For fans of siblings and family dynamics, The Quince Project is for you. I had the highest hopes having enjoyed Rubi Ramos’s Recipe for Success and this one was so cute! Keep reading this book review of The Quince Project for my full thoughts.
Summary
Castillo Torres, Student Body Association event chair and serial planner, could use a fairy godmother. After a disastrous mishap at her sister’s quinceañera, all of Cas’s plans are crumbling. So when a local lifestyle-guru-slash-party-planner opens up applications for the internship of her dreams, Cas sees it as the perfect opportunity to learn every trick in the book so that things never go wrong again.
The only catch is that she needs more party planning experience before she can apply. When she books a quinceañera for a teen Disneyland vlogger, Cas thinks her plan is taking off…until she discovers that the party is just a publicity stunt and she begins catching feelings for the chambelán. As her agenda begins to go off-script, Cas finds that real life may be more complicated than a fairy tale.
But maybe Happily Ever Afters aren’t just for the movies. Can Cas go from planner to participant in her own life? Or will this would-be princess turn into a pumpkin at the end of the ball?
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Cas was so me coded. She’s obsessed with her planner, making lists, and having everything in order. She thrives off order and being able to ‘fix’ people. So when things go off the rails in a plan where she has to lie in order to fix everyone’s problems – and score her internship – she begrudgingly does so and opens a can of worms. Firstly, I loved the sibling relationship and how we can be so stubborn about what roles we play that we don’t see when they’re changing. Or when someone has changed. This is incredibly relatable to when we are stuck in a vision of someone or a relationship and we can’t crack that facade.
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What ends up happening is that it’s because we ourselves need that facade. We need that facade to make sense of our own roles. Secondly, the exploration of guilt, especially in a family, was emotional and moving. It’s not only about how others grieve, but also the non-linear path we have. Thirdly, the romance was so swoony. I love how all these elements come together in The Quince Project to ask ourselves if the ends justify the means. To challenge ourselves to see the love and the loss, to know that it’s a risk, but also to look around us and the support we have, to be vulnerable and open. The audiobook narrator of Stacy Gonzalez is also perfect, I loved the emotion in the reading!
Find The Quince Project on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.