When I sat down to writer After Hours on Milagro Street, I knew I was writing a book about my people, my family, and a community that had formed me, a community that I admired and valued for the strengths it has given me. I wanted others to see those strengths, as well.

So, you know, no pressure.

As I began to pull the book together, I realized I had a lot of threads: a love story, small town, lost history, a big family, being Mexican-American in the U.S., love for bars and hospitality, strong women, a ghost, and what I hope is my signature high heat. Looking at all those threads while I was drafting, I prayed I would be able to pull them together in an impactful way that allowed me to share the honor and love I have for my community and the romance genre with readers.

For these reasons, making these top 10 romance of 2022 lists is powerfully meaningful.

In the last two weeks, both Entertainment Weekly and the Fated Mates podcast have named After Hours on Milagro Street one of their favorite romance books of 2022. The Washington Post gave the book the honor the week before.

Senior entertainment writer Maureen Lee Lenker said:

Amidst some of the hottest love scenes put to paper this year, Angelina M. Lopez interrogates big subjects like gentrification, assimilation, and what calling yourself an "American" really means. Her vibrant story of the ways that love, acceptance, and kinship can weave together in a tapestry with the threads of work that undoes erasure is both powerful and swoon-worthy.

Lenker gave it an A+ and five flames for hotness in a review this summer. Joining After Hours on the list are books from Adriana Herrera, Christina Lauren, Kennedy Ryan, Alexis Hall, Sarah MacLean and others.

Speaking of New York Times-bestselling romance author Sarah MacLean, I was beyond thrilled when she called After Hours on Milagro Street “one of my very favorite books of the year.” Sarah hosts the popular romance podcast Fated Mates along with book critic Jen Prokop and is a fantastic advocate of romance. I have one quote on my wall and it’s from Sarah.

She called a certain scene in After Hours on Milagro Street “incendiary” and called me the “reigning queen of bad-ass-slash-possible unlikeable heroines.” I will wear that crown proudly!

One of my very favorite books of the year is After Hours on Milagro Street, the most recent book by Angelina M. Lopez, who’ve we’ve talked about before because I actually think she is the resigning queen of the bad-ass/possibly unlikeable heroine… You guys, this is, bar none, one of the best contemporaries of the year and I’m so excited for you all to read it.