A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow Review

A Cuban Girls Guide to Tea and Tomorrow

By Laura Taylor Namey

*** LIGHT SPOILERS ***

Summary

Lila’s had a rough time. Her boyfriend dumped her, her friend betrayed her, and her abuela recently died. Her solution was to just keep things the way they were and hope they got better. Her family, however, had other plans. So instead of spending her summer in Miami, Lila is sent off to England in hopes of improving her mental health. She’s not excited about it and doesn’t think it’ll work out for her the way her family wants it to. But, when she’s introduced to Orion Maxwell, who insists on showing her around Winchester, Lila starts to open up to a summer in Britain.

Great Things About the Book

• · I loved that throughout this book we got to see Lila grow as a character and realize that the things she’s passionate about don’t change from place to place. Her abuela’s influence was clear in the scenes where she worked with Flora and it was really great to see. The Lila we meet at the beginning of the book is clearly different from the Lila that we see at the end. Namey did an amazing job with her character arc.

• Both the British culture and the Cuban/Floridian culture are really well shown throughout the story. Several times while reading, I wanted to just book a plane ticket to England and go see these places myself.

• · Along the lines of wanting to do things that I read in the book, I really enjoyed all the baking that was mentioned. It really made me want to bake something too.

• · Really great references throughout the story. Especially the star references in Lila’s nickname and Orion’s actual name. I loved how those two both had something to do with the stars. It made them feel even more destined to be together in the end.

One Thing I Disliked

• · One thing that I didn’t like as much about this book was that I felt like some of the subplots got a bit lost. There are a couple of instances where I especially felt this way. I wanted to see more of what was going on with Flora and Gordon. I felt like things were getting built up with Flora and then when Lila left things just kind of stopped there. I feel like there was more potential in Flora’s story that Namey just kind of dropped. Of course, she could pick Flora’s story back up for a second book that I would instant-buy, but I don’t know if she’ll do that or not. Also, I felt like Lila’s reconnection with her friend, Stefanie, was extremely short as well. Like, it was built up quite a bit but then it also was just a quick thing and that was all. I think maybe if these few things that got dropped toward the end got cleared up a bit then that would make me love this book even more.

Rating

• · 9 out of 10. I loved exploring the British culture with Orion and the Cuban culture with Lila. This book was absolutely adorable and a super fun