This is more than a frenemies-to-lovers young adult novel. It’s also a loving tribute to the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles and the immigrants who settled there starting in the early 1900s. In this story, the focus is on the Cuban families who fled after Castro took power and how their history is slowly but steadily being forgotten and painted over due to gentrification.
Clary Delgado’s family runs a florist shop that, thanks to a high-profile celebrity wedding, does a booming business. Her childhood nemesis Emilio Avalos’s family owns the bike shop across the street. They’re part of a handful of original Cuban businesses that still exist, and Clary has made it her mission to try to get a historical designation for the Sunset business district “to preserve the area and honor its role in fostering Cuban culture on the west coast.” Author Namey, who is half Cuban and a SoCal resident, pays homage to the artists who created the numerous colorful murals that decorate the neighborhood and feature strongly in Clary’s life. Sadly, many of them have been painted over by new business owners, but others have been restored. In the book, Clary learns that there is no mention of the Cubans’ contribution to the neighborhood on the local historical society website (which doesn’t surprise me given that I live nearby and have witnessed the whitewashing of the neighborhood and entitlement of the newer, white NIMBY residents). She is committed to honoring those memories and ensuring that those that came before her aren’t forgotten.
The slow burn romance between Clary and Emilio is very sweet, but the family relationships are equally central to the story. Namey does a wonderful job of describing the value that they place on their culture (through music, food, celebration and more) as well as the loyalty and devotion they have for each other. A few years ago, I invited Namey to visit our school library where we served Cuban pastries from Porto’s Bakery, so I got a kick out of reading about the characters in this book enjoying them as well. I highly recommend this poignant and, at times, poetic story.
I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Atheneum Books for Young Readers through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.
Following a desperate and damaging attempt to run from what she calls a “trifecta” of heartbreak, Lila Reyes has been exiled by her Cuban-American parents from her beloved Miami to her aunt’s B&B in Winchester, England in the hopes that she will find peace and healing. In her opinion, this is just one more act of betrayal, removing control of how she handles her grieving process after the death of her beloved Abuela, the breakup with her long-time boyfriend, and the abandonment of her best friend. Her plan had been to take over the family bakery with her sister, with Pilar handling the business end and Lila honoring her grandmother’s legacy, using both her recipes and the lessons she taught her. How can she possibly do that if she has to spend the summer an ocean away?
On the surface, Winchester and Miami are polar opposites. One is ancient, gray, chilly, lacking in flavor, understated. The other is modern, full of color, sizzling, spicy, bold. Lila’s initial assumption is that the people reflect their cities…this will feel like a prison sentence. So, after 48 hours of solitude, her first surprise is finding that the loud rock music emanating from her cousin Gordon’s room is the creative inspiration for his beautiful architectural drawings. Then she meets Orion Maxwell, the son of the local tea purveyor, his sister Flora, the talented singer-songwriter Jules, and her boyfriend Remy. Orion, who makes it his mission to find Lila’s favorite flavor of tea, offers to be her Winchester tour guide. Through various adventures over the course of the book, the five friends collectively show her that there are so many flavors to food and drink, styles of music, dance, and architecture, landscape views, and even types of heartbreak, grief, and love beyond the small world she has inhabited her whole life, that she slowly comes to love her temporary home.
Although Orion and Lila are both dealing with weighty issues, their shared grief creates a special bond between them that will make it difficult to let go at the end of the summer. Will there be any way for them to keep the relationship alive when they’re worlds apart?
This aptly-titled book is a culinary guide to Cuban cuisine, a travel guide of Winchester, and an emotional journey both on foot and via many modes of transportation through grief, loss, and hope. The descriptions of the food are mouth-watering and central to the story, both as a tribute to Lila’s Abuela and as a plot point when Lila takes over the B&B kitchen in the absence of their regular pastry chef. The city of Winchester and the surrounding countryside, which Lila and Orion discover on their runs and the back of his motorcycle, are another character in the story and like the humans, are well-drawn and another reason that Lila comes to love her place of exile. Although there are heavy topics such as mental illness and death, they are handled delicately. In the talented hands of Laura Taylor Namey, this is another extraordinary young adult novel to share with teens who are looking for a deeply-emotional, thought-provoking story that will leave them wanting more. Highly recommended!
