A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow
Ratings15
Average rating3.7
Love & Gelato meets Don’t Date Rosa Santos in this charming, heartfelt story following a Miami girl who unexpectedly finds love—and herself—in a small English town.
For Lila Reyes, a summer in England was never part of the plan. The plan was 1) take over her abuela’s role as head baker at their panadería, 2) move in with her best friend after graduation, and 3) live happily ever after with her boyfriend. But then the Trifecta happened, and everything—including Lila herself—fell apart.
Worried about Lila’s mental health, her parents make a new plan for her: spend three months with family friends in Winchester, England, to relax and reset. But with the lack of sun, a grumpy inn cook, and a small town lacking Miami flavor (both in food and otherwise), what would be a dream trip for some feels more like a nightmare to Lila…until she meets Orion Maxwell.
A teashop clerk with troubles of his own, Orion is determined to help Lila out of her funk, and appoints himself as her personal tour guide. From Winchester’s drama-filled music scene to the sweeping English countryside, it isn’t long before Lila is not only charmed by Orion, but England itself. Soon a new future is beginning to form in Lila’s mind—one that would mean leaving everything she ever planned behind.
Tags
Content Warning
Series
Series
1 primary book4 released books#1 in Girl’s Guide
Girl’s Guide is a 4-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2020 with contributions by Laura Taylor Namey.
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I listened to the audiobook which probably affected my enjoyment. The narrator did a good job, except for some reason she gave all the British characters ridiculously posh accents which was off putting and not at all attractive for the love interest. The dialogue was often oddly formal through, so perhaps that was the intention.
I had zero interest in the romance (I had to go back to check when the love interest said ???can???t do weeks of some shags with an end date in my head???. Maybe that was lost in translation, but talk about presumptuous! There was nothing to indicate our 17 year old main character would???ve shagged him.
Other than that it was a clean read, but I think it would???ve worked better as more of a coming of age, finding myself abroad, type story. I agree with other reviews that the main character was a bit annoying (explains why her boyfriend and best friend had had enough of her) but she wasn???t bad enough that I wanted to quit. (I don???t hesitate to dnf books with unlikeable protagonists.)
Overall it was okay, but there are better books out there. Fellow Brits might be irritated by some unnatural slang, but might also enjoy some of the details such as mentions of Walkers (smoky) bacon crisps. Yum.
I loved the characters, the characters growth and the story. I even wanted to read more. But what I couldn't forgive is the bad Ghana rep and I'm not even from there. It's little but that's the sign of an author. They make intricate stories out of little details that blow you away. So when an author doesn't do their research you can say no matter how nice the plot of their stories are or how lovely the characters, it doesn't mean much when they're writing contemporary lit and conveniently forget to not properly explain one very real place.
I will very much be bothered.
This isn't the 20th century where writers didn't have access to research much of what they wanted to write about. We have the internet, and there are beta readers and editors. Respect others as you do your own please.
