If you’ve been here a while, you know I love books about Miami and the Cuban culture. There is nothing I love more than connecting to books on a cultural level, so when this tour came out I immediately signed up. Would I pass up an opportunity to read a book about magic, spells, murder and a dual timeline between Cuba & Miami — absolutely not!

Twins Delfi and Lela (Ofelia) know all too well that dabbling in black magic, brujería, is out of the question when it comes to their mom. It comes with a certain stigma and has cursed their family long enough, but the girls can’t help the premonitions that they’ve been having about murders that have been occurring. Along with their besties, and behind their mom’s back, they set out to find out what is happening. Meanwhile, back in 1980, Anita struggles because her mom is a bruja and belongs to a cult. She knows she is destined to join the cult, although she wants nothing to do with it, and it scares her to no end because she possesses great power. How are Anita and the twins connected?!?!

There are so many things I loved about this story! The relationship between Delfi and Lela was spectacular. It reminded me so much of my own relationship with my sister. I also loved dual POV and the 1980s Cuba storyline. There’s some romance, a ton of Cuban history, family secrets, familial love, curses and phenomenal character development which makes for a wonderful YA debut novel!

If you are looking for a witchy vibes book, with a bit of a Cuban history lesson, pick this one up!

I just could not focus on making my way through this one. I might switch to audiobook to finish this one once I'm out of my current reading slump. But for now, I just couldn't finish the print version.

I forgot to leave a review for this, but I really enjoyed it! It's been out for ages, so I won't say much more than I need to for my star rating. <3

First of all, the sister relationship in this book is one of my favorite sibling relationships that I've read in a while; it felt so real and messy and lovely. The flashback method of storytelling worked really well here, and Montalban wove time periods together beautifully to create a more holistic picture. Another element that was well-told and well-woven was the different practices referenced; I learned a lot and felt the characters' deep connections to their magics and religions and practices of life. Some elements of the book felt rushed or not fully fleshed out, primarily the romances and the big bad's reveal at the end. I'm looking forward to reading more of Montalban's writing in the future, especially if she keeps doing YA this well!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Thank you netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed this one, including most aspects from the characters to how they and the plot developed. Would absolutely recommend to anyone interested in the genre. Taking all of this into consideration, I am giving it 4/5 stars. Can’t wait to read other works from this author.

Simply put: yes.

A great fantasy book, that was super intriguing and has that "can't put it down" feeling. I also LOVED that the terms in Spanish weren't explained. Thank you to whoever made that choice.

A really interesting and great read! I'm not usually the biggest fan of alternating timelines as I feel it can bog down the story or there is a clear, more well written timeline that I prefer to read, but the author very deftly handles both timelines and keeps the engagement high. I also have to give serious kudos to the author for making the two twin MCs distinct! I can't wait to recommend this to people!

This is the kind of book that plunges right into the narrative and then moves backwards and forwards (to the present) to give us a complete picture of what we are reading about.
The twins, Delfi and Lela, both get a turn to voice their thoughts. They have always been told to keep their powers at bay, but the power they latently possess seems to be channelling some sort of important information to them. They have to keep the bits they are collecting because their mother has always been against anything that goes against the more traditional views of the church.
We also have another point of view, one of a young, powerful girl in Cuba who is struggling with her own demons and is struggling with her own mother and the latter's ambitions for what lies dormant in her blood.
The two sisters have their own romantic entanglements to untangle, and although there is a lot at stake, this book is for the age group that the girls fall under. This young adult book was easy to read and had something new within it. There were no twists in particular, but it has adventure nonetheless.
I would recommend the book to fans of the genre.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

This is a great fantasy rooted in Cuban history and Latin American lore. It's a lovely story of history, tradition and overcoming adversity.

This was soooo good, people need to read this! It's such a different setting from your usual fantasy book but it was great. I enjoyed the family dynamics a lot and especially the twins, they truly felt like their own person. I liked the tit bits of romance we got and the pacing was very good as well. Truly a good debut, 4.5 stars

Twin sisters Delfi and Ofelia live in a family cursed by a magical spell that turns love into poison. Their mother has strictly forbid them from tapping into their powers to prevent anything further happening to the family, but when a crime is committed, and both of the twins have the same premonition, they know they can use their powers for good to solve it.

I enjoyed the fantasy aspect of this book as well the historical connection to Cuba and its culture. I also liked the different perspectives and the split timeline. It was easy to navigate between, and it kept the story interesting. The romance aspect, however, I did not find particularly interesting. Overall, there was a great message about discovering your strengths and embracing your own identify, so I would recommend this.

I will definitely be returning to this book in the future. It sounds interesting and I want to take time to devote more time to reading it so I can fully grasp the story.

this book took a little bit for me to get into, but i really enjoyed it once i did. i ADORE the inclusion of cuban culture and the snippets of spanish. that aspect added a certain charm to the book for sure. i loved lela and delfi’s super special twin relationship, they were so cute and reminded me of my sister and i in some ways. ethan and andres were wonderful side characters, their growing romances with the girls were really fun to keep up with. and, of course, i thought it was really cool how we got ana’s storyline as a young girl as well as lela and delfi’s, ultimately coalescing into one! overall, a good read that i’d recommend to readers of rachel griffin and adrienne young.

A gorgeous debut from Vanessa Montalban. Would recommend to readers and fans of Zoraida Cordova's the Inheritance of Orquidea Divina.

A Tall Dark Troule is an incredible story! The multiple timelines and points of view kept the story interesting! I haven't been so hooked on a YA novel in such a long time!

DNF

I really wanted to like this, the premise is perfect for me, but I just didn't gel with any of the characters.

Very much a me thing, but the smattering of spanish/latinx words meant I couldn't keep track of what things meant, but I have *zero* spanish vocab and I suspect if you do then you'll be fine!

I received an advance copy for free from NetGalley, on the expectation that I would provide an honest review.

So I fell for this book from the comparisons alone. Practical Magic?! YES. PLEASE. That is one of my favorite movies to watch every Halloween, so I was DESPERATE to get my hands on this. And tho I saw it, it was only in small things. But that didn’t make it any difference in my eyes! This was really good, but it did have some flaws.

Starting with those flaws, I would have loved some more world-building. I know what Miami looks like, but 1980’s Cuba? Not a clue. I’d love to have seen some more of like what was going on and what was happening back then. There’s some in there because you can’t really talk about this time period without some of this info, but I really wanted to know more about it. I ended up doing more research on the time period instead to give it more context. And while that’s fine, I tend to like the book better when it’s in the book and I can learn directly from the author. But on the other side of that, I am not the from this particular culture and understand that this may be basic info to those who are. I would have liked more, but I don’t think it took anything from the story.

And then there’s the cult. Which don’t get me wrong was WEIRD AF, but I think I would have preferred us seeing more of what they did to be this weird murderous thing that they were? Like when people say showy and not telly? This is it. Idk I like to be fully immersed in the books I read, no matter what it is I’m reading. If I’m reading some weird ass book about a cult, I want to feel like I’m running for my life too. It just kind of glossed over the whole thing and that annoyed me for whatever reason. I just thought these girls deserved more than that.

The characters were bad ass tho. I really enjoyed reading them and seeing all the things they did. I also loved seeing them do their magic and how it was shown in the book. I wish both sisters were into the magic tho. I thought it was cool and wished they did things together more. I get why she made one of them not into it, but I just wish it had more of them together.

This book was good, but I think the most repeated thing here is that I wish it had been more showy vs telly. I wanted more detail and more adjectives. I don’t mean flowery language, but a little more descriptions would have done wonders for me.

This book was full of family and magic!
I loved the author’s use of foreshadowing and the bread crumbs she dropped to string us and the girls along…!



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Big thanks to Turn the Page Tours & Zando Books for the ARC!

If you are looking for a book that is full of magic and family secrets, then this is definitely one you don’t want to miss out on!

Twins Delfi and Ofelia have always loved their lives believing that they are destined…for MORE! And by more, I mean the powers that their ancestors had before. But, their mother is opposed to any kind of bruja magic because of what she went through back in Cuba. Oh, also, they are under a curse that doesn’t allow them to have a romance, or REALLY bad things happen to their partners. 😬

NOTE: in case you didn’t know, this book is told through 3 perspectives; the mother’s (Anita) back in 1980s Cuba, and both twins

When Delfi and Ofelia have a shared foreshadowing image of a person dying, the last thing they expect is for it to come true. Bring forward a murder investigation with an emergence of powers, all while trying to hide it from their mother. But wait, not only do we get glimpses of Anita’s past, but it comes back to haunt her in her new life.

I really loved both the dual perspectives and the magic system of the senses (which is something I’ve never encountered before!) If you are a fan of historical fantasy, magic realism, or Cuba, this is definitely a book you should check out!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book!
This book was a treat! I loved every character even the enemies! The multiple POVs in this book were great, especially near the end. Anita’s story was so heart-wrenching and even more so as you unravel the who’s and what’s in the over-arching plot line. I do wish we had a little more in-depth characterization of Lela and Delfi but I loved them.