Continuing to read this series has been a treat. Everything is so light and fun! This particular story needed a little something, but that didn’t necessarily stop me from liking it. And this series as a whole has my heart.
In Dusk Until Dawn, Javier Hernandez was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The only son of a successful Cuban businessman, he was set to inherit the business and run it himself one day. That was until he fucked eeeeeeeeeeverything up while going through a divorce. Suddenly, he was known in Miami society as a playboy, as someone who couldn’t be trusted with serious business. And he’s been trying to earn back that trust ever since. Because Javi has changed. And he wants everyone to see that he’s a different person now than he was during his turbulent divorce.
Enter Maya Pascual.
Maya was the bartender at the place Javi and Cole were regulars back in business school, which Javi was engaged to his ex-wife. But Javi fell hard for Maya… and when she confessed her feelings for him, he blew her off. His ex-wife was the type of person he was supposed to end up with, not someone tattooed and wild like Maya. So when Maya sees Javi in an upscale club in Miami, she dumps a bottle of champagne on him. Naturally.
The thing about Javi and Maya, though, is that it doesn’t matter what the world thinks of them. Love finds a way. ❤
3 Things I Loved
- Maya. There’s something about Maya. She’s brash and unrefined and covered in tattoos, but she’s also the most honest person in Javi’s whole life. And she’s a really fun protagonist, even though some of her inner monologues didn’t make a lot of sense to me.
- Javi. I HATED Javi in the first book in the series, Stroke of Midnight (review here!). But getting in his head helped me like him a lot more, and made some of his decision-making make a little more sense. And he and Maya were like fireworks on every page.
- Javi’s sisters. I absolutely loved Alana in Stroke of Midnight, and Carla was always this quirky side character, and I loved them both a lot. ESPECIALLY when the two of them were interacting with Maya. Or with Javi. Honestly, Alana and Carla together was just super fun in any situation.
Dislikes/Problematic Content
There was very little – if any – problematic content for me to comment on in this book. It was diverse and takes place in a city that isn’t a backdrop for too many books I’ve read, so I don’t have anything to complain about there.
But dislikes? I have one big one.
It was way too short for what Christopher was trying to accomplish.
If any of the One Night in South Beach books needed to be longer, it was this one. Maya and Javi have a really complicated past, and that takes a little bit longer to unravel than a typical meet-cute romantic story. The resolution at the end felt false and forced. I loved the characters and everything about the book, right up until the ending. It didn’t feel right or natural. I needed MORE. It’s for this reason (and this reason alone) that I can’t give this book as high of a rating as I’ll gladly give the others in the series.
Rating
A reminder of the rating scale:
- Red = DNF, I hated everything
- Orange = Ugh, no thank you
- Yellow = I mean, I’ve read worse, but there were problems
- Green = This was good!
- Blue = Oh my gosh, I loved this book!
- Purple = This is the unicorn of books and I will be rereading it until the binding falls apart and EVERYONE should be reading it!
So, like I said, this ended up not being a favorite of mine. I was very disappointed in the resolution at the end. Because of this, I’m giving Dusk Until Dawn a YELLOW rating. The characters were great, but the plot was missing something.
I’m going to keep picking my way through some reviews for the next few weeks! Hopefully you’ll be around to join me.
Happy reading!
Snark & Squee 
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