Reviewed by Alexander
TITLE: Pura Vida
AUTHOR: Sara Alva
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 2 hours 23 minutes
NARRATOR: Joseph Northton
BLURB:
Simon has found himself in an open relationship for the summer – though not by choice. Instead of wallowing, he’s decided to make the most of a family vacation to Costa Rica by hooking up with the first hot guy available. The trouble is, he has no clue how to go about doing that.
Luckily, he runs into someone with a little more experience. But when the moments of lust turn into something more, Simon isn’t so sure he’ll be able to return to his old relationship. And there’s no way to hold onto this new one, either, as thousands of miles will separate them in only a few short weeks. Either way, he’ll have to learn to let go.
REVIEW:
What a sweet story! I personally have not read many vacation romance books, and just fell in love with Juan and Simon.
I found that Alva did a really good job of creating Juan and Simon, but also having just the right number of solid secondary characters to support the plot without overpowering the MCs. I also liked the level of detail that Alva included about Costa Rica, I could picture the beaches, the ocean, and the turtle conservancy clearly in my mind.
As far as narrators go, Northton was pretty good, with a nice pace and good intonation, he kept the story flowing well. I also appreciated the fact that he sounded appropriate to the age of the characters (a pet peeve of mine). Where Northton truly shone was two-fold: Juan’s English and holy mother, Juan, the few times he spoke Spanish – I just about melted, and wished that there had been more dialogue in Spanish to take advantage of his talent for the language.
I personally have not read many vacation romance books, and just fell in love with Juan and Simon. To be honest, I never figured the story to have a HEA, and I actually think that I was right in this assessment, as I found the ending to be a wholly satisfying HFN.
STORY RATING: 
AUDIO RATINGE: ( more like 4.75)
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