Unfortunately, I could not finish this--but not necessarily because the story wasn't good. The formatting of the eARC I received for review was so out of wack that it was impossible to read. I made it about 30% before I had to give up. Up until that point, the story was moving along--it was a little slow to start, but I was interested in what was going to happen now that Alaine was in Haiti with her mother. Maybe I'll pick it up at the library at some point and read it for real.

This was a fun read. Alaine has a great voice that shines through the story's format. I loved the setting and enjoyed exploring a country not often featured in YA books.

Beautiful cover, beautiful story! I love the correspondence/epistolary format of the story, its one of my favorite book formats. I really appreciated learning more about Caribbean culture and Alaine was such a great MC. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the finished book in person.

I loved Alaine's voice. It was fresh, complex, endearing and funny. I was looking forward to reading this book based on the cover and subject matter and it was such a fun book to read. The mixed media format was fun to read (though a little wonky sometimes in the formatting of the ARC). Can't wait for this book to be out in the world!

I loved this book in so many different ways that it hurt. I cannot wait to book talk this book to teens and adults alike.

This book was absolutely fabulous! Loved the representation in this novel: fantastic! And I found the female lead to be witty and fun - I loved her! Her voice was so strong and it made it so easy to connect to her story. I'm such a character driven reader, so this is a huge deal for me. All around this book was a big hit! **I post all of my netgalley reviews on my instagram stories at @booknerdnative**

This is the book that I would give all my nieces and nephews; although I'm not certain all my nephews wouldn't find it "too girly". As an adult, I loved the way Alaine embraces both her American side and her Haitian culture. Since she's a teenager, there were moments when I wanted to throttle her and wish she'd grow up. And, for someone who comes from a cultural of also believing in the mythical and having family members with Alzheimers, I could understand her wishing and hoping and believing that if she could complete the ritual her mother would be saved. Overall, I thought it was a good premise, fairly well written, and likely to resonate with teens.

The premise of this story is interesting, a slightly angsty teen going back to her native country to learn about her history and reconnect with family. While I enjoyed learning more about Haiti and the family dynamics were interesting I had trouble getting into the book, the emails/texts/etc that were added in the text made it feel a bit disjointed and I had trouble following the story and getting really immersed in the book, part of this may have been because it was an ARC though.

Other readers might enjoy the format though so if you're a fan of YA fiction and interested in the story still give it a shot. It just wasn't for me.

I don't know how to describe Dear Haiti, Love Alaine. It is so extraordinarily good. The format, the characters (especially Alaine), the voice, the exploration of Haiti and Alaine's family's past. It's all so good. So, before this turns into unintelligible mess, let's get to the review

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Quick-witted high school journalist Alaine Beauparlant gets booted from her elite private school after an intricate prank goes cruelly awry. She warily accepts an invitation from her aunt to spend her suspension at the family’s estate in Haiti--where her estranged mom is recuperating from a political fiasco. In her homeland for the first time, Alaine is immediately put to work at her aunt’s start-up helping native children in need. Alaine meets locals, interacts with kids connected to donors, and is shown the ropes by Jason, a fellow intern whose charming ways are making work a bit more challenging. What she doesn’t expect to find are letters, articles, emails, and diary entries that she compiles into a final project that will not only save her academic standing in school, but also help her finally know the mother she’s never really understood.

You would not be wrong if you said Alaine's life is a bit of a mess. Her mother just slapped and yelled at a politician on TV (her mother is a famous newsperson), everyone in Alaine's school knows about it, and to get back at the mean girls who made fun of her for it, Alaine...how do I put this into words? She was supposed to do a presentation about Haiti and instead of doing what her teacher signed off on, Alaine brings in a cake shaped like a pig and when she cuts it open, fake blood goes everywhere causing one kid to go into anaphylactic shock.

Needless to say, Alaine gets into a huge amount of trouble and instead of finishing off the school year or GETTING EXPELLED, Alaine's parents decide it would be a good idea if she had a break. So, they send her to Haiti where both her parents are originally from. Her mom is already living there, trying to lay low after slapping a politician. Her aunt also lives there and is the Haitian Minister of Tourism as well as the CEO of Patron Pal, an app that allows people to support kids who needs food, school supplies, and money to make their lives better. Alaine will be working as an intern while she is there.

So, Alaine heads to Haiti and absolutely loves it. She meets new friends, family members she hasn't seen in awhile, and even gets to know a cute boy who she works with. But not everything goes as she expects. When she learns why her mother slapped the politician and why she isn't going back to being a news anchor, Alaine's life begins to spiral. Her mom is sick and Alaine will do just about anything to make it all better.

Ok, before I go further, you need to know one thing. Alaine has been told by her aunt for most of her life that their family is cursed. Alaine has never believed this but once she gets to Haiti, meets other people who believe in the curse, and learns of her mother's illness, she begins to believe it, and this leads her down a road of adventure, past family trauma, death, and maybe a little bit of magic.

Alaine decides she needs to break the curse on her family in order to cure her mother and she is willing to do just about anything to get more time with her mom. Even if that means taking a dangerous boat trip and risking other people's lives.

I love a uniquely formatted book and this is one of those. It's written like Alaine os telling the story of her trip to Haiti to her teacher back at school. It includes emails, documents, diary entries, and Alaine's firsthand accounts. I love when authors do this and I am in awe of Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite. The way they combined all these different elements to create a cohesive story is unbelievable.

And Alaine's voice could not be stronger. Sometimes when a book written by multiple people, the style or the voice changes. That is not the case with Dear Haiti, Love Alaine. It is flawless. Alaine is fun and quirky and shy at times and smart as hell. I love when a character has a strong voice and I could not have asked for anything more here.

I also LOVED the development of Alaine and her mom's relationship. They started off really distant but as they spent more time together and as Alaine got to know more about her past, they became much closer.

The story begins with Alaine not caring too much for her mom but once she finds out her mother won't be around forever, she panics and that starts them both down a road that results in an unbreakable bond . You don't go through what they do without bonding in some way.

And yes, of course I cried. I was so hoping Alaine would find some magical cure for her mom despite knowing this wasn't going to turn into a fantasy novel. Her journey made me think of my own mom and how I never want to let her go.

I treasure books like these because they help me understand that I will be ok when she's gone. I'll, of course, be utterly devastated, but there will still be things to live for. I can live past it. (and now I'm crying again lol)

The book also covers the devastation Haiti is still going through after the multiple natural disasters they've had there. It was good to see those real events incorporated into the story. 

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine is a beautiful story of a teenage girl coming to accept the things she can't change and learning to hold onto the moments she has with her loved ones. She also happens to uncover some shady shit going on with her aunt's app business and a certain politician (the one her mom slapped!). There are lots of surprises in this story and I loved everyone of them.

I am giving Dear Haiti, Love Alaine 4.5 out of 5 stars. If you're looking for a diverse read with a brilliant main character, an insanely well-developed and well-written story, and some laughs and tears along the way, you need to check this out.

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine comes out September 3, 2019

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Teen for the free eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I do t think this book knows what it wants to be: Lesson Learned, Coming of Age, Dealing with Destiny, Curse Reversal, Fish out of Water ... the list could continue for several lines.
A good editor could focus the plot. There are a ton of pop culture references that may or may not be recognizable to readers (I’m an Old Lady, and I thought some of the inclusions were try-hard and unwarranted, but maybe YA readers would be more receptive?)
I’m not sure how to feel, because I like the idea of a book about Haiti that doesn’t focus on negatives, but I don’t think this is a great example of that. On the other hand, there might not be a lot of other books that focus on Haiti, so maybe I shouldn’t complain? You see my dilemma.

I was very excited to read this digital advanced copy from Net Galley based on the beautiful cover artwork and the intriguing description. I am always interested in reading books that are set in different places and I was really looking forward to learning more about Haiti.

Unfortunately, this book did not live up to my hopeful expectations. I almost gave up on it a few times, but I really kept thinking it might get better. The main character, Alaine was well-written and a character that I could see holding up in many novels/settings but the rest of the characters felt like sketches as opposed to complete characters and the story line was too confusing to really get attached to anyone.

It really didn't help that there were major issues with formatting in the digital version of this book making it even more challenging to read. There were many sections that were out of order, forcing me to re-read sections to figure out what was going on and there were headers and titles in the middle of pages throughout.

I received a copy of Dear Haiti, Love Alaine from Harlequin TEEN (US & Canada) through Netgalley.

I seriously love Alaine. I'd love to read more about her.

The story is told through school reports, news, articles and text messages and is a bit jarring at first but the storytelling makes up for it.

It's got family secrets and a curse and a witty protagonist that made me want to cheer.

Such beautiful writing. I couldn't put this book down when I was reading it. I was absolutely captivated by the story and the characters and the writing makes me want to see more from this author..

A fantastic cover and vibrant, fun main character don't overcome the extreme all over the place story.

This book is perfect for:
People who like books in diary form
People who like a touch of magical realism
People who love vacation/study abroad YA

Alaine is smart, and funny and a little bit quirky. As the daughter of Haitian immigrants she has a relationship with her homeland that makes her feel not-quite American and not-quite Haitian. When her absentee journalist mother has a meltdown on National television, her world is turned upside down. A school project goes awry at the same time that a school bully pushes her over the edge and that means a one-way ticket to the homeland she's never learned to love firsthand.

Written in diary entries along with text messages, newspaper clippings and emails we get to see the real Haiti through her eyes while she tries to break the family curse that has left her exiled, her beloved aunt unmarried, and her mother suffering from a terrible disease.

I loved the book, even when I found the emails, text messages and other ephemera a little jarring. But that's just me. There have been a number of books lately that use the same method of storytelling that I just couldn't get through, but the plot of Dear, Haiti kept me engaged.

There is a love interest, but it doesn't overtake the story. The themes that matter most are family and secrets, and the best secrets are always family secrets, because those hurt the most. The idea of Haiti being a hellscape of poverty is smashed as well as the idea that there is only one immigrant story to tell in America. We forget about Haiti, but after reading this story you never will. I suggest reading this book poolside or beachside with your journal nearby.


If you like this then try...
Great by Sara Benincasa
It's a Great Gatsby retelling set in a seaside town and featuring a bi protagonist. You'll get the same beachy feeling that you get from Dear Haiti with a little mystery thrown in.

I really wanted to like this book. What drew me in was the synopsis and when I started the book I was really interested however the weak character development, and convoluted plot stopped me from enjoying the book.
Starting off with what I liked, I really liked the familial relationships in this book. Often times in YA novels, parents and families aren’t really a big part of the story arc, but in this one family was first and foremost and I enjoyed seeing their relationships develop over time.
I didn’t like how there were anecdotes like diary entries, news, and text messages just tossed into the story as it tended to disrupt for the storyline and made the plot harder to follow. There also didn’t seem to be a one clear plot as there were many things going on at the same time so I was confused and bored.
Characters weren’t very well developed with characters being put into a box and not being fully fleshed out. We would get an initial impression of the character and they wouldn’t be built upon after that.
I gave this book three stars, because the writing style was engaging and the family relationship was interesting, but the character development and plot were the book’s greatest shortcoming.
I received this book on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

I'm not one to give up on a book even if it's not thrilling me. If reading it feels like a chore, then it's not fun and I know it is time to DNF the book. Unfortunately, the book Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite is my first DNF of 2019. I wanted so badly to enjoy this book, but it just feel short of my expectations.

It's true that contemporary isn't my favorite genre, but usually the ones I pick are amazing! I found Dear Haiti, Love Alaine on NetGalley and when I read the description I thought it sounded like an amazing story about a young teen dealing with the fallout of a poor choice on a school project and a hard topic that includes a health issue with her mother. I loved the idea that the book was about Haiti and raising voices for it, as it's very rare to find books set in Haiti.
One issue not with the writing itself but the formatting of the ebook, is that some of the paragraphs are out of order so you have to search through the recent pages to make the storyline fit. The different font colors and font styles are a bit distracting.
As for the actual story, I felt that Alaine was a solid character but her use of humor as a defense mechanism was a little bit overdone. Now I'm not sure if that was the intent of the author's, but it made it very hard for me to relate to Alaine. I loved her father and would have liked to see more of a story with him, and maybe he is more prevalent in the second half of the book. Celeste is a great character, Alaine's mom, I love that she is a news journalist and is this strong, fiery woman. Loved that Alaine was getting the chance to reconnect with her mother after an incident on Celeste's news show, and after a sad discovery, even though she was sent to Haiti as punishment for causing such an incident at school. Alaine's Tati Estelle (her Aunt) has an important role in Haiti as the Haitian Minister of Tourism and CEO of Patron Pal an app to help the poor in Haiti to make a change. Estelle has agreed to give Alaine an internship on her team in hopes that Alaine learns enough information to redo her school project to show that she's learned her lesson and now has more respect and knowledge for her country of origin. Although the constant switch of email/postcard and narration was a little hard to follow for me.
I wanted so much to like this book, and maybe once it's out in print I will give it another try, but for now I'm having to DNF it. Sorry Harlequin Teen and my apologies to the authors. Thank you so much for the chance to read Dear Haiti, Love Alaine.
Some books aren't for everyone, and that's ok! Just remember not to force yourself to read a book you aren't enjoying and that it is absolutely fine to DNF the book. On to the next read! Happy Reading!! 🤓

I had looked forward to reading this, but in the end I was very disappointed. There were problems with this novel from the very start and not just with the writing. The most noticeable was that this was evidently created as a print book and no thought whatsoever was given to the conversion to ebook. Submitting it in Amazon Kindle format was the first mistake. Amazon is renowned for trashing books when running them through its crappy kindle conversion process, and this one was a disaster. I've said this many times before and I will never tire of saying it until Amazon fixes it: unless your book is essentially plain vanilla, Amazon will trash it.

You can get away with bold fonts and italicized text, but the moment you start putting page headers in there, and drop caps, text box inserts, or any sort of special layout or formatting, and Amazon will destroy it, guaranteed. Never put images in it. Despite this being a given, no one evidently ever thinks to check if the resulting ebook is ready for Amazon Prime time. This one was not. I get that this was an advance review copy, but there is no excuse for the shoddy condition it was in. Evidently no one bothered to check it. This is on the authors and the publisher. I'm at the point now where I'm about ready to fail a book in review for something like this regardless of what else it has right or wrong about it, because I'm so very tired of seeing books in this condition having been mauled in the Amazon jungle.

It's not just a matter of the odd bit here and there having an issue. As writers, we all have to suck that up, but when a book is appallingly mashed-up by the conversion process (which is Amazon's forte as judged by the repeated problems with books I read in Kindle format), someone needs to check it and fix it before it goes out. Given that this was an ARC, there is plenty of time to fix it before it's published in September, but this is really no excuse for putting out a book for review that evidently hasn't even been so much as grammar- and spell-checked:

Here's an example: "...Twitter account I reserve for ratchetness and told them where they could shove keep their opinions." There is a spelling error and a grammatical error right there. Right after this there was a whole section turned red - that is to say a red font as opposed to black. I often see red sections in Kindle format books, usually in the end papers at the beginning - which would be the beginning papers, right? These things make me see red because there's no excuse for them. In this book though, there were random red paragraphs all over the book. I have no idea what it is in Amazon's evidently sloppy and substandard conversion process which causes these, but it would have taken only a cursory glance through the book to see that there was a serious quality problem.

Here's a grammar problem that was evidently caused by a sentence being written one way, changed to sound a little different, and then never re-read to make sure it made sense: "I said she could just show up and show out be herself." Say what? Whether this was caused or contributed to by the fact that this novel had two writers, I do not know. I have often thought it would be nice to have a co-writer, because in addition to spurring on your partner, each of you could catch the other's mistakes, but from the evidence here, it doesn't work that way!

Another example is "...they replavced her presentation with a chat about resolving disputes..." which ostensibly is an attempt to mash two words (repaved and replaced) into one! Inventive, but not good English! I rather suspect though that it was a typo, 'V' and 'C' being next-door-neighbors on the keyboard. This is why I believe a final spellcheck/grammar check was never done on this novel before it was submitted to Net Galley for us poor reviewers who merit only the ebook!

Following are a couple of examples of the poor formatting created by Kindle conversion process; in both of them, the page header and number has been meshed with the text of the novel:

The guests included the usual round
DEAR HAITI, LOVE ALAINE 21
table setup plus a congressperson or two.
This next one had both the header mesh and a red section:
"[pause]
BEAUPARLANT: Exactly. So, when the public hears rumors of expensive dinners at Zuma and court
DEAR HAITI, LOVE ALAINE 45
side Miami Heat seats on their dime..."
The portion beginning 'BEAUPARLANT' and ending with 'court' was all in blood red! And these were all in the first fifth of the novel.
When I got to around twenty percent, this red paragraph issue had become more than an aberration; it was so bad that I chose not to continue wrestling with a book that I wasn't even enjoying in the first place. I'm not a fan of experimental fiction and this felt like it. I'm not a fan of stories which are largely texting messages, or chat room exchanges or which incorporate large portions of such. I don't think it's edgy, I think it's tired and lazy writing. This book didn't go in for that so much as it went in for including the full text of emails, school event programs, transcripts, and that kind of thing. I quickly took to skipping these sections entirely and you know, it made no difference to my understanding of what was going on! So why include them? To me it's just lazy writing.

Because, I suspect, of these attempts to be cutting edge, the story became somewhat incoherent in places, and here I'm talking about what took place in the narrative flow of the text, not the parts where there were disruptive intrusions by emails and newspaper articles and so on. Skipping those parts actually made the story more coherent to me, but maybe that's just me.

The plot is about this one high-school girl, Alaine Beauparlant, a name which I thought was a bit much given she wants to be a journalist and her mother is a TV talk show host. Handsome-speaking? Really? Anyway, having been dissed in school by another girl in a very public way, Alaine reacts in kind, and gets punished for her misdemeanor while the other girl gets off scot-free. The other girl's behavior was without question outright bullying, yet she had no disciplinary action imposed on her while Alaine is suspended?! It's not authentic. Either that or Alaine attends a really, really bad school which didn't seem that way from what I read of it.

I never made it as far as Alaine's suspension. This was yet another novel set in a high-school where bullying is rampant and there is no accountability. I don't doubt that there is bullying in schools unfortunately, but reading about it in yet another YA story is getting very old, and it was only one of many tired tropes employed here. I'm also tired of stories where the girl needs to have the handsome beau, like no woman is sufficient on her own; she has to have her prince charming to validate her. This book could have done quite well without "Tati's distractingly cute intern." We need to have a #MeNeither movement to encourage writers to write about women who don't need men to get what they want out of life and get where they want to go. Maybe it should be tagged #MenOptional.

There was another disturbing issue here and this is a small spoiler, so be warned. Alaine's mother starts acting strangely very early in the story and this is apparently due to Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's usually hits late in life. Only about five percent of cases are early-onset, and sufferers don't typically become violent until late stage, and then only in extremis. While there is always room for aberrations, this story felt unrealistic in its approach to Alzheimer's, which didn't help its case with me. Just saying!

I wish the authors all the best with their career, but I could not get with, and cannot commend, this novel. It wasn't where it needed to be for my taste. If it had started with Alaine arriving in Haiti, cutting out all the high school BS that came before, it might have been be an improvement, but for me it wasn't working at all, and I chose to move on to something more engaging and more realistic.

A fantastic cover and vibrant, fun main character don't overcome the extreme all over the place story.

This book was unlike anything I have ever read.

This book is about a girl named Alaine (clearly) who lives in the US with her divorced Haitian immigrant parents. Her mother is a celebrated journalist who's sudden affliction causes a rift in Alaine's life. After a school project gone wrong, her father sends her off to Haiti where her mother and aunt live. Even though it's a punishment, she finds her two months long stay in Haiti something more than just content for her class project. She learns about her family and their history in Haiti. It's heartbreaking at times, but also uplifting in the way not only Alaine comes to understand the world around her, but also the people she loves most.

What I love about reading books like this is that I get to learn aspects and history I never knew about first hand from the author herself, through her characters. I love to be entertained and sometimes just need something to fill my time, but if I can learn a thing or two, that's a plus for me.

A few things that irked me: Although the formatting on the e-arc was a bit wonky, I did like how the book was told in emails, blog posts, etc. It was fun and kept my attention.. I also felt as though I needed more of Alaine and her mother as they navigated the curveball life had thrown at them. There were too many little things happening that it sort of took away from it.

I did enjoy reading this and gave an extra just for the cover alone.