“In projecting Cara’s voice, Cruz prioritizes the importance of seeing an individual’s humanity even within the most impersonal of systems…Like the novel itself, Cara resists classification. More than a job, or a cure, she requires a patient audience with whom she can share her most intimate secrets.” ―The New York Times Book Review (cover review)
“How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water will have you laughing line after line, even when you wonder if you should be. (The answer is always yes!) By the time her sessions are up, though, you’ll feel like many of those who know Ms. Romero; that her incessant chatter has become as life-sustaining as the substance she can’t stop drinking…Cruz never misses. Her new novel aims for the heart, and fires.” ―Los Angeles Times
“An ode to human connection...The story, told in Cara’s unfailingly frank, sometimes hilarious, voice, quickly expands like the bellows of an accordion…Cruz once again offers a fresh glimpse of immigration, womanhood, aspiration and gentrification…the story delivers a sense of the enduring worth of relationships, life experiences and determination as currencies in a difficult world.” ―The Washington Post
“[I] fell head-over-heels with the protagonist…Cara is warm, resilient, revealing and unintentionally funny. Remarkably, over the course of the novel, she arrives at believable self-realization, understanding that she is not a saint and accepting the role she has played in some of her misfortunes.” ―San Francisco Chronicle
