I love that this book is written by sisters and I think it really shows throughout.
This YA novel is told in a epistolary format, which is one of my favorite styles! The book is comprised of correspondence, emails, texts, journal entries, and articles to tell the story. I think I may have been missing some images, but I don't doubt that they will be in the final version.
Our heroine, Alaine is cool, funny, and headstrong. After some drama that her Mom & Alaine get involved in they both retreat to their Mom's hometown in Haiti.
It was interesting to read about the culture of Haiti. I love books that include this in-depth cultural history.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the this ARC. I can't wait to see the final copy when it comes out in September

Nothing says a strong, heroine voice like Alaine. She's young, she's exceptional, and she's willing to do the impossible for those she loves. Her story made me laugh as much as it hurt, covering topics from poverty to Alzheimer's to racism, and I couldn't think of a better protagonist to share that story than Alaine. She's a troublemaker and she's smart, just like the other strong women throughout the novel. On top of all the heavy topics that this novel covers, we are also given insight into Haiti, from its highs and lows to its beauty and wreckage. Haiti is given life within this novel, and the country is as lively as its people and these characters. This book is a wonderful read for most ages, and absolutely difficult to put down. Jam-packed with cultural significance and coming of age, Alaine's story and lessons are not ones to miss out on.

First of all, I love that this book was written by sisters. Their author's note says a lot about their relationship, and it is clear that they enjoyed writing it together. Kudos on that!
I thoroughly enjoyed Alaine's story. Her voice is fresh and entertaining, a mix of serious, sarcastic, and humorous. I found the aspects of Haitian life and culture fascinating, as this is a part of the world I know little about. I appreciate that the authors did not ignore the disparities that exist in Haiti, such as that between wealth and poverty. The story kept me guessing until the end, which is always a plus. After taking awhile to get started, once I got into the story I found it difficult to put down. All in all, a great read.

I loved this book. Smart. Refreshing. New. Alaine, the main character, is intelligent and witty. A role model for many girls today. Sure, she deals with an embarrassing and televised incident, but, she gets through it with style and grace.

Disclaimer: I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika Moulite and Martiza Moulite is a welcome addition to YA.

Told through a series of journal entries, emails, tweets, letters, and texts, this is a uniquely told story. Alaine Beauparlant is a first-generation Haitian-American. She attends a fancy private school with unique classes, and for a class assignment, she picks Haiti and must give the background of several key people in Haiti’s fight for freedom. However, she decides to treat this assignment as a bit of a joke, something that her teacher calls her on. After her news anchor mother has a buzzworthy incident on camera, Alaine faces a bit of bullying from one of her classmates, and she decides to get revenge with the project’s help.

Ultimately, this gets her booted temporarily from her private school, and her father sends her off to Haiti with her aunt and her mother who is privately dealing with the fallout from the news incident.

Once in Haiti, Alaine begins to find out more about her heritage. At this point, Alaine’s voice shifts, and we no longer hear the sardonic wit from Alaine. While this is an understandable character shift resulting from what she deals with at this time, I was still disappointed, and I became less engaged in the story.

Overall, however, this is very well told, and the style of story-telling works very well.

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine releases September 3.

The idea of the story was super exciting and I was so looking forward to this YA. Unfortunately I didn’t like it as much as I thought I was going to. At first I was contributing it to the format of the kindle arc because it was missing chunks of sentences and letters and I had to piece together some parts. But I think it was the story itself that was chunky and put together. It didn’t flow well. I have a love/hate relationship with Alaine and her family. Her snarkiness and rebellion seemed so very in character and she was hilarious, but at times obsessively written. Another pet peeve was how Alaine interacted with her peers and teachers. I get that she is a strong female main character but for a 17 year old with such high profile mom and a pretty in-tune dad I would have expected a bit more respectfulness. Also the adults could have been a bit more hashed out and more developed since they were a big part of Alaine’ s story. The female monarchs of her family were very immature whereas Alaine’s father was the only one who acted like an adult.

The plot itself seemed to turn completely in the middle and the ending was very strange and fast. At first it seemed it was concentrating on Alaine learning more about Haiti’s history and rebellion for a school assignment. All of a sudden it flipped and it was about this family curse and there is a death that is completely passed over and unaddressed. Then the ending is wrapped up and a bow thrown on haphazardly. Not my favorite.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the ARC for this honest review.

Alaina is a snarky teenager coming to terms with her mom’s early onset Alzheimer’s, dealing with being privileged in Miami/Haiti, and what that means; and her complicated feelings about voodoo and her family’s history.

It felt a little clunky sometimes, but I think that was mostly bc of the formatting. It was honestly the worst digital arc I’d ever seen. Whole sentences on the wrong page, and lots of sentence fragments floating around.

Let’s start with the good stuff! The representation was really good with the Alzheimer’s story and everything Haitian. But it just dragged on. There were a lot of times where I was just reading assignments that were given to Alaine that I didn’t really care for and didn’t add to the story, and then there was times where we would be reading emails Alaine would send and receive. It was redundant.
When she was finally in Haiti I would have thought she would go explore and find information on her own but, like, letters were given to her explaining her family history and things written in her mother’s diary.
The only reason she went to Haiti was because she messed up her assignment so they were giving her another chance to turn in a better one but it’s never really mentioned after she gets there, and then in the end it’s addressed to her teacher who gave her a failing grade on the original assignment. I understand the main point of this was to see her family secrets but the book spent a lot of time talking about the assignment in the beginning. I didn’t think a curse storyline would come up but it did and I just feel like that was kind of lazy. And her trusting someone who her parents and relatives don’t even trust? She’s smarter than that.

All in all, the message the ending sends is lovely. Just to spend time with someone how they are, and not trying to change something that can’t be changed. It just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to Harlequin Teen and Netgalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. Review previously posted on Goodreads.

I was drawn to this book by its gorgeous cover and intriguing description, and it did not disappoint! I always enjoy novels that play with epistolary format or other forms of writing outside of straight prose, so I liked the authors' use of texts, school assignments, etc, mixed in with the narrative. I loved the vivid sense of place in this story as well and think it depicts Haiti so beautifully in a way not often found in popular literature. I hope for more from these authors!

I love the premise of Dear Haiti, Love Alaine. Representation matters in YA, and protagonist Alaine is a strong leading lady. I loved the themes of family and culture in this book. The mixed media narrative format made things a tad difficult to engage with at times.

I like this authors debut novel! It has such a unique premise that I had to give it a go. I found the Haitian culture so fascinating!
Alain’s character was super funny and witty. The way she talks about “adulting” was super great! I enjoyed the teen voices in this book too! Their voices really made the story relatable.
I had a hard time following the text in this arc and I wasn’t crazy about all of the articles and add ins but it was a good story. I hope to read more from this author.