Jude needed someone to volunteer to be on his side and stick with him. His no was a preemptive strike. It also worked because people the guys cared about and who cared about them put effort into the reunion, and we know from how each acted with good faith earlier in the story that they would not knowingly push their friends into a bad situation. I felt that Jude could have held firm to his no if he really wanted to. I felt that Ernesto truly needed to practice giving up on income on purpose to start to change his behavior pattern to include people rather than exclude them when stressed. (This ending would have been very wrong if Jude’s past included stalking instead of abandonment.) While I’m in the spoiler paragraph I’m going to say that of course the flat tire rescue would come round right.
/end spoilers