Alejandro and Maela is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, or at least that's what it seems like at first. Maela is now the wife of a wealthy businessman in Havana, but Alejandro is her one true love. A gang member and street rat, Alejandro could not compete for Maela's hand like her husband, Roberto could, even though he held her heart. But Alejandro isn't as much of a Romeo as Maela thinks he is. He would do anything to hold onto her, even if it hurt her. 
This entire story is a bait and switch. Even though at first you think it's about two star-crossed teenagers, it becomes clear that Alejandro isn't the real love interest here, and thank goodness for that. 
There isn't much character to Alejandro. He's a gang member and apparently an artist as well. He's caring enough to paint Maela a watercolor painting and to meet her every week. But his "love" for Maela gets dark when he feels threatened by Roberto. Even though I had mixed feelings of Roberto at first-- after all, he arranged his marriage to her without even talking to her first-- I was completely rooting for him when Alejandro played dirty. He actually tried to pressure Maela into having sex with him so she would be unmarriageable. Seriously not cool. Luckily, Roberto turns out to be a great love interest. 
Roberto appears cold at first. Maela is expected to look presentable for him when he comes home and plays the part of hostess, but even in the first scene it's clear he cares for her. He notices when she's sad and also thinks her beautiful. But he's very distant. But Roberto quickly becomes my favorite character. He's very respectful of Maela in a way that Alejandro never was. Roberto doesn't demand or even ask for any physical contact between them even though they're married. And he does everything he can to make Maela feel loved, even stopping his Mercedes on the side of the road and picking wildflowers in his business suit. There's still some things I don't like about him. He's twice the age of Maela and he arranged the marriage with her parents without even talking to her about it. I know that is normal in that culture-- they said as much--- but it's still a pretty big turn-off for me. On top of that, he had never even met Maela! He saw her on the side of the road and immediately started planning the wedding! That doesn't even make sense for his character! He hadn't ever shown interest in women before, despite all the women throwing themselves at him and now he suddenly wants to marry a woman that he glimpsed through a car window? That makes no sense. 
But aside from that strange character inconsistency, I love Roberto, and this is a great love story. Alejandro and Maela has a 5 star average on Smashwords, but I'd give this story 3.5 out of 5 stars. I really wish the story was longer, and there was a lot of room for growth. Most of the scenes were summarized with very little dialog and action and I would have loved to see more. However, even with most of it summarized, this story is powerful and I love and care for the characters. And that is very difficult to do. A. M. Gray is definitely a skilled writer and I will love reading more of her works in the future.