From the outside looking in, Elena Vega seems to have it together, but on the inside she is a mess. Her parents are divorced and her Puerto Rican father is living on the island, while she and her mother are living in New York. Over time, Elena becomes estranged from her father. When Hurricane Maria ravages the island, Elena and her mother become increasingly worried about Santiago Vega, Jr after months of not hearing a word from him. Where could he be? Is he OK or even dead?

Elena goes to Puerto Rico in search of her father, and what she finds is that so much has been kept from her throughout her entire life. Why haven't her parents told her any of this information, and why are they keeping secrets? Elena meets various people along her journey around the island to find her father, but what Elena uncovers is so much more.

This is a beautifully written novel and Elena's character development is noteworthy, but this novel fell short for me. It is on the long side with too many details that were fluffy and didn't really contribute to the story. I was not satisfied with the ending at all. I was really hoping for a more unified ending, but I was disappointed.

Special thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

What a beautiful story! A young woman goes to Puerto Rico in search of her missing father. She crosses the country, learning more about his past and herself as she goes. It was beautifully written and really powerful!

Having never been to Puerto Rico, I found it interesting to get a closer look at life there in contrast to life in the United States. Elena is Jewish-Latina, living in New York as an adult after her parents divorced when she was young. Her father Santiago Jr. returned to live in Puerto Rico and has had only periodical contact with his daughter but has now disappeared following Hurricane Maria. Her mother Rosalind, his ex-wife is concerned enough to ask Elena to travel from New York City to Puerto Rico to find him to make sure he is safe. Elena and her father never have had a great relationship due to his being an alcoholic and his struggles with mental health. When arriving in Puerto Rico, problems arise because Elena doesn’t know much about her father’s past or family in Puerto Rico as he (and her mother) had chosen to never speak about his past and childhood. So many secrets about people that Elena should know about but doesn’t causes her to be very angry at both her parents, and has always led her to be cautious to trust anyone. As Elena travels around the island searching for him, Elena discovers much about her father, but more about herself.
In this story about family, we see twists and turns. It makes me thankful for my close family, yet aware there may be secrets in everyone’s history. The added element of Elena’s social platform postings describing Puerto Rico were enlightening and helped to discover what Elena was feeling she identified with what was written. How sad Santiago’s life was, given his mother’s mental illness, and how it affected his inability to love himself and others truly. When the author shows how his family embraces Elena, you can see that he really was rich if he only looked for it. This book kept me engaged until the end and left me a bit sad as there is no fairytale ending like we all seem to want.
Many thanks to #netgalley #afterthehurricane #leahfranqui #harpercollins for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Elena was an only child in her 30's when Hurricane Maria hit. Her mother was Jewish and her father was Puerto Rican. Her father was an attorney but had many issues. Her parents divorced and her mother talked to her father who was in Puerto Rico. She had not heard from him so she sent Elena down to their house in Puerto Rico to look for her missing father. Searching for her father, she meets family friends, people knew her father and learns the story of her family. The book is too descriptive in places but an excellent book written with feeling. My thanks to NetGalley for the book.

This book was so beautiful written and I really enjoyed reading it. I honestly was a bit iffy going into but ended up really liking it.

Puerto Rico has long been on my travel bucket list. If I wasn't so terrified of hurricanes, I'd even dreamed of retiring there. The destructive category four hurricane is an important piece of this story, but not the focus.
Elena's search for her missing father is more a story of a young woman's search for her history and her fathers unknown heritage, than for him. His disappearance didn't seem particularly out of character considering his demons with alcohol and bipolar disorder.
Elena's parents have been divorced awhile. Her mother, Rosalind, now lives in Philadelphia. Elena's great grand parents fled Russia and are Jewish. She has been raised with those traditions. Her father, Santiago, had returned to Puerto Rico after the divorce, despite spending his lifetime trying to escape. Elena lives and works in NY.
Santiago is a complex, intelligent and secretive man. He comes from a poor, violent family of sugar cane workers. His mother was mentally unwell. He attended Stanford University and Yale Law School and became a lawyer. Much of the story describes his time in NY, then CA, the deep friendships he developed there and his early years with Rosalind. His character is not necessarily easy to relate to, to like or read about.
Neither of Elena's parents have ever shared Santiago's family information with her. They took trips to Puerto Rico and she knows her father's family is still there, but nothing more significant. He even bought a dilapidated 1700s house there to restore.
Rosalind phones Elena to relate that her father is missing and pleading for her to go to Puerto Rico to find him.
Elena boards a plane to San Juan having not a clue where to look or who to ask about Santiago's whereabouts. Her journey around the island is emotionally wrought with newfound people and relatives of her father's Elena never knew existed. She stays at the old restored house which has again become a ruin.
The story gives good insight into culture, customs and beliefs on the island. Having researched my own family ancestry and history pre-computer when people still wrote letters, it was moving to read about someone without that knowledge. The story made me appreciate all those stories of ancestors I was freely given. I can't fathom how strange it would feel to not have that. History, heritage and roots are important. The author, previously unknown to me, seemed to write with personal experience and soul.
Thanks to NetGalley for the advantage digital copy of "After the Hurricane " by Leah Franqui and to HarperCollins Publishers. These are my honest personal thoughts and opinions given voluntarily.

I received an advanced review copy of this book from #NetGalley. I went into this book thinking the bulk would be twists and turns related to a disappearance but found instead it's a story about family--both chosen and unchosen. It's a layered story about daughters and fathers and mothers and sons set against the backdrop of a post-hurricane Puerto Rico. More of a slowburn than than a thriller but interesting characters throughout

After the Hurricane is Leah Franqui's thoughtful look at the estranged relationship between father and daughter, and how it not only impacts Elena's life at a family level, but also how much she identifies with her Puerto Rican heritage. After her parents separate, Elena's father relocates to Puerto Rico, but when he disappears it is finally the impetus Elena needs to go back to Puerto Rico herself and make connections with her extended family members and friends of her father that he has always kept separate from Elena. The story is also told from Santiago's perspective, working back from his last interactions with Elena through his years in law school and college, back to growing up with his mother, Esperanza. Santiago's family is poor, and his father leaves his mother in New York, dealing with mental health issues, and returns to Puerto Rico. The reader can see both Elena's frustration at trying to find her father and understand his past before he descended into alcoholism, and Santiago's terror at being a father and the possibility of madness taking him, just like his mother. In many regards he turns it into a self-fulfilling prophecy. The setting is a post-Maria Puerto Rico, which has some impact on the story, but doesn't drive Santiago's disappearance. I suspect that this is a very personal story for Franqui based on her heritage, so I wish I could identify more with the emotions Elena is experiencing. I almost felt like I could feel Santiago's struggles more. I also confess to having some difficulty keeping all of Santiago's family straight, but that is more likely me not paying quite as close attention as I could have. A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

After the Hurricane is really two stories: the story of Elena finding her way after NYU and her father, Santiago, Santiago is caught between his upbringing in NYC, his mentally ill mother, and his Puerto Rican roots. Santiago begins to be a success story, undergraduate at Stanford, law degree from Yale. But in seeking his professional identity, he looks for his personal one. Elena is actually on a similar trajectory. Returning to Puerto Rico to find her father, she ends up ... no spoilers :)

Ms Franqui, what a delightful novel. I enjoyed the plot lines but more so the vivid pictures you paint of Puerto Rico. I look forward to your future work.

Wow! This is a new author for me and she certainly does her research well! This one covers so much and should probably come with a trigger warning, but, which one?? Dysfunctional families, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, mental illness, immigration, financial disparities and that's only the surface. That's not to say I didn't finish, I devoured it! So very well written and yet so relatable, never writing above the reader but certainly making one think. Does it have a happy ending, all tucked up with a bow?? Maybe, for some but it's really not the point. My favourite quote comes near the end; "Every immigrant has known the in between state of being, the futile hours and days and years and lives spent chasing enough; becoming enough."

As always, many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

Elena has come back to Puerto Rico after receiving a call from her mom that her father is missing. She's unsure where to start. This is an island she doesn't know well and her father has been secretive her whole life, unwilling to tell her much about his family or his life before she was born. She isn't even sure where to start other than to go to the house he bought so long ago and see if it holds clues.

This story is told in two timelines, two POV. One is Elena as she explores the house and the island, finding clues and off searching the next location to see if she can find him. The other POV is her father as a young man growing up on the island, his family and then his college years. As Elena searches for her father, she struggles to know him more and understand why he has hidden so much from her.

I was instantly sucked in to the story, completely mesmerized by the island after a hurricane and how they are rebuilding but also struggling. I loved discovering all the secrets between the two - learning of the family and the island history from both POV. What a treasure of a story this is, with such a beautiful cover. I really liked this one!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

This book was definitely a journey! I really appreciated the way that I could tell the author truly loves words. Allende’s words are honestly truly beautiful, peppered with craftily designed metaphor. However, the book was both slow and too word-y for me at times. Perhaps the story could have been told just a little bit more concisely. Nevertheless, I do not regret reading!!!

The setting of this book was probably my favorite part. It's an intricately woven cast of characters, each with their own set of nuances and history that create drama. Perhaps it was because of my own family history, and many of the father's stories feeling like they had been pulled from my own PR father's past, but I had a hard time enjoying the story.

Stories in which the physical setting (either a city/state/country) are significant to the story are an immediate draw. (I wish there was a name for these books--maybe there is, and I just don't know it!). Puerto Rico--its physical characteristics, its culture, and history--are significant in this story of a daughter looking for her father in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

Not only is it a story about a country trying to recover from a life-changing natural (and man-made in some ways) disaster, but it's also a story about uncovering secrets and learning new layers about parents.


Many thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

After the Hurricane is an extraordinary story.
A beautifully and powerfully-written novel.
I found all of the characters completely believable and charming.
The book was insightful, beautiful, touching and really delightful.
I was fully invested in every compelling character and each well constructed storyline, had me captivated, enthralled, and mesmerized by Ms. Franqui’s cunningly constructed tale and found myself reading slowly to savor every second of it.
This is, quite possibly, the best book I have read this year.
Leah Franqui, managed to write a flawless story.

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

William Morrow,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!
I will post my review to my platforms, blog, B&N and Waterstone closer to pub date.

I wanted to read this because it is set in Puerto Rico, and I haven't read many books set in PR and also because I live in a place with a terrible hurricane season so reading about the aftermath of that sounded relatable. This story is really well done and unique. I loved the mystery of it and this cover is absolutely stunning!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

I was happy to read a book set in Puerto Rico and a character with a similar background to me as I’m half Puerto Rican too. It was a complex story the author wove together by giving us daughter Elena’s POV and the father’s as well. Elena has had a troubled relationship with her father mostly due to his alcoholism and disconnection and ultimately abandonment of her as a young adult. I looked more forward to Elena’s chapters but I was grateful to have Santiago’s chapters so we knew where he came from, how he grew up, his struggles and his accomplishments. It’s nice to see a more developed characterization of him as more than just a drunk. He had a very difficult upbringing, abandoned by his own father and being raised by his very troubled mother who he had to take care of. Despite all this, he accomplishes a lot in his studies and becoming a lawyer. He marries and has Elena but his own mental disorder and substance abuse issues lead to his outcome in life. Santiago decides to live in Puerto Rico and then after the hurricane there, he soon goes missing. Elena heads to Puerto Rico to find out what happened and in the process learns more about her father than she ever knew. He hid his whole life from his daughter which angered her but perhaps he had good intentions?
The story is a mystery to unravel all while transporting the reader to Puerto Rico, which is vividly described throughout. I enjoyed reading this story. I would agree that some of it read slow but I was invested. The romantic in me would have loved a little more romance woven in. And also more Puerto Rican characters to admire but there were a few. It does make me more curious though because in my own family, my mom is the same generation as Santiago’s and all my Puerto Rican uncles - three in total - had/have mental health issues. The women have their own issues but have fared better. My grandfather (Uelo)was an amazing happy man and my grandma (Uela) is a strong woman who has done well in life. She always greets me with, “Nena, preciosa” but also, “You lost weight?” Or other times, “You gained weight?” So she’s also a funny, blunt grandma. Ay dios mio!
I enjoyed reading this and now would love to read more fiction books set in Puerto Rico. :)

A young woman goes to Puerto Rico to look for her missing father after he mysteriously disappears. Tracing her father's background through his family ,friends and her mother, she discovers the person who her father really was. Wonderful description of both the country and its history, any historical fiction lover will want to read this. I did find the book a little slow in places, but I continued it and will recommend it.

Full review to come and rating may change! Need to let things marinate, but the premise was nice and I haven't read a lot of books set in Puerto Rico.