Get your tissues! This lush and vibrant story will wrap you in beautiful landscape and unforgettable writing and won't let you go until you've cried out every last tear. I absolutely loved this book and its characters, including Jamaica as its own character! This story will be staying with me for a long time.

"A Wednesday book never disappoints."
- Mairy Tsirigotis

This is the story of Tillah and Mia's summer break in Jamaica. They both live in Toronto, Canada with their mother. Their father left for good a year ago and both girls are longing to spend time with their charismatic father in Kingston, Jamaica. That summer will turn out to be life-changing for both of them. I loved reading this book as it felt very real: I connected with Tillah to some level. When we are the children of immigrated parents, we feel a draw for the country our parents are from, we want to connect to the culture, our roots, but in Tillah and Mia's case, spending time in Jamaica turned out to be eye-opening to the ugliness people carry inside of them. The jealousy locals feel foe the foreign girl. The hurricane the girls will go through is the representation of what life can do to you and how you can grow from it. How you can be reborn from the devastation, sometimes as a better, more peaceful version of yourself. A great story with deep meaning that branded itself into my soul.

A big thank you to Wednesday book, author Asha Ashanti Bromfield for the beautiful writing that felt at times spiritual (loved it!), and to Net Galley for the e-ARC.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for inviting me on the Hurricane Summer blog tour, and thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC of this book.

Hurricane Summer is about strength, survival against struggles, and about the sheer everything-ness of life and nature. This was one of those books that was difficult to read yet beautiful; it is certainly not a book one picks up for fun, but is one that is bound to break your heart and slowly mend it back again. It is a book about discovering yourself and knowing you matter; and it is also about learning that you are all the magic you need while also learning that you are not alone.

Read - https://www.ladyinreadwrites.com/hurricane-summer-blog-tour/ - for the complete review and interview with the author

This book was not accurately summarized. The story was rife with triggering content and was far too heavy for the age range, in my opinion.

A very emotional and heavy coming-of-age story, Hurricane Summer follows Tilla as she struggles to fit in with family she is not familiar with during a trip to visit her father in Jamaica.

This was not a book I binged. Instead, I took my time and really sunk into the folds of the story. The author tackled family conflicts, colorism, classism, and first love in a way that both opened my eyes and healed my heart. Tilla is a character that should be protected at all costs!

This beautifully layered story is full of angst and turmoil as Tilla tried to survive mother nature and her biological father. The cover is stunning, as is Bromfield's writing. The dynamic with Tilla's father was incredibly realistic and accurate.

I received an advanced copy of this ebook from the publisher for an honest review. This book is well written and the characters are described well. This book is set between Toronto, Canada and Kingston, Jamaica. I absolutely enjoyed the rastafarian language used in this book. This book is in stores for CA$25.99 (CAD). I enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend reading it to anyone and everyone.

This book was extremely slow and depressing. It needs some comic relief to break up all the horrible things Tilla goes through or at least more of rise from the ashes at the end. I would not recommend.

A beautiful coming-of-age story. A really great read - I’ll definitely be picking up a copy to have in my library

This was not a book for me. I was not a fan of the characters or the plot. I think this just a case of my type of book.

I really enjoyed this coming-of-age story. The story of a young girl coming into her own and also dealing with adult issues before she had to.

3.5 stars

Hurricane Summer was an absolutely gutting coming-of-age story that I haven't been able to stop thinking about for a while now. I liked so much about this book, especially how the writing brought the setting to life and the way Tilla learned to stand up for and choose herself. I also loved how Asha Bromfield showed and explored the complexity of relationships between immigrants and their children through Tilla's relationship with her dad. I have to admit that I thought the death of one of the only kind characters felt unnecessary (as it happened so suddenly and so late in the book that I hardly processed it) and also wish this book had been a bit longer in order to flesh out Tilla's arc more, but this was still a memorable debut and it'll definitely stick with me for a long time.

Wow!! Asha Bromfield writes such an amazing book in Hurricane Summer! I can hear the Patois and she gives every character and the island so much life. I could vividly see what she wrote and hear the words. Such a powerful story!

This is BEAUTIFUL in the most heart-wrenching ways. Asha Bramfield has an incredible skill to transport you to Jamaica with her prose. The real star of this emotional hurricane is in the final chapters, titled Aftermath. This is where we see Tilla come to terms with all of her summer experiences and revelations. She grows up so much in those final chapters and it's a beautiful thing to read. There are quite a few trigger warnings leading up to those beautiful heartbreaking moments, however, one of which is graphic sexual assault. Tread lightly with this one, my friends.

#Hurricane Summer by author # Asha Bromfield is listed as a #Teens & Ya novel. This always catches my attention. What a wonderful novel!! 💜🐾🐾
Description:
Dark secrets, all in the mist of an impending hurricane. Tila's father leaves the Island every six months for Jamaica. She has spent her entire life trying to make her father love her......

Thank you for the advance copy,
#Netgalley, # Asha Bromfield, and # St. Martin's Press

Oof, I was not prepared for how emotional this book made me. The writing is poetic and beautiful but the subject matter is really tough. You need to be in a good place mentally before starting this one.

Tilla just wants her father's love, but she can't seem to make him stay. He keeps leaving their family in Canada and heading back to his original home of Jamaica. When her mother tells her that she and her sister are going to go spend the summer in Jamaica she's filled with so many mixed emotions.

Tilla is treated so badly by the people around her, over and over. She puts up with so much, and takes so much blame for things that are out of her control. It was really hard to read. There is a literal and figurative hurricane raining down on Tilla.

There is also a lot of classism, colonialism and racism in the book, and you see the impact it has had on the population of Jamaica. It's heartbreaking to see, not just where Tilla is concerned, but other people in the story.

Well worth the read, and I was surprised to find out this was a debut novel!

I was somewhat warned about the content warnings and felt like this book would be a powerful, eye-opening, and impactful read. I have tried a couple of times to pick it up to read but find that the heavier material has been difficult to read since the pandemic. I have plans to do so one day as it sounds amazing.
Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

This is a heartbreaking story dealing with sadness, death, along with powerful and intense scenes. This is such a beautifully written story about a young teenage girl who is trying to find love from her father and family. Hurricane Summer is a story about embracing the person who we are, not who we are told to be. It's also a story about fathers, about family who let us down, and stories that just can't be. About being changed by destruction, altered by the forces of family, and walking out the other side. It's about the words we never should have to hear, the sights we never should have to see, the defenses we shouldn't have to prepare. What began as a story about the disillusionment and complex relationship between Tilla and her father, morphs into a story about family, privilege, and female sexuality.

This book will have it's readers on such an emotional rollercoaster from beginning to end. I can't wait to see what other works this author has in store.

This is a story about the dangers of becoming a women...This is a rough coming of age story to read. Some stuff seems very glossed over and we are wanting the main character to find a voice through the ways she has been treated. Get ready to cry. This book discusses poverty, abuse, etc.

Wow. This was unlike any book I have read. And for it to be a debut is even more astonishing. We meet Tilla as she is heading to visit her father in Jamaica over the summer. The place of his birth, returning to her own origin story in a way. Discovering not only who she is but where she came from. Tilla's discovering the country of Jamaica is such a beautiful metaphor of her own life and her own strength that she is discovering while she is there.

"We are the children of Jamaica, and we are screaming out in agony, in pain, in love, and in joy."

The contrast of the beauty and the hardship, a metaphor for the joy and the pain that she experiences over the summer. Seriously, some of the prose were so beautiful I didn't want them to end.

While the story seemed to go from one hardship to another, it also didn't feel depressing because of the beautiful between the pages. As it is in real life, there are always moments of joy amid the pain, light amid the darkness.

The only portion that felt like a little let down was the hurricane. The scenes during the hurricane were done beautifully. Like a picturesque movie of the harshness and devastation while also the beauty that could only be found by someone who has walked and run through a hurricane.
But the scenes were just so few. The book is NAMED Hurricane Summer (a metaphor for Tilla herself, yes, but also the hurricane). And the build up to the hurricane took the majority of the book. So the promise to the reader would be that the hurricane itself was a part of the climax....and yet there were a few brief scenes in the hurricane. While the aftermath was absolutely heart wrenchingly satisfying for the reader, I wanted to see a little more pages on the 24 hours of the hurricane itself.

A minor nitpick in the midst of a masterful debut, and a true tribute to the island country of Jamaica.