This was another incredible read full of culture and heart from Kemp. I love how she weaves an emotional story like non-other.

My Rating: 5/5 Stars

My Review:

I received a finished copy of this book from Hachette Book Group Canada in exchange for an honest review- thanks!

Ever since I read SBBaS last year, this book has been on the top of my anticipated books. Set in the same town, Heartbreak Symphony stole my heart just as quickly as Pen and Xander’s story did. Kemp writes such full characters, ones you cannot help but feel their emotions through. I cried, I got angry, I smiled, and best of all, I could not put it down.

Mia and Aaron are two teenagers encompassed by the grief of each losing a parent, and find their way into one another’s lives in a way that changes them both for the better. Their story is about a lot more than an audition for a school. It’s about finding a way to love your family, your friends, and most importantly yourself. Both of them find their release and solace in music and though I am not familiar with most of the songs alluded to in this book, it really does bring a whole new light to the story.

Writing reviews about books you adore is always such a difficult task, there is so much I want to say, but I don’t want to take away from the story. Or else my entire review would consist of [redacted] [spoilers] [dont read here] and that does not make for a very helpful review. Instead, the rest of this review will be a list of things I loved in no particular order

the many appearances of Pen’s Pasterlia
the Vilanueva siblings
Laekan Zea Kemp’s beautiful prose
the importance of found family
the way all the pieces of the story fell into sleep at the end
the poignant narrative about immigration
I cannot recommend this book enough, so please read it! And Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet. You won’t regret it!

This novel was intense. A story about grief, family, identity, immigration and deportation, love, confidence and music. It was heartbreaking for some part, I wasn’t expecting this at all. Aaron and Mia are two beautiful and strong characters who gets closer thanks to their music. They are ready to help their community, to help during a big protest who can be dangerous. This book deals with quite heavy topics, but it’s beautiful to read and I felt really attached and involved in the story and to the characters. I felt all the emotions they were feeling- stress, sadness, joy, panic, and more.

I had received this ARC in exchange for a honest review.

I enjoyed the book, it talk about hard topics for example: how is like to be an immigrant in America, how the Latin community reacts and believes toward mental health and dealing with grief, what it feels to loose someone you love and how to move forward.

Both main character are likable, I really like that I got to know each background story from each character before they got together. The story centers in Mia and Aaron but also it focus on what is currently happening in their community and what can they do about it to make a change. I’m looking forward to read more books from this author because I saved sooo many quotes from this book that are soo relatable to me and have a little place in my heart.

I wasn't able to finish this one because I found myself very bored. Which is kind of surprising, as there was a mystery aspect to the story, and usually that's enough for me to continue with a book. But I didn't even care to figure out where it was going to go :(

The cover art is what grabs my attention first. After reading through the first chapter, the story didn’t grab my attention and I found myself struggling to get through the book. I unfortunately had to DNF.

When you see the word heartbreak in the title, take that to heart because it is what you will be feeling while reading this book. This is sad and beautiful and compelling and devastating.

Definitely check the TWs for this one because it covers some heavy topics, but I though it handled them really well.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC!

Thank you, NetGalley and Little Brown Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book! I would've liked it more if I was more into music, but it was still really great. I liked getting to know the characters, and the relationship they built together. They find solace in each other. This book covered a lot of hefty topics, esp for kids so young but it is a sad reality for so many young adults. It also had enough fun and lighter scenes to help balance it out, which really made me stick around to read. The ending helped tie everything together.


3.5 stars.

This is a story about navigating first love but also about overcoming grief. My favorite books center around this theme. The deep themes in this book are written in a realistic way and made me feel everything the characters were feeling. It made me reflect on many ideas and I always appreciate when a book can accomplish this. Aaron and Mia are characters I found myself rooting for and I loved seeing their growth and character development. I love how music played a big part in this book. Thank you NetGalley for this arc!

The contents and struggles faced in this story made it so it wasn't an easy read for me. There were a lot of emotional, heartbreaking moments, and the characters seemed to hit obstacle after obstacle.

The two main characters were both carrying so much grief and guilt that weighed on them in so many ways. There were so many characters throughout the whole story that carried a lot of pain and continued to pick themselves up again. What made this story poignant was how real it felt. The place and characters felt real to me, which made me feel so much love for them.

I enjoyed the love story element and appreciated that there was a happy ending. I loved how much the two main characters grew and learned and overcame by the end of the story.

Content notes: deportations, dead parents, parental abandonment, violence from parent

<b> DNF @ 58% </b>

<i>Thank you, Netgalley, for the ARC!</i>

I would like to preface this by saying that, aside from the beautiful cover, this book has many amazing reviews. Take mine with a grain of salt. I am the outlier here.

It’s just that this book felt very slow which led to me being bored and losing interest. I think Aaròn and Mia had relatable stories and goals, and the prose about connecting music to grief and immigration were written beautifully.

I received this book as an arc from Netgalley.

I enjoyed the premise , the characters and how they handled a lot of a lot of important issues people deal with everyday in a way that worked.

I really loved this author's debut book last year: Somewhere between bitter and sweet. So I was extremely excited for their sophomore YA dual perspective romance featuring two Latinx teens who bond and fall in love over a shared love of music and grief over the loss of a parent.

Aarón and Mia help each other overcome their fears and anxieties surrounding putting themselves out there to pursue their music careers and along the way fall in love. I really enjoyed how nuanced and relatable these characters were. Not only are they dealing with heavy family issues (parental abandonment and death) but undocumented friends get scooped up by ICE, adding an extra layer of relevancy to the story.

The mental health rep in this book was also wonderful and it is one I will gladly recommend all year long. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you TBR and Beyond Tours and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this arc!

My Rating: 4 stars

This book dealt with important issues in a beautiful and impactful way, with fun scenes mixed in to balance it out.

I loved both the main characters Mia and Aaron and seeing them grow throughout the book. I liked the side characters too, like Mr. Barrero, Andrés, and Nina.

The romance was really sweet in how it felt truly genuine. I felt like in every interaction between them they were really being themselves and that it made it all the more beautiful.


Plot + Story

The moment they made their pact (sealed with a pinky promise of course), set into the course the rest of their friendship and then relationship as well as their journey to finding their why.

The emotions were very real


"'It sounds like you were pretty fearless'

'Temporarily' From the strain on her face, I sense another memory coming to the surface, this one much darker. 'Until I learned to be afraid.'"


and that's what really brought across the feelings of triumph that came with the character's growth.

I loved how this story was about more than just our characters. It was also about community and activism and not giving up and that may have been one of my favorite parts.

The ending was the most perfect ending for this book and I feel that it really was a win for the characters!

This was a great debut novel and I look forward to seeing what else the author has in store!

This book was so well written and raw I felt like I was purely reading emotions with a plot. I thought the characters were well developed and extremely relatable.

Clap When You Land meets On the Come Up in this heart-gripping story about navigating first love and overcoming grief through the power of music.
🌸
Grief affects everyone differently some just move on and it hits them through smells, songs and memories. Others it changes them on a different level and leaving them a little altered so they don't feel alone. 

Aarón Medrano's mother has passed away and it has strained his relationship with his family and left him haunted by his favorite musician who has gone into hiding. 

Mia Villanueva is grieving her father who passed after their mother abandoned their family and left her older brother to take care of them.

They both are auditioning their talents but are afraid to put themselves out there. They are finding themselves in this very sensitive age and already have had to go through so much. Now they are not safe from the government while their neighborhood is being picked off by I C E . All of these supportive characters just plucked from their life and the characters own life never to be seen again.

My niece and nephew are half Mexican and during the height of that time I was terrified by all the rhetoric and things randos were saying against Mexican Americans, I mean they can hear that. They are all listening. I don't know when people's couple generation immigrant status became better than newer immigrant status fing check your entitlement.

This book was about grief, young love, struggles, desperate tough times and finding who you are through it all. 

Thank you littlebrown and netgalley for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

I received this ARC via Netgalley, and this is my honest review.

Firstly, a big big big thank you to Netgalley and Little Brown and Company for allowing me to read this.

I was crying within the first few minutes, because I’d read anything growing up that was so ….me. (I’m Mexican American). Growing up, there wasn’t anything that I could really connect to on a level of my culture. But especially …the anger. And sadness. There’s a particular kind of anger and anxiety that you grow up with when you’re the child of immigrants. The expectations that are put on you and are the first generation that are “meant” to be great. I related so hard to both of this characters, in the sadness that Aaron existed in. Finding music to properly relay his emotions and to just…disappear. And the especially Mia’s anxiety, of the terrifying “What if I do make it?” Their grief is so so apparent, it doesn’t hold back any punches. At very hard topics like La Migra, mental health and just the sentiments of a country that disparages the very workers that make it. There is such beauty and detail and COLOUR. There is so much colour. I cried the whole way though, honestly was in a feels coma for about a half hour after finishing it. I can’t wait to go to Barnes and Noble and get myself and my friend’s all a copy.

I recommend this book so so much. It’s officially my fav read of 2022.

Thank you

Heartbreak symphony

It’s what my 80s brat pack dreams are made of. Picture it, it’s the perfect start with Oeter Habriel playing in a high school gym with a good ole voiceover on love and lost. The soundtrack would be epic, but the love would make it whole.

In the beginning it was kind of hard to keep track of what was happening through the sequence of events. I couldn’t grab the picture in my mind to understand the jumping around. But, once we got through the first two characters, my brain was aligned and my heart was rooting and wanting to hug them all.

I think Heartbreak Symphony is the most perfect name for this book. It was a beautiful melodic heartbreak that tore me up, but made me feel whole at the same. There’s so much being dealt with from anxiety to a loss of a parent to ICE to abandonment that you just.. feel. You feel for these characters. It’s har Sri write a review for a book that tore you apart. This gave me the same emotions as We Are Not From Here. Thank you so much NOVL and Lb for the gifted copy. Heartbreak Symphony is out now.

QOTD: Name a song that you love.

I had high expectations for Heartbreak Symphony. Unfortunately, Laekan Zea Kemp was not able to meet them. The characters were bland and hard to connect with. Additionally, the plot felt out of order at times.

Thoughts and Themes: I decided that I had to read this book as I loved the author’s debut novel. I was so pleased to find that while this book is also a romance like the first one it was significantly different but just as great. There are so many sections of this book that I highlighted on my kindle because of how these lines spoke to me.

Something that I really enjoyed about this book was how our main characters communicate with each other and the world through music. It reminded me of how I use songs to convey my feelings and sometimes only songs or books completely understand the way that I am feeling. I liked that these two main characters were able to pour themselves into music and how music shapes their lives.

Something else that I loved about this book was the way that it handled grieving and how we see different ways in which people are handling grief. I thought it was great to see both guys and girls dealing with grief, and how both Aaron and Mia lost their parents in different ways. I think because of the way that they lost their parents, the grief that they experience is different and while one of each of their parents is alive, they still are grieving because it is the loss of the parent they had before.

I really enjoyed how this book added the musician into the story and how he was an important part of Aaron’s life and grieving process. I thought it was a great way to show how everyone can have mental health issues and I loved the way he took care of himself. I don’t want to spoil that for you so I’ll let you read to see more about him.

Characters: There are several characters that you get to meet through their interactions with our main characters, Mia and Aaron. You get introduced to Mia’s siblings, friends, and family, and Aaron’s family and friends too.

I loved reading the interactions that Mia has with her brothers and how they try to heal each other. I liked getting to see how they raised her and also getting to see each of them show their grief in a different way. I really liked getting the chance to see how one of her brothers was healing through poetry but how he was still hiding and he only gets the courage to present to show her that it is possible.

I also really enjoy the theme of found family in this book which you really see through the people in the neighborhood. I loved getting the chance to meet Mr. Barrero who takes care of both Mia and Aaron when they need an adult figure in their lives. I really liked seeing how this man has shaped both of these people’s lives and how important he is to them. I also like how we get to see his back story as well to understand why he feels the way he does about Mia.

Writing Style: This story is written from a dual point of view that goes back and forth from our main characters, Aaron and Mia. I really liked getting to read this story from both of their perspectives since I think they both add different things to the story. I really liked getting to go back and forth between these two characters because they had things going on in both of their lives that weren’t intertwined with each other.