The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Zea Kemp, Laekan. Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet. Hachette Book Group, 2021.

Penelope Prado works a busy shift at her father’s taco restaurant with her brother alongside her. She helps out the local neighbors who pass through looking for odd jobs to pick up some extra income. Pen enjoys spending time with her family, but she worries about telling them her secret: she has been lying about attending nursing school for months. She wants to take over the taco shop, but she knows how disappointed this would make her parents who plan for her brother, Angel, to inherit the shop.

When Pen finally reveals her secret, her parents kick her out of the house. She must find an apartment with her meager savings and she worries about her future. Pen is also building a relationship with another employee from the taco shop, Xander. Xander is on a search to find his biological father who abandoned him as a child while he pursues his dream of becoming a cook.

They clash initially due to Pen’s abrasive personality designed to protect her vulnerability, but soon find common ground. Pen works several odd jobs at various restaurants while she tries to gather herself to make a more permanent and rewarding career move.

As Xander grows closer to finding his father, her grapples with the feeling that he is deceiving his grandfather who he has lived with since his mother sent him from Mexico to the United States as a young boy. He does not want to make his grandfather feel as though he is ungrateful for all of the sacrifices he made to raise him.

As Pen and Xander are growing together, Mr. Prado is dealing with threats to his taco shop from the local loan shark, El Martillo, and his enforcer, J.P. They frequently menace the restaurant and threaten to alert the police to the undocumented workers in the neighborhood. They want the taco shop to shut down because Mr. Prado’s charitable acts lessen the need for their shady deals in the neighborhood.

Xander begins working on an RV remodeling project to build a food truck for Pen to start a bakery. He presents the gift to her after months of hard work and she is overjoyed and decides to help him find his father. Before she can share any new information with Xander, however, he is gravely injured in a fire J.P. starts to destroy the taco shop. In the hospital, Xander meets his father and finally feels as though he has closure for his childhood traumas.

Pen’s father agrees to help her begin a bakery on the lot where Nacho’s Tacos once stood, and she is confident in her family’s love despite her career aspirations. Pen and Xander commit to working to build her bakery together and supporting each other through whatever comes.