Build a Girlfriend

A teen deep-dives into her dating history to uncover her mistakes, become the perfect girlfriend, and get revenge on the wrong guy so she can ride into the sunset with the right one in this debut rom-com.To the surprise of no one, Amelia Hernandez is once again single. It's her family curse at work; whether it's by heartbreak, scandal, or even accidental death, every romantic relationship that a Hernandez woman has will meet its demise eventually. And that may be fine with Amelia's sisters, mom, and aunts, but definitely not with Amelia.So, convinced that she is the problem, Amelia decides to embark on an "Ex Retrospective:" tracking down her exes, finding out where she went wrong, and using that information to finally become un-break-up-able for whenever her next relationship comes along. Because Amelia is determined to be free of the family curse...and her family.However, when Amelia is unwillingly reunited with Leon, the ex to end all exes, she can't resist having a little revenge on the side, too. After all, what better way to test out her new persona of perfect girlfriend traits than on the boy who broke her heart?But old loves die hard, and as Amelia's feelings grow more complicated, she suspects that she may be in for more than she bargained for.

Autorentext
Elba Luz is a Puerto Rican author and a lover of stories, whether in the form of anime, manga, video games, or, of course, books. Speaking of books, she should be writing her own. Instead, you'll probably find her replaying Final Fantasy, listening to classical music, or cuddling up with her adorable pit bull, Stormy.

Zusammenfassung
Praise for Build a Girlfriend

"Luz debuts her first YA romantic comedy, filled with plenty of hilarious moments and family drama...A powerful mantra for graduates that having a 'family should be a gift, not an obligation.'"-Booklist

Leseprobe
Chapter 1 CHAPTER 1
To a stranger, the noise vibrating the foundation of the Hernandez household at five in the morning is chaos. For me, one of eight people in the five-bedroom and two-bath brick building, it's a typical day. All aside from my sister Sofia, we Hernandez women are hardwired to rise before the sun does.

Titi Sandra, the unofficial leader of the house, always says, "El camarón que se queda dormido siempre se lo lleva la corriente." Its exact translation is "The shrimp that falls asleep is swept away by the current," but in simpler terms, it just means, "You snooze, you lose."

I haven't done a lot of snoozing these days.

My girlfriend and I have been recreating our favorite moments from the rom-coms we watched last week. Yesterday we made cupcakes inspired by some random made-for-TV movie about a baker who falls in love with a divorce lawyer. Before that, we snuck into a park at midnight and painted our names along the slide. Today, we're going to watch the sunrise.

Depending on what music builds the earthquake under me and my sister Sofia's carpeted bedroom, I always know which aunt is in the kitchen. Daddy Yankee thumps under my sandals as I leave Sofia in the bottom bunk to snore, which means Titi Neva woke first to smack pots and pans around.

To get to our bedroom door, I hop over the 3D puzzle of colorful witches that's sitting at the center of our carpet. It's three hundred pieces, which would have taken me maybe an hour, but my little sister wanted us to do it together, and we're on day three now. Marisol's lucky that she's five years younger than me and her puppy dog eyes still work, otherwise, I would have never allowed my puzzle record to be ruined like this.

Like she hears my thoughts, Marisol jumps out at me when I open the door.

"Jesus." I slam my back onto the floral wallpaper, pressing my palm over my pounding heart. "What the hell, Mari, were you waiting at the door?"

"Amelia," she says, brown eyes wide, two space buns pinning her dark hair back, "do you want to read the next chapter of Ghost versus Witch with me? You promised we'd read chapter ten today." I'm pretty sure Mari's reading level is higher than Sofia's and mine combined. I caught Sofia making Mari proofread her essays multiple times this past year, and I'm not going to lie, I was pretty tempted to do the same after I piled up a few too many Cs.

"The day has barely begun." I rub her head, and disappointment clouds her eyes. "Later," I promise.

"You always say later."

"I always mean it." I ditch her to fly down the steps, Daddy Yankee's voice growing louder as I swiftly dodge Mom holding my one-year-old sister, Zoe, to her bare chest and enter the kitchen.

"Do not run in this house," she shouts after me, just as Zoe coughs up milk over Mom's knotted dark curls.

Titi Sandra had workers remove the doorway to the living room three years ago to make the kitchen even bigger, with a single L-shaped couch at the corner by the front door across a coffee table so we could pretend we have a sala.

You wouldn't know the long countertop is stainless steel with the amount of flour, bread, and pastries hogging the space like salchichas in a can. My family is opening a bakery beginning this fall in the very heart of West Springfield. Every day is nonstop practice perfecting the menu and paying the construction workers at the shop-and secretly testing their reactions to the dishes-with treats and flirting. The latter is led heavily by Titi Ivy.

Another thing the Hernandez women know how to do is flirt. That's easy. It's keeping a relationship that's impossible.

"My firstborn," Titi Ivy, in a shirt she wears