After meeting at the Miami Grand Prix, Esther Consuelos and Jan Luis Larose discover that their parents once shared a brief romance in Italy. Convinced their encounter may be divinely arranged, Esther invites Jan to Rome, where a weekend of temptation, confession, and unexpected intimacy forces them to decide whether destiny negates free will.
When Esther joins a quantum-research institute in Lyon, their relationship is tested by distance, sexual guilt, trauma, and Jan’s fear that losing Esther would also destroy his faith. Meanwhile, Esther’s longtime admirer Ezra begins falling for her friend Maricelis, opening an unforeseen path toward healing for them both.
Moving through their lives is Ariel, a mysterious woman who appears in dreams, memories, and moments that seem to exist outside time. As Esther’s research begins blurring the boundaries between science, faith, and alternate possibilities, she and Jan are confronted with versions of the lives they might have chosen.
Their journey eventually returns them to the Trevi Fountain, where love, providence, and free will converge. Told through shifting perspectives and letters, Angel Letters of Esther asks whether soulmates are destined... or created each time two people freely choose one another.
After meeting at the Miami Grand Prix, Esther Consuelos and Jan Luis Larose discover that their parents once shared a brief romance in Italy. Convinced their encounter may be divinely arranged, Esther invites Jan to Rome, where a weekend of temptation, confession, and unexpected intimacy forces them to decide whether destiny negates free will.
When Esther joins a quantum-research institute in Lyon, their relationship is tested by distance, sexual guilt, trauma, and Jan’s fear that losing Esther would also destroy his faith. Meanwhile, Esther’s longtime admirer Ezra begins falling for her friend Maricelis, opening an unforeseen path toward healing for them both.
Moving through their lives is Ariel, a mysterious woman who appears in dreams, memories, and moments that seem to exist outside time. As Esther’s research begins blurring the boundaries between science, faith, and alternate possibilities, she and Jan are confronted with versions of the lives they might have chosen.
Their journey eventually returns them to the Trevi Fountain, where love, providence, and free will converge. Told through shifting perspectives and letters, Angel Letters of Esther asks whether soulmates are destined... or created each time two people freely choose one another.
THE AIR SMELLED LIKE burned tires and french fries.
“Esther, do you believe in divine timing?”
“That’s a loaded question,” I answered, while taking in the billowing exhaust of spaceships on wheels that had just thundered past Lap 38. “Usually a guy asks me on a date. Then if it goes well we plan for a second. Then comes a kiss. Then a third date. And then that’s when that question comes up.”
Jan laughed. “We’ve already kissed, Esther. And one day we’re going to get married. Perhaps Lando taking the lead has altered your state of consciousness.” He leaned forward and whispered, “that’s code word for ‘you forgot.’”
“Ha!” That quip managed to conjure a smirk across my face. “Does your writer persona come out unexpectedly? Or are you a theoretical physicist in disguise? Like a spy. I used to have one of those in college.”
“What? A spy? Like James Bond.”
“No,” I clarified, “a professor who believed that the mind held the key to the multiverse. I don’t like Bond.”
By now Lando Norris had the clear lead when I turned back to the race, hiding the smile on my face. It was certain he’d be taking home his first podium. And excitingly in my hometown, my home race: at the Miami Grand Prix. Like that podium, today was a day of firsts because it was also the first time ever I’d gone on a date with Jan Luis Larose. He wore a teal green bomber jacket of Aston Martin branding despite the sun that covered the entirety of the circuit. It was hot. Very hot. (And I’m not just speaking about the weather).
Earlier this afternoon, I’d taken Jan to the Paddock Club, and after we discovered our parents had met a long, long time ago it felt as if the universe, perhaps God Himself, was putting in the puzzle pieces into the spaces I’d long been waiting for: meeting a potential partner. Even more was the wild coincidence, if it even was one, that one of my close friends had a fling with one of his close friends in 2018.
Now on Race Day, walking the miles and miles of fenced-off trackside at Hard Rock Stadium, I had a proposition for Jan I’d already waved in passing moments earlier. Now I really meant it.
“So,” Jan followed, “divine timing.”
“You sure you don’t want to go back to the Paddock Club? Air conditioning is pristine in there.”
Perspiration had already gathered over his forehead, and little droplets were already staining his Aston Martin jacket. But that didn’t seem to matter; he kept pressing me on the subject. “Esther… Divine timing.”
I laughed, holding up my hands. “Okay, okay. Everything I said before; yeah, I believe it. But here’s the thing, I do believe in divine timing, but I don’t believe in predestination.”
“Isn’t it the same thing?” Jan frowned.
“I don’t think so. I just think that if two people are meant to be together, as in ordained by God or soulmates you could say—”
Jan smiled.
“—then there has to be a way to test it and determine that it is from Above. This relationship.”
“So you are serious then? About what you said earlier.” His eyes widened.
“Yes, Jan. There’s no better test than this. Two people that barely know each other and yet they both believe they are meant to be together; this is the ultimate experiment to test this crazy hypothesis.”
“A Formula One publicist who is also a scientist in disguise. You sure you are not James Bond?” He teased me. “But I’m down, Esther. Let’s fucking do it.”
Loud screams erupted from the crowd around us, as well as from the Grandstands that towered over the turn at the Marina. That’s where Jan’s friends were, the four he’d ditched to go on a date with me.
“His first podium,” Jan shouted over the noise of the crowd. “Lando did it!” He then turned to me. “Your crew at Mercedes won’t be too happy he won. But also, you being gone for the next race. We are really doing it, huh? We’re flying to Rome.”
I nodded. “They’ll manage without me.”
“So, when do we leave?”
There comes a time in one’s life where the best option is simply to take a leap of faith. “Friday,” I answered. “We leave on Friday. You’ll still be in Miami then right?”
“Yeah. Me and the Troubadours will be here till Thursday. But I can stay an extra day; we can fly together.”
“Wait, you and the who?”
“My friends,” he laughed. “We call ourselves the Troubadours.”
C.L. Rosario’s previous book, And Then They Fall in Love was a magical realism
contemporary fantasy novel about a circle of male friends called The Troubadours who receive word from a mysterious stranger known only as La Bruja (“The Witch” or “The Stranger “) who tells them that they need to help Jean Luis Larose, one of their own, to find love before he dies. What followed was a lovely thought provoking meditative look at fate, synchronicity, coincidence, magic, romance, true love, and the importance of maintaining a good friendship. It was an excellent book that captured the male group of friends. I would describe it as not just a Romance novel but a Bromance novel.
Well if one focuses only on one party in a romance novel, they are really telling only half of the story. In And Then They Fell in Rome, we are given insights about many of the female characters and are given as much depth and agency as their male counterparts so they aren't just shallow love interests. However, they are largely seen from the perspective of the male characters so compared to them, they are cyphers. Well written cyphers but cyphers none the less.
Rosario's next book, Angel: Letters of Esther more than makes up for that lack. In fact, I wouldn't even call it a sequel so much as it is a companion piece. It takes the same story and gives a largely female perspective. It focuses mostly on Esther Consuelos, Jan Luis’ potential love interest. We also get some solid insights into La Bruja who now has a name, Ariel, and some potential clues to her real identity.
This volume also provides a more streamlined narration that is easier to follow. It mostly focuses on Jan Luis and gives the rest of The Troubadours smaller, more supporting roles. It loses the complexity of the previous novel but since Jan Luis is the central Troubadour in both books, it makes sense that his story would wrap up in this volume.
Jan Luis and Esther meet at the Miami Grand Prix. The two click but a strange discovery about a shared coincidence from their paths suggest that there are higher powers at work bringing them together. An eventful weekend causes the couple to weigh their passions, faith, goals, intimacy, desires, standards, and the division between body, heart, and soul to find out what they really want in life and if they are compatible.
Both Jan Luis and Esther come across as fully developed characters. Since Jan Luis is the sole major Troubadour in this book, we are mostly exposed to his life and views.
Technically, there isn't anything entirely new to Jan Luis that we didn't know before from his past. Even the strange previous connection between the two lovers was revealed in the previous book. We are familiar with Jan Luis’s past. This book is more interested in his present.
As we remember in the previous book, he had yet to be paired off though his friends were. This book shows him moving from a hard edged cynic thinking that he is better off alone to a romantic who is open to the possibility of letting love into his life. It is a character trajectory that transforms him into the person that La Bruja and the Troubadours envisioned that he would become.
Jan Luis's strongest moments occur when he is alone and away from his initial peer group of The Troubadours. Since they are moved to the side and reduced to supporting characters, this book deals with what happens when friendships recede and characters grow up and move on.
The previous book was the be all and end all of their friendship at times even eclipsing their romantic relationships. It reveals the universal truth that sometimes friendships are more important than romance. This book shows the opposite.
What happens when friends let other people and situations in their lives and phase out the original group. They don't do this out of meanness or because of fights but because of different circumstances, busy schedules, more people and commitments, and maturity. They have entered lives that are harder, more complicated, and busier. Sometimes early relationships fall away.
The Troubadours’s bond is still close and they still have some great reunions but they have evolved. Jan Luis can't rely on them as much as he used to. He spends most of his time in Rome with a new group of friends and has other interests, other goals, and other problems that have moved him far from his honorary brothers. It's a time where he has to figure out who he is without any help from his old friends.
As I mentioned this is practically the female counterpart to And Then They Fell in Rome and it shows. Esther is by far the most developed character. She has many different facets to her character that reveals her complexities and depth.
She is a publicist for Formula One so she carries a very high class, fast living, public, athletic and energetic presence on the job. The kind that doesn't mind frequent travel and hobnobbing with classy elite individuals watching the races as well as managing the information on drivers and crews who work at them. It also breaks quite a few barriers to read about a woman involved in the still mostly male dominated world of auto racing. Her strong willed tough personality reveals herself as a woman who will not accept being sidelined or mansplained so of course she would excel in such a world.
There are also softer edges to Esther's character largely through her spiritual beliefs and questions about higher concepts. She is religious and considers herself as a “Christian but not that kind of Christian.” She is very accepting towards people and views that her religion is highly critical of. She uses it instead to aspire herself to live a decent charitable kind life.
However, she has high standards mostly towards herself. She has specific views about sexuality, intimacy, love, and marriage. They are resolute but she is wavering. There are many times when Esther’s emotions and desires take over and she questions whether she has the views because of her faith in Christian doctrine or fear of being in a relationship. Is she putting off close relationships for her God or herself?
One of the most intriguing subplots is when Esther reunites with an ex. The potential for a rekindled romance is there even though she still loves Jan Luis and he is involved with a friend of hers. But more importantly than the romantic aspects are the deep conversations between them over quantum physics and higher consciousness. They open Esther to other possibilities and move her faith forward from the binary either or interpretation that she previously held.
These conversations also bring awareness of the magical realism that surrounds the narrative. Through most of the book, the magical realism is more subdued as compared to its predecessor. Mostly it's reduced to revelations about what happened in the previous book and conversations about those topics. These conversations offer different theories about fate, coincidence, predestiny, and synchronicity.
This volume posts different theories and analysis without fully committing to one or the other. The characters live in a potentially fantastic world and this book provides a potential key for them to understand it. It's almost like the first book showed the magic while the second book gives the realism, the answers to the previous book’s questions.
The magic returns as Ariel does to the narration. Now she has a name and a private life of people who know her and assist her in her endeavors. Before, there were possibilities that she didn't exist or wasn't even human. Now we know more about her and while she is still enigmatic and ethereal, she is more well rounded and more human in personality (though maybe not in reality).
There is an intriguing reveal about Ariel and a motivation over why it was so important for Jan Luis to fall in love. It won't be spoiled here and while somewhat arbitrary at first, in hindsight both books succinctly led to this twist. It becomes not a shocking twist but a natural resolution to two books where circumstances are never coincidence, where people are fated to meet in the right place, time, and right moment, where Higher Powers are watching and give signals for those who observe and listen, and where magic and realism exist side by side. Just like two lovers, they are destined to be together.