Alana Quintana Albertson (the Heroes Ever After series) brings Romeo and Juliet to San Diego's Barrio Logan in Ramón and Julieta, a romance about star-crossed lovers that tackles issues of class and gentrification. Ramón Montez grew up wealthy, thanks to the success of his father's Taco King fast food chain. He has reservations about his father's purchase of a strip of commercial property in Barrio Logan, a Mexican American neighborhood known for its vibrant community and deep cultural roots. Julieta Campos is a talented chef and runs a family restaurant with her mother in the Barrio, but she wasn't able to raise the money to buy the buildings before Taco King made an offer. At a Day of the Dead celebration, in full costume and makeup, Ramón and Julieta meet. Their instant connection launches a romance complicated by a decades-old theft.
Ramón's father and Julieta's mother fell in love one summer in Mexico, but they were separated when the elder Montez returned to the United States--and stole Julieta's family's fish taco recipe to start his business. Already uneasy in his role at Taco King, Ramón is horrified to learn of the theft and reconnects to his culture, while Julieta struggles to find a way to preserve her community in the face of seemingly inevitable gentrification.
Ramón and Julieta is a modern but timeless take on a Shakespearean classic, told with a big heart, love of culture and plenty of heat. --Suzanne Krohn, librarian and freelance reviewer