Xiomara is a twenty-something half Puerto-Rican and Dominican woman who lives with her mother in Washington Heights. Xiomara is a musical theater singer and dancer, but as she is not in a musical, she works at Ellen's Stardust Diner in New York, beside her work in copy and print shop, where she has to work with her terrible bos Alek.
There is a shadow over her life since her beloved younger sister Nena died a few years ago, something Xiomara and her mom will never get truly over.
When she gets the chance to audion for famous producer Manny Santos who is producing a musical on Broadway, she auditions in the hope to finally to sing on a real stage again. There is also a new coworker at the print shop, Santi, and something starts between Xiomara and him. But then he dissapears all of a sudden and her abusive boss Alek tells Xiomara that Santi has a girlfriend already.
Her audition process with Manny goes well, he praises her and gives her the feeling she is the only true candidate for the leading part. But soon Manny, who also gives her money for no reason, wants more from Xiomara then just singing at the audition and invites her to his apartment, which leads to an innapropriate relationship, and where in the end Xiomara also doesn't even get the part in the musical, as Manny is doing the same tric with many other girls who also auditioned for the part, and a girl who also works at the same diner as Xiomara eventually gets the part. Then Xiomara leaves her work at the diner at the print shop, to find a better job for herself, at a school teaching musical theater classes, where she earns more than ever, and finally gets rid of the landlord who was after her and her mom, because they where months behind in paying rent.
Xiomara is woman who lives in New York, struggles with the dead of her sister, and with work and her relationship with men, especaily in the last part she makes a not so wise decision not to say no to Manny, who really felt like an abusive kind of sick man who uses her. Some points in this book where quite raunchy and nasty and explicit, which might not be everyones cup of tea. Xiomara truly felt to me like a girl who is in her twenties, but sometimes still act like a teenager, also because she has trouble landing the job she wants in a rough city like New York.
I liked most of the story of this books, but there where also parts that I disliked or that didn't add much to the story. It doesn't have a lot of plot twist, the storyline is mostly about Xiomara and her daily struggles in life. It is a good inbetween coming of age novel, but nothing more than that.