Asha Bromfield debuts with her coming of age novel is about sisters Tilla and Mia who travel to Jamaica to visit their father, and end up spending time in the country with their extended family during hurricane season. It starts off a bit slow, but by around the 25% mark things pick up speed. There’s a lot covered here, it’s definitely not a book for the faint of heart. The fatherhood theme really hit me, and I think is pretty spot on.

Trigger warning for SA throughout the book. I don’t know how I feel about the handling of this subject in particular, so I’m leaning forward 4 stars on this one.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for an advanced copy of Hurricane Summer in exchange for my honest review.

Tilla is spending the summer in Jamaica with her sister to get to know her father better. It's been awhile since her father was last home and Tilla and Mia have had time to spend with them. Almost as soon as they land, their father drop them off in the country with his family to go into the city for work. Tilla was hoping this summer would be a chance to forgive her father for leaving them behind in Canada. Although she doesn't get the chance to speak a lot to her father, Tilla finds out more about herself in that short summer than she has before.

Hurricane Summer is a coming-of-age novel set in Jamaica. Asha Bromfield utilizes the Patois dialect commonly used in Jamaica for characters living in Jamaica. I found myself reading the patois with its own cadence from the characters. Although it's a young adult novel it touches on topics such as classism, sexism and racism in a manner that is easy for younger readers to understand but doesn't downplay the importance of those matters. Trigger warnings for death and sexual assault. Hurricane Summer is Asha Bromfield's debut novel and I can't wait to see what she'll write in the future.

Shout out to the cover designer because the cover is GORGEOUS!

"I once heard that a girl's heart is an ocean of secrets. But as I feel my heart rage against my chest, I think it is an ocean of storms."

Tilla is spending the summer in Jamaica to get to know the father who left his family behind in Canada. But it seems he's interested in doing anything but getting to know her, leaving her behind in the country with her distant relatives for weeks at a time. As Tilla sees the evidence of how he's cared for the entire community in Jamaica, she feels all the bitterness that he never showed the same care for her.

Also, as the hurricane approaches, Tilla struggles to understand what it means to live in a country where what little you have could be wiped out at any point. She feels the differences between her life and those of her cousins, who may never leave the small country village where they were born. And she falls for a handsome boy her own age, but even that's a complicated love.

This is a character-driven novel, as Tilla searches for her place in Jamaica. The author's beautiful language brings the story to life. It's a gorgeously written, emotionally devastating look at a country and people I haven't read much about.

Trigger warning: rape

Thank you to Wednesday Books for the advance review copy of this book.

<i>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.</i>

I loved reading Hurricane Summer because it just felt real. This wasn't an icing on the cake, this is a happy ending type of story. Tilla's story was calloused and hard to deal with sometimes, but I am entirely grateful that I got to learn from it.

There were so many themes that were explored in this novel, but I loved the allegory of the hurricane and how Tilla's experience shaped her as a person. Her life had never been easy, but she didn't realized how differently she was viewed by her family until this experience. Most of the characters were rather awful, not giving her a chance when all she wanted to do was prove herself, but there was so much growth experienced.

And there was a theme that beauty can be experienced even when something seems innately bad. Sometimes, we glorify things that aren't the best, but an important part of growing up is learning to forgive while not letting anyone have the same pieces of you that they once did.

Hurricane Summer was a beautiful story that was challenging and insightful, but also so very descriptive. I loved getting to experience it from Tilla's eyes.

I feel pretty conflicted about this novel because on the one hand, I really wanted to like it (I mean, it’s set in Jamaica—need I say anything more?), but on the other, I really didn’t like it as much as I wanted to and therefore couldn’t give it more than a 2-star rating. This book had the potential to be incredibly powerful, and for the sole reason that it’s an own voices novel, it is powerful, but at the same time, the author tried to tackle too many Big Issues in too little space. There’s racism, sexism, sexual shame, slut-shaming, grief, abuse, rape—you name it, it’s probably in there in some capacity. But as a result, the author couldn’t go into depth with any of the issues, and the pacing came across as rushed. Not to mention that these issues seemed overly dramatized for the sake of increasing tension, which made Tilla a very hard character to relate to or sympathize with let alone any of the other characters.

However, there were aspects of the book I really did enjoy. Like the writing style, for example. Asha Bromfield has a very poetic and melodious way of writing that flows really well. She’s adept at bringing the story and her characters and the setting of Jamaica to life in a vivid and meaningful way, and I wish she had spent more time describing the geographic landscape rather than the emotional landscape. I think for the right reader, this book could do wonderful things and have a major impact, but for me (someone who is on the older side of the Young Adult realm), it fell a little flat.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books for the free e-copy in exchange for my honest review.

Mom says you get two birthdays. The first one is the day you are born. The second is the day you leave home and give birth to yourself.

Hurricane Summer is a debut YA novel that touched every part of my soul. The story centers around Tilla, a young Canadian that will get to spend the Summer with her Father in his homeland of Jamaica. Tilla has longed for her Father her entire life, and this chance at spending the summer in the land that he continuously leaves their family for seems to be a dream come true. Tilla and her sister Mia board the plane to Jamaica not knowing the myriad of ways in which this Summer will change them both. After arriving in paradise, Tilla soon learns that even the most beautiful places have dark secrets and sometimes we don't really know who we are until we face the storms that life brings. The story is written around the impending Hurricane and the closer it gets to destroying Jamaica, the closer Tilla gets to the eye of her own storm.

This book opened up with a Patois Word Bank. This is very helpful for people who don't speak patois because it helps you define some of the words the island people use in this story. I thought the authentic patois utilized in the story made it feel that much more authentic and I found myself reading those parts aloud. I think anyone who has a grasp of English or AAVE should be able to utilize context clues to decipher the meaning of the words they don't understand. There weren't very many words that stumped me and I realized while reading how similar AAVE is to some patois.

This story hit home for me in so many ways. I love how the author touched on how lack of love from a father can prompt young women to seek that love in other places, how sex and sexuality can be used to shame and scorn young girls, how classism and colorism shape so much about our lives, even ways we may not even realize until we are faced with privileges we may take for granted and lastly how hurt people hurt people. She did a wonderful job illustrating the differences of country "yawd" life vs city life in Jamaica as for Westerners that only travel there for vacation, we mostly see the touristy parts and don't think about the extreme poverty a stone's throw away. I absolutely loved the way this story was developed in a way that we fall in love with even supporting characters like Dane. His infectious dialogue made me smile.

Overall, this is a book I HIGHLY recommend for both young girls and women alike. There is so much to be gleaned from this novel and so many lessons to dissect. This is an important work and I hope that it gets all the flowers that it deserves. Thank you so very much Asha for writing this beautiful novel. I had goosebumps all over my arms when I finished this story. If you don't read another YA book this year, please let this be the one.

"Hurricane Summer" by Asha Bromfield is an impressive debut novel! Ms. Bromfield masterfully weaves a coming-of-age story that is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Born to Jamaican parents but now living in Canada, Tilla and her little sister Mia travel to Jamaica to spend the summer with their father, who has been spending much of his recent life back in his home country. Tilla is quickly introduced to both a family and culture about which she knows little, and discovers that living in paradise isn't always beautiful. She struggles to capture the attention and love of her father, as well as to fit into an extended family that views her as privileged and foreign. Secrets, racism, and domestic abuse threaten to destroy both the family and Tilla, as a hurricane threatens to destroy the island.

"Hurricane Summer" is not a light read. It deals with some very heavy real-life subjects. It shows that people aren't always good, family doesn't always love as it should, and growing from a young girl to a young woman can be very difficult. However, it also shows that power can come from embracing womanhood, that beauty can exist in unexpected places, and a person can thrive even without familial acceptance. Ms. Bromfield's writing is lyrical and the picture she paints of the island and its inhabitants is both lovely and realistic. This book made me feel so many emotions, and my heart broke right along with Tilla's while she endured the many challenges that shaped her into a strong and independent young woman. Though I was often frustrated with Tilla's decisions, it was easy to identify with them and I would made many of the same choices at eighteen. I cringed at how unjustly she was treated by her Jamaican family, and was uplifted when she finally was able to overcome their judgments and prejudice to become who she truly was.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the privilege of reading an advanced digital copy of this fabulous book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Hurricane Summer is a coming of age story that follows Tilla as she travels to Jamaica to spend two months with her estranged father. Just graduating and turning 18, Tilla feels ready to take on the world, but apprehensive about what this summer will bring. Once on the island, Tilla is quickly inundated with her large extended family, where everyone knows everybody's business and they all have an opinion about her. Tilla just wants to be liked and accepted. But with a hurricane coming, the drama hits an all-time high and no one will come out of the other side unscathed.

This book was a lot darker than I had anticipated picking it up. While I appreciated the author's note at the beginning, I didn't realize how heavy the subject matter of this book would be. Tilla's family was downright horrible. It's been a long time since I have despised characters as much as I have these. I felt like the only two redeeming characters were Tilla and her cousin Andre. They were horrible, abusive and abandoned Tilla when she needed them most. I was enraged reading a lot of this book. My heart broke for Tilla's character. In the most impressionable time in her life, she is broken and abandoned by her father, chastised by her aunt, and dropped into a culture that she does not understand.

During the book, I felt like the pages captured the palpable energy of Jamaica. I also liked how it showed the other side of Jamaica, away from the tourism and sandy beaches. It brought to light the abject poverty that so many on the island live in. I also loved the dialect of the characters. I think this would be a wonderful audiobook (if done right), because it would add another layer of the Jamaican atmosphere I don't think I could truly capture in my mind as I read.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

There are some books that pull you in and refuse to let you go, and Hurricane Summer is one of them. It’s not a light read by any means (it’s the exact opposite), but in spite of the dark nature of the content, I couldn’t bring myself to stop reading.

Having never been to Jamaica and only experienced it on occasion through books, I liked the honest depiction of it here. There’s elements of beauty and the fact that it’s a bit like a paradise, but it’s also deeply nuanced, especially as Tilla goes through dark experiences while there.

Tilla is a beautifully complex character who embraces her flaws, while her deeply conservative family opposes them. She faces a lot of emotional trauma at their hands due to her refusal to conform, and I both admired and felt for her.

One of the pivotal relationships in the story is her relationship with her father, who had always been absent from her life. His attitude toward her wounded me the deepest, and as much as I loved the complexity of their relationship, with her almost simultaneous realization of how little importance he was to her and the fact that he was still her father and that counted for something, I couldn’t help but want her to be more firm in cutting ties after what he’d put her through.

Ultimately, I really loved this book and the exploration of coming of age within such fractured family dynamics. The intensity of the subject matter will mean this book is not for everyone. However, Asha Bromfield wrote in her dedication that she prays “you find healing within these pages, just like I did. I pray this story gives you the courage to confront your own storm, and once there, I pray it inspires you to find radical forgiveness for your parents, your experiences, and most importantly, for yourself.” I echo this sentiment wholeheartedly.

CW: sexual assault (on-page), rape (on-page), physical abuse, slut-shaming, colorism, death

Hurricane Summer made me feel so many emotions. Anger. Heartbreak. Hurt. Worry. It was an intense book that felt like it was breaking me apart each time Tilla broke apart. By the end of the book I was crying, with relief, with weariness, and with happiness that Tilla had found some peace with her father and what had happened in the story and it was overall a very powerful story about discovering yourself. This is a tough and very heavy read and I will include some trigger warnings for those who may need it.

My full review is on my blog.

TW: sexual assault, rape, racism, colorism, classism, slut shaming, abuse (verbal and physical), death

Tilla has always wanted her father to love her, but no matter what she does, he leaves her family and their home in Canada to go back to his true home: Jamaica. This year, Tilla and her sister will be spending the entire summer in Jamaica with him, and while she is nervous she also is interested to see the island that keeps pulling him back. The summer ends up being much like the hurricanes that overtake the island each summer: unraveling Tilla's life as she knew it.

There are so many trigger warnings for this book: parental abandonment, colorism, sexual assault, infidelity, emotional/physical abuse, slut-shaming, death, many of which are explicitly described on the page so proceed with caution,

This book was a powerful journey of self-discovery, but it was very hard to read at times due to all of the triggers mentioned above. But it was also beautiful in a tragic way. I felt every emotion the characters felt while reading this one. I also greatly appreciated the message about Tilla reclaiming her sexuality. I was also very thankful for the Patois language dictionary and referred back to it often while reading. If you are okay with all of the content warnings and the heaviness of this one, it is definitely worth reading!

I have to say that narrative of this one is gorgeous. I could feel the rain on my face, see the homes in the Jamaican countryside, and feel like I was stepping into Jamaica along with our heroine, Tilla. It is exquisitely written and compelling. It is also not afraid to tackle dark and difficult subjects. It takes on a hurricane both literally and figuratively in its tale. While the ending is tough, I was satisfied by it.

There is so much good here and the written prose is perhaps this story's greatest strength. Coupled with this, however, is toxicity. Toxicity everywhere! While this all had a purpose and a point, there were times it felt like too much drama. It felt like drama for sake of drama unfortunately. It was also hard not to be frustrated by Tilla's bad decisions in the middle of the story even though it would have a good payoff. It was easy to see the direction that the story was going and why decisions were being made - it would lead to more drama of course.

At the same time though, it is hard not to care about Tilla and see how much this is about her growing and coming of age. It is hard not to root for her. Tilla, as well as the rest of the cast of characters, really do come alive and jump off of the page. Again, this story is immersive, and I felt like I was in Jamaica with these characters. Also, I loved the strength of the themes within this book. There was so much here that resonated with me.

Despite the flaws, this is ultimately a gorgeous and profound book. While I wish the plot was just slightly stronger and not bogged down in obvious drama, I think everything else that encompasses this read ultimately won me over.

Many thank yous to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this one in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. What an emotional and engaging story. Hurricane Season had me from the start and I just could not put it down for anything. I absolutely LOVED this book to bits. It was fantastic!

Bromfield sets the story in Jamaica and manages to bring the island to life with her rich and vivid descriptions of the country, its people and their culture. It's intoxicating to read about. As for the characters, they are unforgettable. Tilla and her sister, Mia, are sent to Jamaica to spend their summer with their father. A man who has always managed to be absent from their lives. Once on the island, Tilla finds herself learning about so much more than her father, she discovers her sexuality, what it means to grow up, and the influence of culture and society on the personal. Hurricane Season is a filled with top notch writing, powerful storytelling, and interesting characters that make for quite the story. This is one book that you won't want to miss out on. I enjoyed it so much and found myself turning each page, faster and faster. I just had to find you what would happen with Tilla, her family, and her future. Such a great read.

I would happily recommend Hurricane Season to anyone looking for their next YA read - you will LOVE this book!

Wow! I couldn't put this book down. Asha Bromfield's debut novel is fabulous and everyone should read it. The poetically and perfectly flowing descriptions of Hurricane Summer and Jamaica created a beautifully written story about young love, destructions and unexpected evolution of one's being, and the deep inner thoughts and reflections during life altering experiences. I felt like I knew the main character Tilla inside and out by the end of the story and wanted to wrap my arms around her so many times.

Tilla and her sister Mia went to visit her allusive father in his homeland of Jamaica. Instead of bonding with him, the girls spent most of their time with a family that either loved or hated them for unknown reasons. Tilla found herself wadding through layers of family dynamics and drama and not understanding why there was so much anger and resentment towards her. She felt alone and angry at her father for abandoning her so much of her life and exploded whenever she was around him. To top it off, there were constant talk about a possible hurricane coming during their visit.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this wonderful novel for an honest review.

At 18, Tilla has a complicated relationship with her father, Tyson. Even though her parents are still married, he deserted them and moved back to Jamaica. Now, Tilla and her 9 year old sister, Mia, are heading to Jamaica to spend the summer with him. Will the trip mend their broken relationship?

"Everyone has that one summer. The summer that changes your life. It passes through you like a hurricane."

While reading this beautiful debut, I was immediately transported to the island paradise of Jamaica. Inclusion of the Patois accent throughout the story helped further my immersion. Even though this coming of age story became almost stagnant in the center section, I'm glad I persevered because the ending was touching and powerful and even brought tears to my eyes.

"You are delicate, but you are powerful. Just like a butterfly."

Location: Jamaica

I received an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I'm not quite sure how to review this book. In many ways, it was really beautifully written and it was absolutely full of vibrant emotion and revelation; our main character, Tilla, never feels anything halfway. But... it was also full of really awful things. (Content Warnings) This book contains verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse within its pages and it is a LOT to take in when our main character is often depicted as not having much agency. She doesn't protect herself and is never protected by her family. She seems to let a lot happen instead of actively deciding things and when she does make choices they're poor ones that hurt her more. The last message of the story seems to be that we all have to go through terrible things to grow as people and become better... and that's not really a message that I believe in. I appreciated Tilla's growth, but in the end, what did she really gain? There didn't feel like there was a good resolution to this book and maybe there's not supposed to be.

The writing in this debut was lyrical which is why I'm giving it three stars when I truly did not enjoy most of the content. Reading this book made me anxious almost the entire time. Tilla has to struggle with the intense beauty of Jamaica versus the intense poison of the people who inhabit that same paradise. Andre was the light of this story and the only character I truly enjoyed. The completion of his storyline felt pointless as well, though.

This book is a quick read and I would recommend it to those that really love emotional contemporary YA books or those looking to read about the beauty of Jamaica.

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for my ARC!

Wow. What a heavy and beautiful read. I loved Tilla as an MC. I loved her self awareness, her fierce exuberance, and her ability to allow herself to feel all the feelings. This is a book I would have personally identified with as a teen, and I think it is going to be very helpful for teens now. I loved Tilla's relationship with Andre, and his death made me bawl my eyes out. Absolutely beautiful book.

Asha Brookfield wrote a fantastic novel in Hurricane Summer. Asha knows herself and has written what it takes to know yourself.
Tilly is Jamaican living in Toronto Canada with her sister Mia and her mother. Her father travels to Jamaica for business but for the last year has stayed there. Tully doesn’t know why. Mia and Tully fly to Jamaica for the summer to visit their dad and discover the life of the Jamaican country and the Jamaican family. They are called foreigna by all because they don’t speak the Patois or know the Jamaican ways. It is a summer of discovering who she is and how she determines who she is and not those around her. She finds that prejudice is everywhere and so is love.
Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this advanced copy of Hurricane Summer.
#Netgalley #WednesdayBooks #HurricaneSummer

Wow! This book was heartbrokenly beautiful. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out how beautiful the cover is. This story touches on so many different topics and there are so many layers packed into a summer in Jamaica. I appreciated so much the Jamaican dialect, and by the end of the story, I had no problem understanding! This coming of age story shows the beauty in being broken, and the strength that comes from destruction. Some parts were heartbreaking to read, but yet the story is relatable, and the themes displayed are not exclusive to this story. For Tilla, it was a summer full of pain and destruction that no young person should endure, but yet she emerges stronger and unashamed of her growth. If anything, some of the more sensitive topics in the story, shed light on things that young girls and woman are afraid to discuss, and I am glad that this novel brought it to the forefront. Tilla’s acceptance of events and the relationship with her father I’m sure will hit home for many readers. This is one of those rare stories that I will find myself thinking about way after I’ve finished.

A debut novel based on personal experiences, actor Bromfield explores the trials of a Black teen’s tumultuous transition to womanhood. Eighteen-year-old Tilla and her sister Mia, nine, travel from Toronto to Jamaica to spend two months with their increasingly absent father.

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.

The cover of this novel is what got my attention. Rain, hibiscus, and a beautiful turquoise and green background with a young girl in a look of bliss, stunning! A lengthy Patois lingo glossary in the book defines phrases used throughout, was helpful.

Aunt Herma, the elder of the household is the antagonist of this story, hands down. She obviously has a problem with the presence of Tilla and Mia to the island. “Comfort Hall doesn’t revolve around you two coming to town “ - Aunt Herma

Bromfields’ description of the Jamaican island countryside, jungle, and especially the waterfall is breathtakingly beautiful. I’m envelopes in the innocent romance, and blossoming romantic tension between Tilla and Hessan. The abuse is unjust and cowering. It’s brilliant how Bromfield has Tilla’s internal storm building up in the midst of the hurricane itself. What powerful symbolism, and meaning laid out in this novel. All my emotions were touched and spilled out as the characters played their roles. The title of this novel lives up to its name.