Placeres Prohibidos Book

When we meet our hero, Remy, he’s wearing “faded jeans and a skin-tight vest, with a single gold earring.” OMG. The heroine is five years his senior and his mother’s stepsister, leading him to refer to her as “Aunt Megan.” OMG OMG.

That said, the plot of the book was kind of… not great. The vast majority of the drama revolves around Remy’s mother and Megan’s stepsister, who is controlling and kind of crazy; Megan like a normal person is just like “okay, I’m going to do my best to get along with you while I am here visiting with your dying father,” while Remy is like “WHY DON’T YOU LOVE ME AUNT MEGAN YOU ARE MY ONE.” I mean, the romance is kind of an afterthought to all this drama and Secrets! and Lies! and Anger!

On the plus side there’s a fair amount of diversity - Remy’s grandmother was black, and while Megan doesn’t actually tell anyone why she’s rolling her eyes every time they assume she’s romantically involved with her business partner, when we learn at the end that he has met and is moving in with a very nice young man named Keith it doesn’t really come as a surprise. While the book was published in 1998 so gay and biracial characters shouldn’t be surprising… it is a Harlequin category romance from 1998, so, y'know...