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Hurricane Summer
Asha Bromfield
#arcreview
Pub date: May 4, 2021
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Tilla is spending the summer in Jamaica visiting her father with her sister.  They live in Canada with her mother. I loved being in Jamaica- I felt the heat, the waterfalls, the beauty of the Island.  It soon got uncomfortable as even her Walmart clothes were envied as being rich. I loved that the first few pages of the book was a glossary of the Patois language, I admit I had to reference it a lot and still am not sure I was on the same page just like Tilla.

Right when she got on the island she was an outcast and very unfairly judged by the women, one of her aunts was making me very anxious. No one was there to stand up for her and she was being told she was like that cause she was foreign (their term for everyone not from the island).  We find out why they are this way but man it’s painful and I felt all the feelings as they slowly tried to strip her of her confidence.

A summer that was supposed to be spent getting closer to her father was spent seeing the worst side of jealousy, betrayal and experiencing her first love and most of all a hurricane.  

I absolutely loved this book; it gave me a huge emotional book hangover as I was feeling all that she was. This book showed the ugly side of choices and the consequences of those choices. I crowed when Tilla finally stood up for herself and found her voice. This is a raw coming of age story set in a beautiful backdrop. 

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

TW: sexual assault

Synopsis:

Tilla has spent her entire life trying to make her father love her. But every six months, he leaves their family and returns to his true home: the island of Jamaica.

When Tilla’s mother tells her she’ll be spending the summer on the island, Tilla dreads the idea of seeing him again, but longs to discover what life in Jamaica has always held for him.

In an unexpected turn of events, Tilla is forced to face the storm that unravels in her own life as she learns about the dark secrets that lie beyond the veil of paradise—all in the midst of an impending hurricane.

Hurricane Summer is a powerful coming of age story that deals with colorism, classism, young love, the father-daughter dynamic—and what it means to discover your own voice in the center of complete destruction.