In Francesca Prescott’s debut romantic comedy, Mucho Caliente, Gemma Talbot is 37 and reeling from a divorce brought on by a philandering, stuffy husband who never quite appreciated her bubbly, artsy nature. Packing it in, Gemma refuses any assistance from him as she leaves and moves in with a friend on the lovely island of Ibiza off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea. On the flight over, she finds herself sitting next to one of her pop star idols: young, charming, and fiery Emilio Caliente. Despite her imagined personal shortcomings, she engages in conversation with him and there begins a tumultuous relationship that echoes the world of pop stardom itself. Mucho Caliente is a fun, face-paced, head swirling novel that, much like Emilio’s lifestyle, never stops racing head-on down the path of will they or won’t they? Is this good for her or should she jump ship? Any of us who have ever had a musical idol-crush will immediately relate to Gemma and her concerns of whether she’s “good” enough to engage in a relationship with a gorgeous pop star. She worries about her fashion sense, her extra weight (which she doesn’t seem to have much of), her messy hair, and the contrast between that and the “perfect” qualities of Emilio’s assistant and her possible rival, Kristen. Deeper, though, is her issue of self-acceptance brought on largely by being an artsy type in a business world, a theme all artsy types will understand fully. This is compounded by the cultural issue of following pop music and knowing much of the rest of the music world tends to side-swipe pop as a lesser musical form. Emilio is a lovable hero and although gorgeous and successful, he has his own issues of fighting with his manager and record company, plus a few personal issues of the past we barely get to see through a friend’s explanation. I never quite connected with him as a real person and although Gemma does say she moves from seeing him as a pop star to seeing him as simply Emilio, I’m not quite convinced she does. That makes the reader ponder whether she can truly move past the image. Personally, I know it’s possible, but I’m left feeling Gemma is still headed toward some rocky road long after the happily ever after ending. Mucho Caliente is well-written, hard to put down once you delve in, and introduces the reader to exotic locations with a brief interlude into the personal lives of the people behind the music. There are some coincidences that feel a little hard to believe and now and then Gemma’s self-deprecating sarcasm is taken maybe farther than necessary, but overall, I truly enjoyed the story and the supporting cast of believable quirky characters and getting lost in the fantasy of every girl’s quest to meet and fall in love with her pop idol. I highly recommend this read and look forward to Prescott’s next novel.