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Their Perfect Melody Matched to Perfection Priscilla Oliveras 9781420144307 Books

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Their Perfect Melody Matched to Perfection Priscilla Oliveras 9781420144307 Books

This story of Lili and Diego is my favorite of the three books. Written in the same winning style as the previous two books, including the importance of family, this third book also incorporates themes of domestic abuse. drug addiction, and music. These three elements all play important roles in the individual maturation of Lili and Diego as well as the development of their relationship.


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Their Perfect Melody Matched to Perfection Priscilla Oliveras 9781420144307 Books Reviews

I’ve very much enjoyed reading about Ms. Oliveras’ Fernandez sisters. There is such an amazing feeling of family, of warmth and support, and I adore the glimpses of Puerto Rican culture. While much of the subject matter (drug abuse and intimate partner violence) is heavy, Ms. Oliveras manages to balance it with Lilí’s optimism and the Fernandez family warmth. I think it would be possible to read this as a standalone, as while the characters from the rest of the series make frequent cameos, enough of the series background is explained.

Lilí and Diego meet when she receives a call from one of her domestic violence clients, only to find the police, in the form of Diego and his partner, guarding her apartment (frequent readers of the series will realize this picks up where Julia’s novella left us). Though she’s frustrated with his refusal to let her through, they both feel a spark of attraction towards the other person, and both admire the others’, well, stubbornness. When Lilí makes the questionable choice to take her client home with her for the night, against Diego’s protestations, he insists on giving her his phone number. That spark is still there when she reaches back out to him for help, and especially when they run into each other while volunteering at the youth center, where Lilí teaches girls self defense and Diego teaches guitar. But Lilí’s dated a cop before, and she fears that Diego will also be unable to accept her and her commitment to her job. Is it just the same old song and dance, or the start of a brand new melody?

“Sees the good in everyone, doesn’t she?” Ryan shook his head slowly from side to side.
Well, she didn’t seem to have trouble finding fault in him, Diego noted. He kept that thought to himself.

I liked Lilí a lot. In the other books, she came off as the clown of the family, and while some of that is still there, a lot of has been lost under the grief from her parents’ death. She is still feisty, smart, and dedicated to her family, however. She also sees the good in everyone, which Diego thinks blinds her to a lot of the dangers that come with her job, but I thought was exactly what her clients and the kids she worked with needed. I struggled with Diego. He’s the picture of machismo, and basically every alpha trait that I can’t stand. He dismisses Lilí’s expertise and refuses to let her in, out of fear of bogging her down in his family drama. He was downright aggressive with some of Lilí’s clients, and completely unable to empathize with what they’re going through. While past family trauma explained a lot of his behavior, I didn’t like that a cop – who would be expected to deal sympathetically with victims – would react that way. Lilí herself is frustrated with his black and white thinking, and that he discounts her experience and training working with DV victims, even when it’s his own sister. I didn’t leave the book with the feeling that he’d actually changed or come to understand why his approach was so harmful.

“They shared a soft smile, the unbreakable bonds of music tying them together. First years ago with their respective parents. Now with each other.”

Besides that, though, there were so many things I liked. Lilí and Diego both share a love of music, especially classical guitar. Diego’s mom loved the band Lilí’s dad played in, and the song she used to insist he play for her was Lilí’s parents’ favorite song. Music is a big deal to her family, and it’s been a thread throughout the series. The Fernandez sisters – and cousin – are such a warm family, and I loved seeing how they drew support from each other, even if they didn’t necessarily agree with the others’ actions. Though Lilí laments that they treat her like a child, to me it came off more as concern. It was good getting to catch up with each of the couples and their new families.

I think, overall, this would be more a 3.5 for me. It has all the warmth, the familia that I’ve come to love from Ms. Oliveras, but I had issues with Diego. So, overall, I’m sad to say goodbye to the Fernandez sisters, but I’m very eager for whatever Ms. Oliveras writes next!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
CW partner/domestic violence, assault, substance abuse and recovery, grief, reference to past rape

This is a tricky review to write as I have two schools of thought so I’m going to review the story and then review the depiction of Lilí’s job as a domestic violence caseworker.

First, the story. Oliveras excels in bringing her characters to life. Lilí and Diego are strongly developed, although they drove me nuts in places, and their chemistry was palpable from the moment they met. They’re both devoted to their families and their work and it was fascinating to see how that devotion could put them at odds. They don’t start off on the right foot but life keeps bringing their paths together and in turn, their respect and interest grows.

The Puerta Rican family at the center of this trilogy is the best part. I loved Lilí’s sisters and cousin! True, Yaz and Rosa could be overbearing and overprotective but by the end, they come to see Lilí’s strength and are able to back off a bit and trust she knows what she’s doing.

Diego’s relationship with his sister Lourdes was much more complex due to how he’s dealt with her substance abuse. He thinks he knows exactly what she needs to do to get on the right path but that puts an understandable strain on their relationship. Suffice it to say, Diego has a lot to learn and I really liked how this was handled, although I could have done with less of his macho attitude getting there.

Lilí and Diego are largely adversarial through the story, either fighting with each other, fighting their attraction, or staying locked up in their own fears and worries instead of trusting the other person. Some of this made sense, some did not. I found myself more frustrated with Lilí, most of which I’ll address below, because what she viewed as disrespect for her profession was really Diego understanding the need for boundaries. She needed to listen and support Diego, not get involved where she wasn’t invited. But Diego also needs to do some emotional labor and learn to share his feelings and actually process the trauma from his past.

The inevitable fallout made sense and I was relieved Diego’s grand gesture was about a promise of the relationship, not a huge declaration of love. They need to just date for a while. But I do think they’ll be great together if they each work on themselves and their relationship and I was happy with the resolution.

This leads me to what did not make me happy the depiction of domestic violence and the portrayal of Lilí’s job as a victim’s advocate.

Lilí did so many things you should not do if you work for a domestic violence agency or women’s shelter and it hurt my social worker heart. She gives her personal cell phone number to a client (a huge no-no), then doesn’t answer the unknown number until the client calls again, then races off to the scene of an assault without checking in at work or making sure the police were contacted. She refers to her clients as friends, which is not okay. She tells her sister her client’s name, which is a major ethical violation.

Time and again Lilí ignores normal procedures, which are there to keep employees and clients safe. I believe this is supposed to make us see her as compassionate and dedicated to her job but all I could see was the severe lack of boundaries and ethical violations. She’s essentially building codependent relationships with her clients. She also took so many unnecessary risks, like going to a victim’s home to pick up their belongings without a police escort. Now my background isn’t in domestic violence but I did liaise with agencies as part of my medical social work job in the past so it’s possible there are agencies who don’t have these protocols and procedures in place but then I’d have to question why because most of what Lilí did with her clients goes against the grain of the social work and case management professions. That’s also why I struggled with some of the plot points, which heightened the drama but would not happen with any of my colleagues.

Outside of one particular case, we don’t see much of what Lilí does at work. There’s more of a focus on her volunteer work at the community center. That’s fine but it does mean some of the threads of her client’s case are never properly tied up, nor do we get to see what happens in the aftermath of pressing charges and starting over.

If this wasn’t enough, there’s also a fair amount of victim-blaming that’s never challenged, not even by Lilí who is our presumed expert. I would have liked more exploration of why people stay in abusive relationships and I would have especially liked for Diego’s assumptions to be handed to him on a silver platter. Cops can certainly benefit from education and I would have hoped he would have had a better understanding, since his own family had been affected by partner violence.

I enjoyed Diego and Lilí’s romance overall and if not for these issues, I would have given it a higher rating. But alas, the issues are there. I’d point you to Oliveras’s other work first.

Disclosure I received an advanced copy from Zebra Shout in exchange for an honest review.
Priscilla Oliveras has another winner! Lili, the youngest Fernandez sister, is sassy and independent, but Diego the hunky Chicago police officer is able to discover the sweet spot in her heart. The third book in the "Matched to Perfection" trilogy is beautifully written. I look forward to reading Priscilla Oliveras' next series.
This story of Lili and Diego is my favorite of the three books. Written in the same winning style as the previous two books, including the importance of family, this third book also incorporates themes of domestic abuse. drug addiction, and music. These three elements all play important roles in the individual maturation of Lili and Diego as well as the development of their relationship.