Review, Excerpt & Giveaway: SAVING LA FAMILIA by Donna Del Oro

This post introduces a recently released contemporary romantic suspense novel Saving La Familia by Donna Del Oro. An enjoyable read.  

About the Book

A romantic suspense comedy set in Silicon Valley, a young Latina teacher, Dina Salazar, is asked by her Mexican-born grandmother to rescue her cousins from a dangerous Mexican drug cartel. After all, her stern grandmother tells her, she is the “smart one” in the family. To do so, she has to recruit help from her hated ex-fiance. What’s a girl to do when “la familia” calls?

SAVING LA FAMILIA by Donna Del Oro is about a latina teacher who’s recruited by her Mexican-born grandmother to save her cousins from a dangerous Mexican drug cartel. It’s a romantic-suspense comedy with many “buen dichos”!

Excerpt

It took five years—six, counting my teaching credential— to work my way through college and, oh yeah, I lost my fiancé along the way—according to Mama and Abuelita, my only chance at happiness. Their idea of happiness meant you married young, spent the next twenty years changing diapers, cooking and cleaning for a man you seldom saw because he was working two or three jobs to pay for all the mouths you’d brought into the world… 

¡Gracias a Dios!

Horrors, in my opinion.

That was the world they knew, anyway, and they didn’t have the imagination to picture me in another, I suppose. I had another vision of the world. And myself. After all, I was Dina Salazar, not Dolores—the rambunctious little girl I used to be, saddled with what I thought to be a horrible name and all it implied. I was certain my family considered me the smirky smartass, the brazen wise-ass. No matter what, I was going to scratch and crawl my way into the American middle class, and if I lost whatever family status I had or whatever love came along, so be it. 

After all, according to them, I had una cabeza dura. Hard-headed. And they were right. 

Get the book: https://www.extasybooks.com/Saving-La-Familia or https://www.amazon.com/Saving-Familia-Donna-Del-Oro-ebook/dp/B09PN7K2S8/ – FREE for limited time only

My Review

I liked Dina. She is not your typical schoolteacher. She is spunky and determined, though a bit overly reckless at times. And very slow to forgive her ex-fiancé, who despite his past mistakes is a great catch. They make a good couple. Dina’s warm and caring family – with its mix of illegal and legal immigrants – highlights the complexities of what is probably a more common situation than many realize.

The romantic suspense side of things definitely dominated the storyline, with the adventure and action not coming to the forefront until more than half-way through the book when Dina, her family, and friends join forces to save her cousin who is hiding out in Mexico. I would like to have seen more of the suspense related to “saving la familia” building earlier. That said, I enjoyed this book.

FTC disclosure: I received an ARC of this book. This has not affected the content of my review.

Giveaway

Enter to win a $50 Amazon/BN GC – a Rafflecopter giveaway.

About the Author

Donna Del Oro lives in Northern California with her husband and three cats. She taught high school and community college English classes for 30+ years and is now happily retired. When not doing research, writing novels, or reading voraciously, she travels and sings with the medal winning Sacramento Valley Chorus.

Donna is a member of Capitol Crimes, the Sacramento chapter of Sisters in Crime in addition to the Valleyrose chapter of the RWA. She has judged RITA entries and does developmental editing on the side. Two of her novels, Operation Familia and Born To Sing, have won national and international awards.

Contact Donna at:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donna.wierzbowski.1
• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3152322.Donna_Del_Oro
• Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Donna-Del-Oro/e/B003AUDSCY
• donna@donnadeloro.com
• https://www.donnadelorobooks.com/