Author: Marcela Fuentes

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group | June 4, 2024

Description:

In 1951, a mysterious old woman confronts Pilar Aguirre in the small border town of La Cienega, Texas. The old woman is sure Pilar stole her husband and, in a heated outburst, lays a curse on Pilar and her family.

More than forty years later, Lulu Muñoz is dodging chaos at every turn: her troubled father’s moods, his rules, her secret life as singer in a punk band, but most of all her upcoming quinceañera. When her beloved grandmother passes away, Lulu finds herself drawn to the glamorous stranger who crashed the funeral and who lives alone and shunned on the edge of town.

Their unexpected kinship picks at the secrets of Lulu’s family’s past. As the quinceañera looms—and we move between these two strong, irascible female voices—one woman must make peace with the past, and one girl pushes to embrace her future.

Rich with cinematic details—from dusty rodeos to the excitement of a Selena concert and the comfort of conjunto ballads played at family gatherings—this memorable debut is a love letter to the Tejano culture and community that sustain both of these women as they discover what family means.

Description provided by Penguin Publishing Group

Patty's Pick:  Set during a time period when Tejano music was huge and Selena was the queen, I relate so much to this book. It represent an era in my life...punk bands, La Llorna, the setting in South Texas...that brings back such great memories. I had the opportunity to meet Marcela Fuentes at a book event, and it made the book even more meaningful to me as a proud Tejana. Everything about this book took to me the place where it all happened.