The Five Stages of Courting Dalisay Ramos by Melissa de la Cruz is about an American man and a Filipina woman navigating the traditional courtship rituals from the Philippines. Dalisay is from Manila and recently moved to San Francisco. She and Evan work at the same place as travel writers. Dalisay is offended when Evan straight-up asks her to coffee. She tells him no, telling him he will have to try a lot harder than that. One of the last things she says is, “You may know Milan, Evan Saatchi, but you don’t know Manila”. Evan has Filipino friends who explain to him why she was offended. They told him about the Five Stages of Courtship in Filipino culture. Pinky and JM explain just how important the Five Stages can be. Dalisay’s sister tells her that American men can’t read minds and know what she wants. Dalisay decides to give him a chance. That chance turns into a bet to see if Evan can even finish the stages. The rest is an entertaining story of accidents, true love, and how our own cultures shape who we are in all aspects of our lives.
I LOVED IT! I married into a Filipino family. My husband is half-Filipino, so he did not know these traditions. But as I read, I saw snippets of family life when I spent time with his extended family: the food, the love, the loud conversations, all of it. I was all for it! I come from a family-oriented family. I still spend time with cousins who I don’t know if they are third or fourth but we are family and spend time together. I connected with that while reading. I may not be from a Filipino family, but the traditions and get-togethers I read about reminded me of my life.
Dalisay and Evan had growing to do through this book and I appreciated they both had to change for the other. It was not just one or the other. Their childhoods were so different and molded them into who they were. Both of them learned from each other how to make their lives mesh together by the end of the book. Dalisay helped her mom grow as well after Nicole came out. Evan learned he had to be mindful of what was important to Dalisay, not what he thought.
I highly recommend this book!
4.5 outta 5 lumpia rolls
Let’s do this again!
Ashleigh
I do read these books! I just get them as digital advanced reading copies, so my photos are kinda boring.
#filipinaromance #spicy #romance #dating #melissadelacruz #arc #booktime #actuallyreadit #lovedit #traditions #courtship #family #growth
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