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Girl’s Guide
A British Girl's Guide to Hurricanes and Heartbreak
In this highly anticipated companion to the
New York Times
bestseller and Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club YA Pick
A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow
, Flora Maxwell heads to Miami to find a path for her future . . . and finds her heart along the way.
Winchester has always been home for Flora, but when her mother dies, Flora feels untethered. Her family expects her to apply to university and take a larger role in their tea-shop business, but Flora isn’t so sure. More than ever, she’s the chaotic 'hurricane' in her household, and she doesn’t always know how to manage her stormy emotions. So she decides to escape to Miami without telling anyone – especially her longtime friend Gordon Wallace.
But Flora’s tropical change of scenery doesn't cast away her self-doubt. When it comes to university, she has no idea which passions she should follow. That’s also true in romance. Flora’s summer abroad lands her in the flashbulb world of teen influencer Baz Marín, a Miami Cuban who shares her love for photography. But Flora’s more conflicted than ever when she begins to see future architect Gordon in a new light.
Winchester has always been home for Flora, but when her mother dies, Flora feels untethered. Her family expects her to apply to university and take a larger role in their tea-shop business, but Flora isn’t so sure. More than ever, she’s the chaotic 'hurricane' in her household, and she doesn’t always know how to manage her stormy emotions. So she decides to escape to Miami without telling anyone – especially her longtime friend Gordon Wallace.
But Flora’s tropical change of scenery doesn't cast away her self-doubt. When it comes to university, she has no idea which passions she should follow. That’s also true in romance. Flora’s summer abroad lands her in the flashbulb world of teen influencer Baz Marín, a Miami Cuban who shares her love for photography. But Flora’s more conflicted than ever when she begins to see future architect Gordon in a new light.
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First published September 26, 2023
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About the author
Laura Taylor Namey
7 books1,018 followersLaura Taylor Namey is the New York Times and international bestselling author of young adult fiction including Reese's Book Club pick A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow. A proud Cuban-American, she can be found hunting for vintage treasures and wishing she was in London or Paris. She lives in San Diego with her husband and two children.
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July 6, 2025
"Flora."
"Baz."
"You're not okay, are you?"
My heart takes a shuddering breath, makes a shift, and where there's usually fight and storm, there is only a weariness that's so much deeper than any poor excuse.
"Not exactly."
This book felt like a chore to read. It's not a long story, in the contrary, but to me it seemed like whole eternity had passed before I finished reading it. I can't believe I finally made it to the end!
ATTENTION! FLORA MAXWELL RANT INCOMING! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!!
After Lila Reyes story we had to witness the Flora Maxwell's story - you know, the girl's that had been maybe not an essential part of the previous book, but definitely one of the highlights of it. I liked Flora back then and I was curious what's her storyline will look like with her as the protagonist.
It wasn't anything good, though. Unfortunately.
I just COULDN'T STAND Flora as a character in this book. She infuriated me with her actions and her behaviour, and her speeches, and her so-called problems and overall with everything. While I could relate to Lila and I could understand Lila's actions and motives, I could NOT for the life of me understand Flora. Her behavior felt completely irrational to me and the fact that, after everything she had done, all it took for her to make everything all right again was just a simple "I'm sorry". She did NOT go through any change during her story. She did NOT found herself nor she did NOT found any answers she had been looking for during her story, she just left Winchester came to Miami, did some modeling and photography and fake dating, realized out of nowhere that she loves her best friend, suddenly remembered that she has a family that she did NOT inform about her little trip, apologized, came back home and that was it. That's the whole story.
She choose to escape Winchester and leave her family to "fix herself" or whatever, after the loss of her mother and after the mistakes she made, but there was absolutely no indication of her grieving. There was no trauma, no breaking point, nothing. She just mentioned her mom here and there when the author managed to remember that the whole point of her escape was the loss of the mother and her inability to deal with it.
My life has felt too authentic for years. There, disease is real, and it takes. Memory. Mothers. Shame and mistakes and grief - God, they're so real, they're bloody everywhere. No, my camera craves an escape that lets me breathe. A better frame. A brighter filler.
This is one of the problems of the story - the author focuses so much on Flora 'escaping' the pain that forgot to show us her grief - and with it the emotional connection to her. Just like with Lila's story, there were no flashback scenes with Flora and her mother, so you could not feel the same emotions that Flora was supposed to feel. You as a reader don't know Flora's mom. You just here about her here and there. You also don't know what kind of relationship Flora even had with her. Heck, you don't even get much of the Maxwell family scenes, because Flora spends most of the book away from Winchester (supposedly with Lila's family, but what she was actually doing was spending time with Baz Márin and his friends).
Don't be too kind. I don't deserve it.
Flora is creating herself as the 'bad person', trying to distance herself from everyone, and feeling guilty over the wrong calls she had made and over hurting people she supposedly cares for, but she does NOT try to fix herself and does not try make different choices. And she does not try to fix the wrong things she had done. All she did was just a simple "I'm sorry" and everything was all right again.
The problem isn't what I'm seeing; the problem is that I'll hurt him. With all my lies and secrets, I'll hurt him just like I've made a mess of everything else. Lately, that always seem to happen when I get to love and protect myself. Why should Gordon end up any safer?
This is how Flora Maxwell's character is build upon - the 'ME, MYSELF AND I' attitude that is disguised as the 'I'm trying to do good, but always end up doing bad' thingy. She CONSTANTLY focuses on herself, one way or another, even if she's talking about somebody else (like Gordon, for example). Heck, she even managed to make her mom's passing all about herself, just look at this:
Children of dementia are doomed to lose their parents twice. I would lose my mom twice, mind and heartbeat - a double death. One plus one times two. And God help me, I decided I would not give a disease the satisfaction. I would protect myself, control everything I still could. I would give Flora Maxwell this one bit.
DO YOU GET WHAT I MEAN??!
I understand the need to protect herself from the loss and pain, I really do, but o my gosh, the family was in SHAMBLES because of the whole Evelyn thing, and what Flora decided to do was just entirely focusing on herself, instead of trying to be a beacon of hope and a supportive hand for the people she claimed to care for.
Oh, oh, wait, try to guess what she had done the day her mom was dying? SHE SPENDS IT MAKING PHOTOS. YEAH.
She got a desperate call from her family, so she knew that her mom was dying, but she, instead of rushing to the hospital right away, decided to spend the time making photos in a park. I understand the fear of saying goodbye, the fear of seeing the beloved person on her death door. I do, I was there. But to do something like this?? It's beyond my imagination.
"You're not the only one who lost a mother." (Orion)
Flora never made anything easy for anybody, really, just focusing on herself and her needs, completely ignoring the feelings and needs of the people she claimed to care for. Her brother is the best example of that. She focuses so much on her loss and her problems that she ignored the fact that her beloved brother also lost his parent. He was also struggling and also needed guidance, someone to be by his side, someone he could rely on. What Flora did was just assume that, because he's a strong person, he does not need any help and focused on herself. She didn't talk to him at all, didn't bring any effort, she just left their home without any word or any note. And then she had the audacity to be surprised that her brother didn't want to talk to her and that her apology didn't work right away.
Four months to lock in what, and even who, I want to be. Easy for some, but when have I ever been the easy one?
She had a problem to choose what to do with her future, which is something everybody are struggling with, so I should easily relate to this. But I didn't, because she had every freaking opportunity ever, provided by the care of her brother and her father, but blindly ignored all of that and had run away, crying how hard it is to made a choice.
"What's a psychologist going to tell me? That I need to face my past and my loss? I've faces that trauma so often, I've named it a hundred times over. Reframed it into a hundred photos.
1) She did not show us that trauma. 2) She refused to seek help, even when she found out that her family members were visiting a psychologist and suggested her to find one too. She is better than that, you know? She can manage on her own!
"Did you want to be my friend for real?"
"Fucking hell, Flora," he snarls. "How can you say that?"
I snap up, finding his face pulled tense and tight and his neck flamed and burning red.
"I mean, I know that you're my friend NOW."
"Do you?"
One of Flora's problems, also showcased in book one (in the Lila's story) was her feelings of not being seen by others. This is why she started the whole graffiti thing back then, but Lila took her under her wing and Flora calmed down. This problem came back in here, but in quite different form. She was claiming to not being seen by others, but was the one who didn't seen other people. She did not seen her father, she did not seen her brother and she did not seen her supposed best friend. She ignored Gordon's feelings, focusing on herself, and she even had the audacity to question their friendship, while Gordon did nothing else than being loyal to her, trying his best to be for her and to cheer her up. She did NOT deserve him, neither as a friend and neither as a lover (but it's a romance book, so of course they got together).
Btw, the romance in this book was completely uninteresting, just like Flora's character was uninteresting. She got with Gordon eventually, what was supposed to happen all along, yay. And got her happy ending by not bringing any effort to get it and to fix everything. Yay.
I am so glad that this series is a duology, because I don't think I could bring myself to read another book. I think it would have been even worse than this one.
"Baz."
"You're not okay, are you?"
My heart takes a shuddering breath, makes a shift, and where there's usually fight and storm, there is only a weariness that's so much deeper than any poor excuse.
"Not exactly."
This book felt like a chore to read. It's not a long story, in the contrary, but to me it seemed like whole eternity had passed before I finished reading it. I can't believe I finally made it to the end!
ATTENTION! FLORA MAXWELL RANT INCOMING! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!!
After Lila Reyes story we had to witness the Flora Maxwell's story - you know, the girl's that had been maybe not an essential part of the previous book, but definitely one of the highlights of it. I liked Flora back then and I was curious what's her storyline will look like with her as the protagonist.
It wasn't anything good, though. Unfortunately.
I just COULDN'T STAND Flora as a character in this book. She infuriated me with her actions and her behaviour, and her speeches, and her so-called problems and overall with everything. While I could relate to Lila and I could understand Lila's actions and motives, I could NOT for the life of me understand Flora. Her behavior felt completely irrational to me and the fact that, after everything she had done, all it took for her to make everything all right again was just a simple "I'm sorry". She did NOT go through any change during her story. She did NOT found herself nor she did NOT found any answers she had been looking for during her story, she just left Winchester came to Miami, did some modeling and photography and fake dating, realized out of nowhere that she loves her best friend, suddenly remembered that she has a family that she did NOT inform about her little trip, apologized, came back home and that was it. That's the whole story.
She choose to escape Winchester and leave her family to "fix herself" or whatever, after the loss of her mother and after the mistakes she made, but there was absolutely no indication of her grieving. There was no trauma, no breaking point, nothing. She just mentioned her mom here and there when the author managed to remember that the whole point of her escape was the loss of the mother and her inability to deal with it.
My life has felt too authentic for years. There, disease is real, and it takes. Memory. Mothers. Shame and mistakes and grief - God, they're so real, they're bloody everywhere. No, my camera craves an escape that lets me breathe. A better frame. A brighter filler.
This is one of the problems of the story - the author focuses so much on Flora 'escaping' the pain that forgot to show us her grief - and with it the emotional connection to her. Just like with Lila's story, there were no flashback scenes with Flora and her mother, so you could not feel the same emotions that Flora was supposed to feel. You as a reader don't know Flora's mom. You just here about her here and there. You also don't know what kind of relationship Flora even had with her. Heck, you don't even get much of the Maxwell family scenes, because Flora spends most of the book away from Winchester (supposedly with Lila's family, but what she was actually doing was spending time with Baz Márin and his friends).
Don't be too kind. I don't deserve it.
Flora is creating herself as the 'bad person', trying to distance herself from everyone, and feeling guilty over the wrong calls she had made and over hurting people she supposedly cares for, but she does NOT try to fix herself and does not try make different choices. And she does not try to fix the wrong things she had done. All she did was just a simple "I'm sorry" and everything was all right again.
The problem isn't what I'm seeing; the problem is that I'll hurt him. With all my lies and secrets, I'll hurt him just like I've made a mess of everything else. Lately, that always seem to happen when I get to love and protect myself. Why should Gordon end up any safer?
This is how Flora Maxwell's character is build upon - the 'ME, MYSELF AND I' attitude that is disguised as the 'I'm trying to do good, but always end up doing bad' thingy. She CONSTANTLY focuses on herself, one way or another, even if she's talking about somebody else (like Gordon, for example). Heck, she even managed to make her mom's passing all about herself, just look at this:
Children of dementia are doomed to lose their parents twice. I would lose my mom twice, mind and heartbeat - a double death. One plus one times two. And God help me, I decided I would not give a disease the satisfaction. I would protect myself, control everything I still could. I would give Flora Maxwell this one bit.
DO YOU GET WHAT I MEAN??!
I understand the need to protect herself from the loss and pain, I really do, but o my gosh, the family was in SHAMBLES because of the whole Evelyn thing, and what Flora decided to do was just entirely focusing on herself, instead of trying to be a beacon of hope and a supportive hand for the people she claimed to care for.
Oh, oh, wait, try to guess what she had done the day her mom was dying? SHE SPENDS IT MAKING PHOTOS. YEAH.
She got a desperate call from her family, so she knew that her mom was dying, but she, instead of rushing to the hospital right away, decided to spend the time making photos in a park. I understand the fear of saying goodbye, the fear of seeing the beloved person on her death door. I do, I was there. But to do something like this?? It's beyond my imagination.
"You're not the only one who lost a mother." (Orion)
Flora never made anything easy for anybody, really, just focusing on herself and her needs, completely ignoring the feelings and needs of the people she claimed to care for. Her brother is the best example of that. She focuses so much on her loss and her problems that she ignored the fact that her beloved brother also lost his parent. He was also struggling and also needed guidance, someone to be by his side, someone he could rely on. What Flora did was just assume that, because he's a strong person, he does not need any help and focused on herself. She didn't talk to him at all, didn't bring any effort, she just left their home without any word or any note. And then she had the audacity to be surprised that her brother didn't want to talk to her and that her apology didn't work right away.
Four months to lock in what, and even who, I want to be. Easy for some, but when have I ever been the easy one?
She had a problem to choose what to do with her future, which is something everybody are struggling with, so I should easily relate to this. But I didn't, because she had every freaking opportunity ever, provided by the care of her brother and her father, but blindly ignored all of that and had run away, crying how hard it is to made a choice.
"What's a psychologist going to tell me? That I need to face my past and my loss? I've faces that trauma so often, I've named it a hundred times over. Reframed it into a hundred photos.
1) She did not show us that trauma. 2) She refused to seek help, even when she found out that her family members were visiting a psychologist and suggested her to find one too. She is better than that, you know? She can manage on her own!
"Did you want to be my friend for real?"
"Fucking hell, Flora," he snarls. "How can you say that?"
I snap up, finding his face pulled tense and tight and his neck flamed and burning red.
"I mean, I know that you're my friend NOW."
"Do you?"
One of Flora's problems, also showcased in book one (in the Lila's story) was her feelings of not being seen by others. This is why she started the whole graffiti thing back then, but Lila took her under her wing and Flora calmed down. This problem came back in here, but in quite different form. She was claiming to not being seen by others, but was the one who didn't seen other people. She did not seen her father, she did not seen her brother and she did not seen her supposed best friend. She ignored Gordon's feelings, focusing on herself, and she even had the audacity to question their friendship, while Gordon did nothing else than being loyal to her, trying his best to be for her and to cheer her up. She did NOT deserve him, neither as a friend and neither as a lover (but it's a romance book, so of course they got together).
Btw, the romance in this book was completely uninteresting, just like Flora's character was uninteresting. She got with Gordon eventually, what was supposed to happen all along, yay. And got her happy ending by not bringing any effort to get it and to fix everything. Yay.
I am so glad that this series is a duology, because I don't think I could bring myself to read another book. I think it would have been even worse than this one.
June 9, 2023
This book was a pleasure to read! For one, the references to weather and hurricanes were accurate, instead of being dramatic for the sake of the story like is sometimes done. (I'm a meteorologist, what can I say.) I think for a while Gordan was my favorite character. Though I understand the grief and choices Flora made, I occasionally wanted to fight her. I think the journey of her learning to deal with her grief and also find her passion is a really important one. I also likes the inclusion of different cultures in the south FL area and the way they accept Flora and Gordan into their craziness. Overall, a really cute and good story. Very heartwarming by the end.
September 22, 2023
A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow is one of my all time favourite YA contemporaries, so I was beyond excited when this was announced and I’m happy to report it was a more than worthy follow up.
I have such a soft spot for angry girls in YA, even more so when those angry girls are allowed to be angry, allowed to grow and are allowed to be loved both because of and despite of their anger. Flora was infuriating, messy, angry, charming, flawed and so very human and I loved that for her. The romance was slow, soft, messy, charged and entirely endearing.
This was a sweet, warm and emotional story of grief, healing and the fear that comes with growing up and having to face both your future and the person you are and want to be.
I love the way Laure Taylor Namey writes stories and characters and I look forward to reading more of her work!
I have such a soft spot for angry girls in YA, even more so when those angry girls are allowed to be angry, allowed to grow and are allowed to be loved both because of and despite of their anger. Flora was infuriating, messy, angry, charming, flawed and so very human and I loved that for her. The romance was slow, soft, messy, charged and entirely endearing.
This was a sweet, warm and emotional story of grief, healing and the fear that comes with growing up and having to face both your future and the person you are and want to be.
I love the way Laure Taylor Namey writes stories and characters and I look forward to reading more of her work!
June 21, 2025
this book felt like a hug for the girls who are ‘too much’
🌊☀️🐚🩷
🌊☀️🐚🩷
September 27, 2023
I enjoyed Namey’s previous book, A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow so I knew I had to read this book and I was so excited to be sent a complimentary advance copy courtesy of Booksparks Back to Books Fall Reading Challenge.
This book focuses on Flora Maxwell (Orion’s sister from book 1) and how she deals with grief over the death of her mother. Flora is the kind of character that you can’t help but feel for. She was so lost, feeling directionless and unmoored. In a fit of emotion, she runs away from England to Miami to stay with Lila’s family, the Reyes’.
I adored the characters in this book and how Namey made Miami come to life - the sights, the food, the social scene, etc. How Flora found herself and came to terms with everything she has gone through was so human, messy and endearing.
This was a wonderful heart-wrenching YA story of grief, healing, hope and love.
This book focuses on Flora Maxwell (Orion’s sister from book 1) and how she deals with grief over the death of her mother. Flora is the kind of character that you can’t help but feel for. She was so lost, feeling directionless and unmoored. In a fit of emotion, she runs away from England to Miami to stay with Lila’s family, the Reyes’.
I adored the characters in this book and how Namey made Miami come to life - the sights, the food, the social scene, etc. How Flora found herself and came to terms with everything she has gone through was so human, messy and endearing.
This was a wonderful heart-wrenching YA story of grief, healing, hope and love.
October 5, 2023
As a fan of A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, I was interested to see how this companion novel, set in Miami, would turn out. This one navigates grief in interesting ways, but I found myself wanting more. I appreciated the mistakes the main character makes and found that her relationship with photography is well-written, but I didn’t find any of the characters very memorable. The love triangle was a bit of a miss for me as well, and I would have liked to see more development for Gordon’s character especially. That said, this is an emotional and heartwarming story with beautiful writing that I’m sure fans of the author’s previous work will enjoy.
Read
February 15, 2024DNF 37%
This did not guide me to work through heartbreak like I thought it would 😑😒
This did not guide me to work through heartbreak like I thought it would 😑😒
Read
October 13, 2023While occasionally I wanted to knock some sense into Flora, I also sympathized with her. This angry, broken girl who wants to be loved but is afraid of being seen, who pushes others away in her attempts to protect them, who rarely gives a second thought to her actions until it’s too late. I liked reading from her perspective.
Gordon is Gordon. Never change, my friend.
The tropes were obvious but not too formulaic. The setup of the fake dating felt kind of contrived, but I appreciated that that—and the love triangle—eventually took a different turn than I was expecting.
There is this trope of the Indecisive Female Protagonist who is Really Quite Bad at Communicating. But while Flora IS quite bad at communicating (in the beginning), and can come off as indecisive (by virtue of the love triangle thing), it's all tied to her character arc and her backstory. We understand why she acts like this because we see her, from the very start, avoiding her problems. Reframing reality. It's deeper than just being annoying. And she does grow and mature—and nicely enough, the romance supports that arc!
(That last voicemail scene though.)
Okay. So there is some language, and certain parts of the story feel slightly contrived or like the characters are floating-around-slightly-aimlessly-but-hey-they're-having-fun. But it was sweet and vibrant and I did love how the heartfelt character work took precedence. And as with Lila’s story, this one is making me crave Cuban food.
3.5 stars
Gordon is Gordon. Never change, my friend.
The tropes were obvious but not too formulaic. The setup of the fake dating felt kind of contrived, but I appreciated that that—and the love triangle—eventually took a different turn than I was expecting.
There is this trope of the Indecisive Female Protagonist who is Really Quite Bad at Communicating. But while Flora IS quite bad at communicating (in the beginning), and can come off as indecisive (by virtue of the love triangle thing), it's all tied to her character arc and her backstory. We understand why she acts like this because we see her, from the very start, avoiding her problems. Reframing reality. It's deeper than just being annoying. And she does grow and mature—and nicely enough, the romance supports that arc!
(That last voicemail scene though.)
Okay. So there is some language, and certain parts of the story feel slightly contrived or like the characters are floating-around-slightly-aimlessly-but-hey-they're-having-fun. But it was sweet and vibrant and I did love how the heartfelt character work took precedence. And as with Lila’s story, this one is making me crave Cuban food.
3.5 stars
January 23, 2024
Absolutely incredible and made me tear up a couple times. Flordon supremacy.
Flora is an angry, grieving girl trying to run away from her mistakes, even all the way from England to Miami. A girl trying to reckon with her mother’s death and her mistakes and how she’s ruined things with her family. Trying to find a fresh start and a place where people don’t look at her with pity and hurt. She embraces the label “hurricane” and accepts as inevitable the harm she causes other people, but only when she experiences a hurricane does she realize just how destructive they are. How destructive SHE is. I loved Flora’s journey and her growth. She is such a great character, and I’m so glad she got her own book.
Also, I don’t generally care for love triangles, but I thought this one was done pretty well. Also, it turned out the way I wanted it to, so that helped, haha.
An amazing sequel to an amazing book. I hope we get another sequel. Maybe about Baz?
Flora is an angry, grieving girl trying to run away from her mistakes, even all the way from England to Miami. A girl trying to reckon with her mother’s death and her mistakes and how she’s ruined things with her family. Trying to find a fresh start and a place where people don’t look at her with pity and hurt. She embraces the label “hurricane” and accepts as inevitable the harm she causes other people, but only when she experiences a hurricane does she realize just how destructive they are. How destructive SHE is. I loved Flora’s journey and her growth. She is such a great character, and I’m so glad she got her own book.
Also, I don’t generally care for love triangles, but I thought this one was done pretty well. Also, it turned out the way I wanted it to, so that helped, haha.
An amazing sequel to an amazing book. I hope we get another sequel. Maybe about Baz?
November 12, 2023
3.5 stars
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review!
I really ought to have read A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow before reading this; I think this story would have had more of an emotional impact upon me had I known more of Flora's backstory. I do think that the depiction of grief within this story is well done, and while Flora could be quite a frustrating character, as she was very self-absorbed, I think this can be forgiven considering what she's been through. Girls are allowed to be angry as well and I liked how the author showed this, and showed Flora's character development as she slowly moves forward in her life.
Love triangles aren't my favourite trope, and while this one wasn't done badly by any means, I still don't think it was necessary. It was obvious from the beginning who Flora was going to end up with, and I don't understand why that wasn't carried out to its full potential and the other love interest could have just been a friend? I also think that given the nature of what Flora's going through with her grief, figuring out her feelings for two different people at the same time meant that you couldn't be fully invested in either.
Overall, an enjoyable read, but I would definitely recommend reading A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow first!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review!
I really ought to have read A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow before reading this; I think this story would have had more of an emotional impact upon me had I known more of Flora's backstory. I do think that the depiction of grief within this story is well done, and while Flora could be quite a frustrating character, as she was very self-absorbed, I think this can be forgiven considering what she's been through. Girls are allowed to be angry as well and I liked how the author showed this, and showed Flora's character development as she slowly moves forward in her life.
Love triangles aren't my favourite trope, and while this one wasn't done badly by any means, I still don't think it was necessary. It was obvious from the beginning who Flora was going to end up with, and I don't understand why that wasn't carried out to its full potential and the other love interest could have just been a friend? I also think that given the nature of what Flora's going through with her grief, figuring out her feelings for two different people at the same time meant that you couldn't be fully invested in either.
Overall, an enjoyable read, but I would definitely recommend reading A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow first!
March 1, 2024
I read the first book, couldn’t remember the characters too well, guess it wasn’t too memorable…
Idl that this is just a flip flop of the first book. Lila is from Miami and goes to England, and Flora is from England and goes to Miami. I’d rather be reading about England.
The writing is so dramatic. I thought the day her mom died and what she did was something really big and bad, but she just didn’t come right away when her mom was dying, because she was taking pictures and didn’t want to see it. I guess that is bad. How she lied to her family about being in an accident too. But it’s understandable she wouldn’t want to be there for the final moment.
This had my least favorite kind of writing(outside of boring writing), which is really dramatic, flowery sentences and metaphors that are really just confusing and don’t make a bit of sense.
‘The pull is similar to when you hear a new song that reaches right out from the radio and clamps around your chest.’
‘But now this small part of us is soft and shaded pink.’
‘And if you really want to knock me off a perfectly fine stool, tell me something sweet and good that I haven’t earned. Then I’ll really twist it ‘round until it’s grown spikes to hurt us both.’
‘Guilt and shame flash from the clearest full-color photograph.’
‘I’ve faxed that trauma so often, I’ve named it a hundred times over. Reframed it into a hundred photos.’
‘I try to lose myself, too, sinking feet-first into the kind of music that can mend as much as break you. It pulls me close with all its minor bends. With layer-cake harmonies and expert piano trills.’
‘Beyond the wall, the band plays a new song, but the salty current thrums its own rhythm, arrogantly, in a way that makes me envy it.’
‘There’s the soft-sharp memory of my mother, the pink blossoms she named me after the lightning she left when it was time to leave me.’
‘His body eclipses so much of my (i)too much(/i), even in the dark of night.’
I was not feeling the heroine. Idl her voice, personality, and that never changed. She didn’t grow very much for me. What growth she did do was at the very end. And this “big thing” was texting her brother that she loved him & was sorry. Like really. You should have done that from the get go.
The heroine says stuff out loud that I’m sure she’s saying to us readers in her head, that seem like an internal thought but nope there’s quotations around them and I can’t believe she’s saying it out loud because it doesn’t seem like something you’d say. It was awkward.
It was ridiculous and unrealistic how she was barely in town and pretending to be a model and right after that she’s made a bet to be a fake gf! And after that she’s modeling for someone’s portfolio! Come on! The average person is not a model. Who goes to Miami and ends up modeling and learning photography from a famous photographers son?? This couldn’t be more far-fetched.
The hurricane thing is ridiculous too. I got so damn sick of the word hurricane and storm and her comparing herself to both. You are a person, not a hurricane. Her grandma called her hurricane because she knocked a vase over as a kid, and she decided to model her whole personality after that? What kid hasn’t done something like that? It’s called being a kid. Besides tagging walls with spray paint, I don’t see that she was much of a hurricane. More like a hot mess.
‘She gets me, heart and hurricane.’
‘I already bared part of my soul and gave Baz a taste of my own hurricane, which he withstood as well as any Miami native.’
‘This time, instead of capturing it, he’s the one who creates the lightning strike with a force hotter than pink.
But my newly discovered truth booms as loud as thunder.’
Flora was relatable in that she sometimes twisted peoples words, or only heard the negative in what they said. And her temper. Though she rarely showed it.
Her whole take on photography was weird.
“Isn’t it about me getting to frame things how I see best?” I ask with a little sharpness. “To make an image come out the way I want it to be?”
‘A layer that’s not about me as a hurting, striving girl making her camera into a weapon.’
‘And I grin, too, over my best photo from a time when I’m not trying to keep out hurt and disease from the frame. Instead, I let in all the light.’
‘I’m to include rust on metal fences, graffiti paint on walls. I’m not to crop out flaws in plants and cracks in sidewalks. Mentally, this words with my current rift with Orion. To reach him, I have to deal with the imperfect bits between us, too.’ What does Orion have to do with the way you photograph??
The importance of his picture was weird: ‘I trap the feeling that maybe something—someone-led him there to grab that moment just for me. So bright and pink and strong when everything around me was sinking.’
What a ridiculous notion.
She’s wondering what she should study in college and the answer is pretty obvious: photography! Baz actually has to point out she could major in photography.
And then she’s being photographed by Kelly, the match Baz’s mom wants to set him up with. Who just gets offered modeling jobs like that?? This is so unrealistic!
I wasn’t feeling the chemistry between the characters. Probably because she spent almost the whole book not acknowledging her feelings for Gordon.
‘Me: That’s what you think girls do when they hang? You forgot pillow fights and ringing cute guys anonymously and hanging up after they answer.
Gordon: You texted me, not rang. And you didn’t hang up.’
If Gordon always liked her why did he date someone else? She’s clearly feeling something towards him so I was disappointed she kissed Baz. Knowing she was jealous of seeing him talking/dancing with Kelly, so how could she do more than that?
‘Eyes fixed, I don’t even realize what I’m doing until I’m holding Baz’s camera. The rush of pride and control, the power to change and reframe, storms in like a familiar remedy.
(I didn’t stay close. I show the world instead.)’
What are you talking about??
‘I’m not supposed to take pictures just as a grieving person looking for a remedy, but as something more. As…a photographer.’
It’s always about her. Flora’s moods. Flora feeling bad. Try asking someone else how they are. We finally learn about Baz’s tattoo and she turns it back around on herself, how she hadn’t honored HER family.
‘Just the sound of this plan throws sparks from the center of my chest.’
‘It lasts—the opposite of flighty. The other side of wasted and squandered, and blown away by the wind. Or a storm.’
‘Haven’t I risen, proud and tall, over a hundred of life’s greatest pains? A hurricane girl knows this well.’
‘My heart takes a shuddering breath, makes a shift, and where there’s usually fight and storm, there is only a weariness that’s so much deeper than any poor excuse.’
Even during a freaking hurricane she’s still going on about herself!
‘I’m more tangled because of flora—my enduring grief, the tension over my future, the rift with Dad and Orion, my soreness after Gordon’s parting words, and the raw emotion over seeing his drawing. My heart is a cyclone, and my moans bedroom felt too small and solitary to contain it. And while this hurricane will come and go, my life and the fight to set it straight will rage on.
Behind me the rain has changed, slanting in sharp angles against the glass patio doors. Between me and the water, I win this one. I’m the most slanted force of all.’
EYEROLL. Force of nature Flora, stronger than a hurricane. Stfu. And you don’t need to list all your problems, as if we could forget them, it only takes up 90% of the book. Maybe if you stopped moaning about your problems and actually sat down and gave it some thought, you might reach some conclusions.
“Wait, where are you going?”
“Papi needs help getting something down from the garage.”
“You’re leaving? Now? After you make me admit all these blasted…?”
“Feelings?”’
They’re in a HURRICANE and his dad needs his help and it’s still all about HER!
‘“I love you, Gordon. So much,” I repeat as strong as I can, with every ounce of trying and wishing and dreaming I have left. It comes out a little bit pink.’
‘Overnight, Miami’s grown legs and lungs.’
‘But for years, haven’t I more than emulated you? Haven’t I strived to be the flora version of this Jessica? This monster? Here the feeling morphs again—and instead of rushing back to bed, I must get closer. I have to own what I’ve been, once and for all.’
You’re not a fucking hurricane!
‘But I can’t stop the urge to confront this monster head-on.’
‘I squeeze my eyes and I’m pulled, called, and summoned. (I)she’s you and you’re her and you only need to see. To see, to see.’
Her dumb ass goes out into a hurricane with 100-mile winds and Baz has to come save her,& is actually nice and not calling her a total nutcase,& guess what, they talk about her AGAIN. Big surprise.
Idl the asking to be kissed thing authors are doing in a lot of books now. When the heroine has made it clear SHE WANTS YOU TO KISS HER! She mentioned snogging! It kills the moment for me.
“I strike hard, Gordon. My temper—you’ve seen it. We just went through a hurricane, but I’m one, too. I’m a hurricane.”
“But I don’t want to be that way anymore. I’m going to get help straightaway. But working on my temper and how I cope will take time. Might skip, and it would kill me to hurt you.”
-“But it’s not about being strong enough. Just together enough, okay? If you need to work on some stuff, then brilliant. But if you skip or fall behind, I’ll still be here.”
‘But I can get better at drawing close to my loved ones. When fighting back is best, I’ll let them in to fight with me.’
‘My heart swells with everything a real hurricane showed me, that there’s always going to be another storm. But never another Gordon, and I need to hold on.’
Bloody hell, this became super annoying. The heroine was self-centered, this book was entirely too focused on her, nearly every conversation was about her. So much emphasis on hurricanes and storms, too much. I couldn’t wait to finish. I didn’t like this voice, the plot, I wasn’t feeling the romance either. This was a heavier book than I like. Only a few things were genuinely funny, and this was so bogged down by the heroine and her past and the way she handled it.
I wish Baz hadn’t even been in here as a romantic option. She’s leaving Miami in weeks anyway, there was no point. Or Gordon wasn’t a choice. I personally didn’t see the attraction between them. I much preferred Baz. The rubber rat prank, I mean come on…too goofy for me.
Idl that this is just a flip flop of the first book. Lila is from Miami and goes to England, and Flora is from England and goes to Miami. I’d rather be reading about England.
The writing is so dramatic. I thought the day her mom died and what she did was something really big and bad, but she just didn’t come right away when her mom was dying, because she was taking pictures and didn’t want to see it. I guess that is bad. How she lied to her family about being in an accident too. But it’s understandable she wouldn’t want to be there for the final moment.
This had my least favorite kind of writing(outside of boring writing), which is really dramatic, flowery sentences and metaphors that are really just confusing and don’t make a bit of sense.
‘The pull is similar to when you hear a new song that reaches right out from the radio and clamps around your chest.’
‘But now this small part of us is soft and shaded pink.’
‘And if you really want to knock me off a perfectly fine stool, tell me something sweet and good that I haven’t earned. Then I’ll really twist it ‘round until it’s grown spikes to hurt us both.’
‘Guilt and shame flash from the clearest full-color photograph.’
‘I’ve faxed that trauma so often, I’ve named it a hundred times over. Reframed it into a hundred photos.’
‘I try to lose myself, too, sinking feet-first into the kind of music that can mend as much as break you. It pulls me close with all its minor bends. With layer-cake harmonies and expert piano trills.’
‘Beyond the wall, the band plays a new song, but the salty current thrums its own rhythm, arrogantly, in a way that makes me envy it.’
‘There’s the soft-sharp memory of my mother, the pink blossoms she named me after the lightning she left when it was time to leave me.’
‘His body eclipses so much of my (i)too much(/i), even in the dark of night.’
I was not feeling the heroine. Idl her voice, personality, and that never changed. She didn’t grow very much for me. What growth she did do was at the very end. And this “big thing” was texting her brother that she loved him & was sorry. Like really. You should have done that from the get go.
The heroine says stuff out loud that I’m sure she’s saying to us readers in her head, that seem like an internal thought but nope there’s quotations around them and I can’t believe she’s saying it out loud because it doesn’t seem like something you’d say. It was awkward.
It was ridiculous and unrealistic how she was barely in town and pretending to be a model and right after that she’s made a bet to be a fake gf! And after that she’s modeling for someone’s portfolio! Come on! The average person is not a model. Who goes to Miami and ends up modeling and learning photography from a famous photographers son?? This couldn’t be more far-fetched.
The hurricane thing is ridiculous too. I got so damn sick of the word hurricane and storm and her comparing herself to both. You are a person, not a hurricane. Her grandma called her hurricane because she knocked a vase over as a kid, and she decided to model her whole personality after that? What kid hasn’t done something like that? It’s called being a kid. Besides tagging walls with spray paint, I don’t see that she was much of a hurricane. More like a hot mess.
‘She gets me, heart and hurricane.’
‘I already bared part of my soul and gave Baz a taste of my own hurricane, which he withstood as well as any Miami native.’
‘This time, instead of capturing it, he’s the one who creates the lightning strike with a force hotter than pink.
But my newly discovered truth booms as loud as thunder.’
Flora was relatable in that she sometimes twisted peoples words, or only heard the negative in what they said. And her temper. Though she rarely showed it.
Her whole take on photography was weird.
“Isn’t it about me getting to frame things how I see best?” I ask with a little sharpness. “To make an image come out the way I want it to be?”
‘A layer that’s not about me as a hurting, striving girl making her camera into a weapon.’
‘And I grin, too, over my best photo from a time when I’m not trying to keep out hurt and disease from the frame. Instead, I let in all the light.’
‘I’m to include rust on metal fences, graffiti paint on walls. I’m not to crop out flaws in plants and cracks in sidewalks. Mentally, this words with my current rift with Orion. To reach him, I have to deal with the imperfect bits between us, too.’ What does Orion have to do with the way you photograph??
The importance of his picture was weird: ‘I trap the feeling that maybe something—someone-led him there to grab that moment just for me. So bright and pink and strong when everything around me was sinking.’
What a ridiculous notion.
She’s wondering what she should study in college and the answer is pretty obvious: photography! Baz actually has to point out she could major in photography.
And then she’s being photographed by Kelly, the match Baz’s mom wants to set him up with. Who just gets offered modeling jobs like that?? This is so unrealistic!
I wasn’t feeling the chemistry between the characters. Probably because she spent almost the whole book not acknowledging her feelings for Gordon.
‘Me: That’s what you think girls do when they hang? You forgot pillow fights and ringing cute guys anonymously and hanging up after they answer.
Gordon: You texted me, not rang. And you didn’t hang up.’
If Gordon always liked her why did he date someone else? She’s clearly feeling something towards him so I was disappointed she kissed Baz. Knowing she was jealous of seeing him talking/dancing with Kelly, so how could she do more than that?
‘Eyes fixed, I don’t even realize what I’m doing until I’m holding Baz’s camera. The rush of pride and control, the power to change and reframe, storms in like a familiar remedy.
(I didn’t stay close. I show the world instead.)’
What are you talking about??
‘I’m not supposed to take pictures just as a grieving person looking for a remedy, but as something more. As…a photographer.’
It’s always about her. Flora’s moods. Flora feeling bad. Try asking someone else how they are. We finally learn about Baz’s tattoo and she turns it back around on herself, how she hadn’t honored HER family.
‘Just the sound of this plan throws sparks from the center of my chest.’
‘It lasts—the opposite of flighty. The other side of wasted and squandered, and blown away by the wind. Or a storm.’
‘Haven’t I risen, proud and tall, over a hundred of life’s greatest pains? A hurricane girl knows this well.’
‘My heart takes a shuddering breath, makes a shift, and where there’s usually fight and storm, there is only a weariness that’s so much deeper than any poor excuse.’
Even during a freaking hurricane she’s still going on about herself!
‘I’m more tangled because of flora—my enduring grief, the tension over my future, the rift with Dad and Orion, my soreness after Gordon’s parting words, and the raw emotion over seeing his drawing. My heart is a cyclone, and my moans bedroom felt too small and solitary to contain it. And while this hurricane will come and go, my life and the fight to set it straight will rage on.
Behind me the rain has changed, slanting in sharp angles against the glass patio doors. Between me and the water, I win this one. I’m the most slanted force of all.’
EYEROLL. Force of nature Flora, stronger than a hurricane. Stfu. And you don’t need to list all your problems, as if we could forget them, it only takes up 90% of the book. Maybe if you stopped moaning about your problems and actually sat down and gave it some thought, you might reach some conclusions.
“Wait, where are you going?”
“Papi needs help getting something down from the garage.”
“You’re leaving? Now? After you make me admit all these blasted…?”
“Feelings?”’
They’re in a HURRICANE and his dad needs his help and it’s still all about HER!
‘“I love you, Gordon. So much,” I repeat as strong as I can, with every ounce of trying and wishing and dreaming I have left. It comes out a little bit pink.’
‘Overnight, Miami’s grown legs and lungs.’
‘But for years, haven’t I more than emulated you? Haven’t I strived to be the flora version of this Jessica? This monster? Here the feeling morphs again—and instead of rushing back to bed, I must get closer. I have to own what I’ve been, once and for all.’
You’re not a fucking hurricane!
‘But I can’t stop the urge to confront this monster head-on.’
‘I squeeze my eyes and I’m pulled, called, and summoned. (I)she’s you and you’re her and you only need to see. To see, to see.’
Her dumb ass goes out into a hurricane with 100-mile winds and Baz has to come save her,& is actually nice and not calling her a total nutcase,& guess what, they talk about her AGAIN. Big surprise.
Idl the asking to be kissed thing authors are doing in a lot of books now. When the heroine has made it clear SHE WANTS YOU TO KISS HER! She mentioned snogging! It kills the moment for me.
“I strike hard, Gordon. My temper—you’ve seen it. We just went through a hurricane, but I’m one, too. I’m a hurricane.”
“But I don’t want to be that way anymore. I’m going to get help straightaway. But working on my temper and how I cope will take time. Might skip, and it would kill me to hurt you.”
-“But it’s not about being strong enough. Just together enough, okay? If you need to work on some stuff, then brilliant. But if you skip or fall behind, I’ll still be here.”
‘But I can get better at drawing close to my loved ones. When fighting back is best, I’ll let them in to fight with me.’
‘My heart swells with everything a real hurricane showed me, that there’s always going to be another storm. But never another Gordon, and I need to hold on.’
Bloody hell, this became super annoying. The heroine was self-centered, this book was entirely too focused on her, nearly every conversation was about her. So much emphasis on hurricanes and storms, too much. I couldn’t wait to finish. I didn’t like this voice, the plot, I wasn’t feeling the romance either. This was a heavier book than I like. Only a few things were genuinely funny, and this was so bogged down by the heroine and her past and the way she handled it.
I wish Baz hadn’t even been in here as a romantic option. She’s leaving Miami in weeks anyway, there was no point. Or Gordon wasn’t a choice. I personally didn’t see the attraction between them. I much preferred Baz. The rubber rat prank, I mean come on…too goofy for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 16, 2023
I really don’t know how she does it, but the depth of her writing guts me in the best way! It’s also YA and touches grief and pain so well. You do have to remind yourself that the main character is 18 because her emotions are wild, but it’s true emotion. Sometimes destructive but joyful and growing. Gordy and Squidge forever💕 Loved getting to see more from the Reyes family and meeting Baz and his Miama family! These families and characters are so close to your heart by the end of it, and you don’t want it to end!! Ugh. Loved it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 24, 2023
A heartfelt YA love triangle romance that sees Flora, running away to Miami to deal with her grief over her mother's death and try to figure out her post-high school life. I enjoyed the photography focus, the love story plot but I wasn't a huge fan of the audiobook narrator.
Overall this was just an okay read for me and won't go down in my favorites of 2023 list by any means sadly. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!
Overall this was just an okay read for me and won't go down in my favorites of 2023 list by any means sadly. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!
March 2, 2024
Laura Taylor Namey has done it again! I loved this book so much and I want to give Flora a big hug. Her character arc in this book is fabulous and I adored reading her story.
Also, I hate love triangles usually, but the one in this story was perfection and I adore the way it turned out.
Seeing more of Lila and Orion and their family was so fun too.
Also, I hate love triangles usually, but the one in this story was perfection and I adore the way it turned out.
Seeing more of Lila and Orion and their family was so fun too.
May 13, 2024
Entertaining, wholesome, endearing
Flora Maxwell is spending her summer in Miami to take a break from hard feelings at home in England. She gets wrapped up in adventures and meeting new people in Florida, until a loved one from home shows up at her window...
I was so happy to continue following my favorite characters from Lila's story!! I liked how Flora's characters developed and grew in this book. The relationships were sweet and fun to read about. I really enjoyed the emotional aspect as well because it was a big part of the plot. I love when rom coms have interesting character narratives in addition to the main relationship and this one delivered! I love this series so much. 🥰
Flora Maxwell is spending her summer in Miami to take a break from hard feelings at home in England. She gets wrapped up in adventures and meeting new people in Florida, until a loved one from home shows up at her window...
I was so happy to continue following my favorite characters from Lila's story!! I liked how Flora's characters developed and grew in this book. The relationships were sweet and fun to read about. I really enjoyed the emotional aspect as well because it was a big part of the plot. I love when rom coms have interesting character narratives in addition to the main relationship and this one delivered! I love this series so much. 🥰
June 6, 2023
Grief, first love, and discovering the art in your own messiness — all set against the vibrant backdrop of Miami. There were lines in this book that just left me breathless. Beautiful!
January 13, 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️
𝙄𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙝𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙣, 𝙁𝙡𝙤𝙧𝙖 𝙈𝙖𝙭𝙬𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙈𝙞𝙖𝙢𝙞 𝙩𝙤 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙖 𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 . . . 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙮.
This was a big mistake on my part as I didn’t realize this was the sequel to another book, therefore, I would take this review with a grain of salt.
I honestly should’ve read A Cuban Girl’s Guide To Tea And Tomorrow before picking this book up - that was a big mistake on my part. I definitely would’ve resonated more this way.
I don’t mind love triangles in books, I know it’s an unpopular opinion. However, I didn’t really resonate with any of the characters to care for the romance. I did like the coming-of-age and self-discovery aspect though.
There’s no doubt this author does a great job at storytelling and coming up with the perfect settings. I just think this would be more intended for a younger audience, and I would’ve resonated more with it if I had read the previous book - oops!
Thank you so much BookSparks and the publisher for the review copy in exchange for my honest review!
•𝗧𝗪/𝗖𝗪: Death Of Parent, Grief, Dementia, Death
𝙄𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙝𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙣, 𝙁𝙡𝙤𝙧𝙖 𝙈𝙖𝙭𝙬𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙈𝙞𝙖𝙢𝙞 𝙩𝙤 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙖 𝙥𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 . . . 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙮.
This was a big mistake on my part as I didn’t realize this was the sequel to another book, therefore, I would take this review with a grain of salt.
I honestly should’ve read A Cuban Girl’s Guide To Tea And Tomorrow before picking this book up - that was a big mistake on my part. I definitely would’ve resonated more this way.
I don’t mind love triangles in books, I know it’s an unpopular opinion. However, I didn’t really resonate with any of the characters to care for the romance. I did like the coming-of-age and self-discovery aspect though.
There’s no doubt this author does a great job at storytelling and coming up with the perfect settings. I just think this would be more intended for a younger audience, and I would’ve resonated more with it if I had read the previous book - oops!
Thank you so much BookSparks and the publisher for the review copy in exchange for my honest review!
•𝗧𝗪/𝗖𝗪: Death Of Parent, Grief, Dementia, Death
September 27, 2023
I loved A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow; the characters, the setting, and the premise were wonderful and while those characters are mentioned in this one, they don’t play as big a part. Flora, Orion’s sister, is the focus of this one and her grief is a real, and tangible thing, but instead of making her seem vulnerable, it makes her seem selfish and self-absorbed. This one took me a while to get through – not because of the writing (that flowed well and really pulled me into the story) but Flora wasn’t likeable. I get that she feels a connection to Lila and they’re close but I didn’t understand why she was speaking in Spanglish. I may be nitpicking because this one may have been aimed at younger readers who haven’t dealt with grief before but I think this one just wasn’t for me.
I received a copy from #NetGalley for an honest review.
I received a copy from #NetGalley for an honest review.
June 14, 2024
I'm an idiot for not realizing that this book was going to have a love triangle. There are three people on the cover like how did I miss that? Anyway, all of this is to say that the main character ended up choosing the boy I wasn't rooting for. This has never happened to me before! Please respect my privacy as I take this time to grieve.
Good little companion to the previous novel, but nothing special. Felt like it could've been shorter!
Good little companion to the previous novel, but nothing special. Felt like it could've been shorter!
September 29, 2023
Ugh. Just ugh.
Full review: https://inbetweendrafts.com/a-british...
Full review: https://inbetweendrafts.com/a-british...
February 29, 2024
It’s wasn’t written very well in my opinion like the story line was very good but it was very confusing and poorly paced
January 8, 2024
Coming back to this world was heartwarming. I absolutely loved A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow and was excited that Laura wrote a companion novel to it. I was worried I wouldn't be able to get into it because it had been so long since I read the original, but thankfully you are kinda given a good recap. But this book isn't about Lila and Orion, they do make appearances, but more about Flora, Orion's younger wilder sister. She considers herself a hurricane and you definitely see that in this book. This book starts off right after Orion and Flora's mother passes away from her battle with dementia and Flora is not taking it too well. It also doesn't help she doesn't know what she wants to study in uni. So why not do a Lila and skip town to Miami! OH AND THERE'S MORE! Two romantic tropes are put into play, fake dating and friends to lovers...with 2 different guys, Baz and Gordon.
I can relate to Flora in the sense of her grieve the loss of a parent from a horrible disease. Also relate to her with having a family member suffer from dementia so I know how she feels throughout this. Thankfully she has her solace...photography that gets her through it. Seeing her go to Miami for her solace was lovely to see and for her to explore what Florida has to offer with Cuban history.
I would definitely recommend this book, especially if you loved A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow. It is a nice continuation of the world Laura has crafted and the characters are relatable in their emotions and actions.
I can relate to Flora in the sense of her grieve the loss of a parent from a horrible disease. Also relate to her with having a family member suffer from dementia so I know how she feels throughout this. Thankfully she has her solace...photography that gets her through it. Seeing her go to Miami for her solace was lovely to see and for her to explore what Florida has to offer with Cuban history.
I would definitely recommend this book, especially if you loved A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow. It is a nice continuation of the world Laura has crafted and the characters are relatable in their emotions and actions.
January 3, 2024
A British Girl’s Guide to Hurricanes and Heartbreak is a gorgeous coming-of-age story. I loved the ongoing theme of hurricanes and Flora’s journey to self-discovery was executed wonderfully. But…
I wanted more romance! And furthermore, I wanted a romance I could believe. I didn’t feel any chemistry between Flora and Gordon (or even Flora and Baz), though as friends they were super cute. I just needed a LOT more to buy into their romantic relationship at the end!
I am DESPERATE to visit Miami and Little Havana now, though! The author painted such a wonderful picture of the vibrant culture there.
I wanted more romance! And furthermore, I wanted a romance I could believe. I didn’t feel any chemistry between Flora and Gordon (or even Flora and Baz), though as friends they were super cute. I just needed a LOT more to buy into their romantic relationship at the end!
I am DESPERATE to visit Miami and Little Havana now, though! The author painted such a wonderful picture of the vibrant culture there.
October 17, 2023
She’s a hurricane, my family said. Good, cause Miami knows what to do with those.
let me just start off by saying how wonderful it was to come back to this set of characters who i absolutely adored in ACGGTTAT. To see Lila and Orion? I was melting and kicking my feet each and every second they appeared.
Ok enough about them. This isn’t their book, it’s about Flora Maxwell. (Orion’s sister). From the last book itself, I was always intrigued by Flora’s character, and especially more when our author let us know the next book would be hers. And it did not disappoint.
There are quite a few similarities between the initial beginning of the two books (ik I’m reviewing this one but, it’s hard not to include the other as well on here). The themes of grief and how it affects one are so well done here.
if I had to badly explain the plot, it would be this: a grieving girl takes off to Miami in hopes of fixing her life away from her childhood best friend and ends up fake dating a big-shot photographer.
oh, and i have made a concession: love-triangles are tolerable. aka this is the only other book i like with this trope.
Flora is a character you want to protect, scream at, and love for eternity (read: unlocks your motherly instincts, maybe that’s the side effect of her losing her mother?) the way she becomes a hurricane is slightly concerning but it was good to see her character arc. the hurricanes are a very poetic view of flora tbh.
then there’s mr. childhood bestie gordon. seeing him again was so wonderful and their relationship>>> i will forever love this guy
and we can’t forget about big-shot photographer baz. he is the therapist we all need in our life. and perfect boyfriend material imo.
now i ain’t spoiling who she ends up with, but i do know she learns to cope with her grief and understand herself a lot better. just go read the book ;)
January 1, 2024
What a lovely book! I read the first book earlier this year and was very excited to get the sequel. Once again, Laura Taylor Namey writes about the pathway grief can take a person and the things that help us through it. There is relatable character development with Flora, as well as showcases of true friendship should look like. I think the concept of letting yourself be seen and also letting yourself see the truth is a strong theme in this book, and one that will strike home for so many. The book is lighthearted and simple, with more serious themes written within. I loved it!
October 3, 2023
Even though this one started a little slow like the last book in the series, I am really enjoying the series overall and cannot wait for a new book. I think the character development is great, and I love the diversity of life experiences portrayed.
Read
October 12, 2023
Trigger & Content Warnings
Death of a mother from dementia
Death of a mother from dementia
December 27, 2024
“A British Girl's Guide to Hurricanes and Heartbreak” is the second in the YA Girl’s Guide series by Laura Taylor Namey. Flora Maxwell, younger sister to Orion and the romantic male character from “A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow,” is supposed to give a speech at her mother’s funeral. Instead, Flora, overcome with emotions and guilt, runs away to confront her feelings. Flora’s guilt stems from this dark secret; a secret that her family and friends would not forgive her for. For the first two chapters, this secret is played out to be this big colossal event, but the secret that is revealed is underwhelming. Flora was not there the day her mother passed and she lied to her dad and brother about why.
“She’s a hurricane, that one,” her family has always said. Flora once saw that as a statement of endearment and empowerment, but as her mother’s dementia diagnosis progresses, she feels constricted by that description and realizes that she embodies destruction everywhere she goes. Flora spends weeks graffitiing the town, including her family’s tea shop, as a way to be seen and to remake the world she lives in, a world in which her mother no longer recognizes her. Flora’s shame and grief compel her to lash out and pull away from everyone who loves her, including her best friend Gordon, who has been pining for her for years. When Gordon attempts to confess his love for her, Flora lashes out and uses words to hurt Gordon where it matters. Feeling unmoored and wrapped up in a tempest of grief and guilt, Flora escapes to Miami to regain control over her life.
Flora’s impromptu self-exile to Miami is done in the middle of the night, without informing her family or friends of her departure. She leaves her family little notes to inform them that she is safe, but doesn’t mention her destination/whereabouts. Flora seeks refuge with Lila Reyes’ parents and begins her self-healing journey. As she explores Miami, a photograph of a pink lightning bolt catches her eye and brings her into the orbit of Cuban American Baz Marín. The two develop a flirtatious friendship and when Pilar’s wedding photographer cancels, Baz agrees to become the wedding photographer in exchange for Flora pretending to be his girlfriend for a couple of weeks.
Namey’s YA contemporary romance novel navigates Flora’s self-discovery as she figures out her university and career paths. With Baz’s help, she learns how to capture life through photography and that photography can be more than just a hobby. Flora uses this time away to figure out her feelings for Gordon and Baz. These feelings are not revealed to her until a Hurricane makes landfall in Key West, the place where Gordon is working.
The characters are realistic teenagers with big emotions, and Flora’s complex heartache is captured poignantly. Namey shies away from typical surface level happiness in rom-coms by exploring the many facets of grief. Flora’s journey towards confidence with herself and her photography, and learning what she wants out of life, is a gratifying arc.
The problems and oversights with Namey’s novel are the unrealistic actions of her teenage characters. Baz rescues Flora during the hurricane and then the next day she travels to Key West to find Gordon. Flora was completely safe in the Reyes’ home, but because she was scared and the parents wanted to have sex, they allowed Baz to rescue Flora and take her back to his parent’s house. The Reyes have a duty to protect Flora while she is in their care and the idea that they are so sex-crazed to allow her to go to someone else’s house during a hurricane is something I would expect from a Tessa Bailey novel, as outlandish and ludicrous as it sounds. As someone who lives in Florida and has distant family in Key West and Miami, road closures would be prevalent along with curfews after the hurricane has left. Also, for someone that just learned to drive on the opposite side of the road, the likelihood that the Reyes’ would loan their vehicle to Flora for a four-hour road trip is preposterous. The fake-dating trope really served no purpose other than to illicit the love triangle. Flora’s feelings for Baz would have been more believable without the fake-dating-to-satisfy-the-parents bit.
A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow 3/5
A British Girl's Guide to Hurricanes and Heartbreak 3/5
“She’s a hurricane, that one,” her family has always said. Flora once saw that as a statement of endearment and empowerment, but as her mother’s dementia diagnosis progresses, she feels constricted by that description and realizes that she embodies destruction everywhere she goes. Flora spends weeks graffitiing the town, including her family’s tea shop, as a way to be seen and to remake the world she lives in, a world in which her mother no longer recognizes her. Flora’s shame and grief compel her to lash out and pull away from everyone who loves her, including her best friend Gordon, who has been pining for her for years. When Gordon attempts to confess his love for her, Flora lashes out and uses words to hurt Gordon where it matters. Feeling unmoored and wrapped up in a tempest of grief and guilt, Flora escapes to Miami to regain control over her life.
Flora’s impromptu self-exile to Miami is done in the middle of the night, without informing her family or friends of her departure. She leaves her family little notes to inform them that she is safe, but doesn’t mention her destination/whereabouts. Flora seeks refuge with Lila Reyes’ parents and begins her self-healing journey. As she explores Miami, a photograph of a pink lightning bolt catches her eye and brings her into the orbit of Cuban American Baz Marín. The two develop a flirtatious friendship and when Pilar’s wedding photographer cancels, Baz agrees to become the wedding photographer in exchange for Flora pretending to be his girlfriend for a couple of weeks.
Namey’s YA contemporary romance novel navigates Flora’s self-discovery as she figures out her university and career paths. With Baz’s help, she learns how to capture life through photography and that photography can be more than just a hobby. Flora uses this time away to figure out her feelings for Gordon and Baz. These feelings are not revealed to her until a Hurricane makes landfall in Key West, the place where Gordon is working.
The characters are realistic teenagers with big emotions, and Flora’s complex heartache is captured poignantly. Namey shies away from typical surface level happiness in rom-coms by exploring the many facets of grief. Flora’s journey towards confidence with herself and her photography, and learning what she wants out of life, is a gratifying arc.
The problems and oversights with Namey’s novel are the unrealistic actions of her teenage characters. Baz rescues Flora during the hurricane and then the next day she travels to Key West to find Gordon. Flora was completely safe in the Reyes’ home, but because she was scared and the parents wanted to have sex, they allowed Baz to rescue Flora and take her back to his parent’s house. The Reyes have a duty to protect Flora while she is in their care and the idea that they are so sex-crazed to allow her to go to someone else’s house during a hurricane is something I would expect from a Tessa Bailey novel, as outlandish and ludicrous as it sounds. As someone who lives in Florida and has distant family in Key West and Miami, road closures would be prevalent along with curfews after the hurricane has left. Also, for someone that just learned to drive on the opposite side of the road, the likelihood that the Reyes’ would loan their vehicle to Flora for a four-hour road trip is preposterous. The fake-dating trope really served no purpose other than to illicit the love triangle. Flora’s feelings for Baz would have been more believable without the fake-dating-to-satisfy-the-parents bit.
A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow 3/5
A British Girl's Guide to Hurricanes and Heartbreak 3/5
March 20, 2025
I wanted to enjoy this book but I just couldn't get into it and it almost made me want to DNF the book. I didn't want to pick up this book and read it and it was almost like I was forcing myself to read it. In the first book, I never really liked Flora as a character and even though I liked her better in the second book than I did in the first, I didn't like her in this book either.
SPOILER WARNING:
I liked Baz as a character more than I liked Gordon and it's hard to read a love triangle book when you don't really like one of the two in the love triangle. I have read love triangles where I don't care which character the main character ends up with but here I didn't see a point of her ending up with Gordon. She goes to Miami to get away from everybody in England and take some time away and to process however, she ends up ending up with the guy from England. I feel like this book could've just happened in England. Why go to Miami and introduce a new love interest just to end up with the guy that you could've ended up with back where you actually live. However, that's my own opinion, I just felt like this book was a bit of a waste of my time.
SPOILER WARNING:
I liked Baz as a character more than I liked Gordon and it's hard to read a love triangle book when you don't really like one of the two in the love triangle. I have read love triangles where I don't care which character the main character ends up with but here I didn't see a point of her ending up with Gordon. She goes to Miami to get away from everybody in England and take some time away and to process however, she ends up ending up with the guy from England. I feel like this book could've just happened in England. Why go to Miami and introduce a new love interest just to end up with the guy that you could've ended up with back where you actually live. However, that's my own opinion, I just felt like this book was a bit of a waste of my time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 17, 2023
I love messy complicated characters and Flora definitely fits the bill. Now add in some fake dating and I’m sold. Loved reading about Flora’s healing process. This book pulls at all the right heart strings.
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