I liked the formatting of this story, the chapters each month of the year and the days tracked like letters. The Alvarado family have a tumultuous year that brings them all closer than they’ve ever been after beginning so far apart.
The examination of everyone’s romantic and familial relationships was so interesting

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to María Amparo Escandón, Netgalley and Flatiron Books for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.

Stories about family dynamics have always been interesting to me. It makes me think about my own family and our idiosyncrasies, and what someone would think about if they were reading about them. Each family has their own problems, and that’s no exception for the Alvarado family. While each of them have been successful in their own ways, they are also dealing with some things in their personal lives. When someone has issues in their personal life, does that come from their family issues or result in other family issues? Something to think about.

One of the things that I liked reading about was how the family was dealing with the end of a marriage. When there are children involved – even grown children with their own lives and own love lives – it feels like things get that much harder to deal with. I could feel that while I read reading this, and seeing how each member of the Alvarado family is coping and dealing with some life changing decisions.

I thought that this was a beautiful and powerful story, one that really shows the intricacies of human nature, how none of us are perfect, and how even though we can be irritable and difficult to deal with all the time, we still need to learn how to get back to maintaining healthy relationships with our family. Of course, if the relationship is very toxic and one or more parties aren’t willing to change their behavior to undo the toxicity, then I agree with ending it and maintaining distance, even if they are family.

I would love to read more stories from María Amparo Escandón and I’m glad that I had the pleasure of reading this one.

A family drama circling a family with so much drama and unfortunate events. I liked how the book broke everything down month by month, but I got to the point of wondering how much more can happen to one family.

I wanted to love this book. Especially after hearing that it was a Reese Book Club Pick. With lots of interesting storylines, I just couldn't get into. With so many books out there, I found my attention diverted to others.

Loved this book and all the complex relationships threaded throughout. Maria is such an incredible author - I am excited to read her back list of titles now!

L.A. Weather follows the Alvarado family, for one year living in Los Angeles. I liked getting to know the Alvarado family, but overall I was quite bored. It took me about four months to finish this story. I liked the characters, but I was frustrated with all of them throughout the story.

Man, I just didn't like this at all. Normally I live for a gossipy fun family saga but this was like bad homework to get through. I didn't like anyone, I didn't think it made sense and the writing was poor. Loved the idea and the description but would not recommend to anyone, ever.

This book was compelling enough that I wanted to finish it, but not something I had to devour in a single weekend.

I liked this. In a huge fan of family dramas and I think the author did a good job of telling the story she wanted to tell. The story itself is...interesting but if I'm being honest a bit boring. Too much going on at times and then...too little.

I like the authors prose of this multi-generational family. However, I do think there was this "heavy" dependance on heavy stereotypes of the "American dream". At the end of it all, L.A. Weather is a good story, a bit soap operarish. Every story has an audience, I don't feel like I was this audience but I won't knock the story.

Not my favorite but compelling and fast paced

Well written. Will reread and enjoy the complexities again.

The way that LA Weather took place over the entirety of 2016 was so well done. The family's dynamics were incredibly interesting as every member kept their own secrets until everything blew up. While it read a bit fast-paced and dramatic (honestly giving me telenovela vibes), which wasn't my style, I still think it was a great book. The story has heart, and I appreciated the moment where the father calls out their daughters for giving their mother grief over wanting a divorce when all three of them end up divorcing throughout the year. I also like how the family banded together towards the end of the year.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but around the holidays I am all in for family drama . . . . of the fictional variety. When I saw this book was about a family with the jumping off point being a horrible accident I was all in. That cover didn’t hurt things either. But then I ended up spoiling myself a little bit and taking a gander at other reviews because I was just not feeling this one at all. Apparently the author was inspired by telenovelas, but sadly I think most of us weren’t in on the gag. While this does get over the top with affairs and tumors and divorce and frozen embroyos and kleptomania and secret business endeavors, unfortunately it was a total snoozefest with stilted dialogue and characters who I never connected to (because there were a shitton of them and a grand total of zero had any sort of depth or development). And at around the 65% mark boy oh boy did the title become appropriate. So. Much. Weather . . . .

The dismal 3.24 Goodreads rating does not lie, my friends. I hate to hand out 1 Stars, but my reactions are based purely on my enjoyment level and this was the literary equivalent of a root canal. Curse you Reese Witherspoon and your damn book club that I can’t seem to quit!

I was not a huge fan of this book. There was too much cheating and lying. I felt that this family was extremely dysfunctional and they all fed into each other.

5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
I would definitely be recommending this book to readers on my Instagram bookstagram account.

You would think that the weather in California is 70° and sunny all the time. You would also think that weather is just sunshine, snow or rain, but Maria Amparo Escadón shows you that weather is much more than that. Yes you can have sunshine, but with that comes drought. And as Oscar knows only too well, drought can destroy a family.

Oscar, the patriarch of the Alvarado family is obsessed with the weather. Unbeknownst to his family, he owns an Almond orchard and the lack of rain is not only destroying his trees, but it is destroying him financially. His focus is so much on the weather that he doesn't notice when his granddaughters almost drown in his pool.

This is just the start of the book... From there this family experiences three divorces, a brain tumor, a gender fluid child, stolen embryos, a pregnancy, kleptomania, a one night stand, rape, and just so much more. Along the way, there is fire season, the Santa Ana winds, and then ultimately the rain.

The weather is very much a part of the story and the way the author weaved it thru the story, makes this a good read. 3.5⭐

Thank you to Netgalley, Flatiron Books and Maria Amparo Escandón for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I was very excited to read this book. The summary sounded very promising and interesting however it fell flat. The Alvarado family is going through a year of drama, lies, secrets, divorces and though it started out strong, I feel the story wasn’t necessarily executed though. I had a hard time sticking to the book or even wanting to read it. I feel like issues weren’t really resolved, the ending felt abrupt and diary entry style was a little hard to follow. I appreciate Netgalley and Flatiron Books for the opportunity to read this arc in exchange of an honest review.

I tend to gravitate towards family dramas (especially dysfunctional ones), however, I felt like these characters were just a tad too unlikeable that I couldn't root for any of them. Each of the characters have a lot of backstory and insight into their lives (which I typically love), but it almost became too complicated to keep track of what was happening.

I really enjoyed Maria Amparo Escandon's writing and her ability to include so much character development for so many different characters. I was very invested in all of the Alvarado's stories and struggles. The only character I didn't feel I got enough out of was Lola. When there were a few chapters dedicated to her and her life story, I expected to get more but felt there wasn't quite enough about her to justify including her as a main character.

I also felt that there were too many overdramatic life events for it to feel real. All three girls getting a divorce at once and the stolen embryos felt way too far fetched. Particularly with the embryos, Mabel did not have a viable reason to risk her job and freedom to steal them, and there is no plausible way her employer would not notice the embryos she replaced them with were missing.

Otherwise, I did enjoy the story and was happy that most of their issues has realistic resolutions. Overall, I will recommend this to friends and fellow readers.

I 10/10 recommend getting swept away into this engaging family drama. I read this one so fast; I just could not get enough. Thank you to NetGalley and Adams Media for a copy of this book for an honest review.

I was so interested in the synopsis for this one, give me a good family drama with some interesting weather aspects any day. What started off ok as far as getting to know the family and their dynamics became somewhat boring. I found the climate change aspect interesting but there was something missing in the way the characters interacted - I couldn't find myself caring about them unfortunately