I enjoyed this look at life in Haiti, Alzheimer’s, and family secrets from the viewpoint of an outspoken teenage girl. I wish there had been more substance to the story, however. It felt unfinished.

Alaine’s mother is a leading political journalist, who is always breaking the leading story. This leaves very little time for actually interacting with her daughter. Alaine wants to follow in her mother’s journalism footsteps and asks her mother to come to school for career day and surprisingly her mother is planning on coming. Alaine’s mother asks her classmates to watch her show before she comes, which turns out to be a disaster. On the show that the school is watching, Alaine’s mother slaps one of her guests, on camera, live. Alaine’s mother quickly retreats to her family home in Haiti. After Alaine pulls a stunt in response to the bullying over her mother’s faux paus, she is quickly sent to serve out community service in Haiti near her mother. Alaine finds out that her mother is suffering from early on-set Alzheimer’s and they must use what little time they have left to grow their relationship. While in Haiti, Alaine interns for her aunt’s charitable organization and works to save her mother by breaking a family curse. There is a lot going on for this family.

This book was real, but was funny. Alaine never lost her sense of humor, even while she was dealing with a difficult set of circumstances. It was fantastic seeing all of the pieces and parts of Haiti, instead of just focusing on the best and worst aspects. I enjoyed this novel and am willing to read any future items by these authors.

I think I had high expectations for this one and I still love the cover so much! I found myself bored and I don't think the fact that the ARC was not properly formatted helped. This is a great concept and had some unique aspects but it needs editing -- the authors really need to better find a voice. Also, for a book told in only other writings - diary entries, texts, phone calls, emails, etc. . . . that aspect was not done as well as other books I've read that employed that same tactic. I usually love books like that but this one was a bit of a disappointment.

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine comes out next month on September 3, 2019 and you can purchase HERE.

What have I got to lose? The sad truth is that I'm already losing my mother. Whether I sit down and accept her diagnosis or not, each day that goes by is one less with her. That terrifies me. She's not perfect but she's mine, and she's all I've ever wanted to be. I dream of being as passionate about something as she is about her work. These days, I cry into my pillow, imagining a future where I won't have her around to disappoint. I always figured we would get closer when I got older and more mature. Now I'm not sure she'll be around to see me hit thirty (the age when presumably all juvenile problems melt away and peak humanhood is reached).

This book might just be one of my top five of this year. It is well-written and evenly paced. The characters were fleshed out, and they felt like real people. The relationships were genuine. The story just felt important in general. Can't wait for whatever comes next from these authors!

I am going to start my review by explaining that not only did I get an advanced reader copy of this book, but I got it in eBook format.... and I read most of my eBooks from my phone even though I have a tablet because it's easier to cart around.  Any issues I found with the pagination and style choices in this book may not be an issue for anyone buying the paper copy.  Now then, with that said.... let's get started.

I find it amazing that two authors, sisters, wrote this book together and made it seem like it was one.  There were no abrupt shifts in character or narrative voice.  Word choices and phrasing remained the same throughout.  I do appreciate that.  The characters themselves were amazing and I adored them.  It was easy to feel for each of these characters, to root for them and want them to succeed in everything.  Celeste and Estelle were both very well done, I actually really liked how they interacted, and how Celeste's illness was portrayed.  It was messy and imperfect.... and completely in character.  Alaine is another character that I loved- smart mouthed and a tad over-dramatic, she gets herself into scrapes.  She's proud, loyal, and bull-headed.  I love her.

I also have to give props for the way the authors incorporated different techniques into the book.  You have letters, chat, email, post cards, diary entries and school assignments here, as well as Alaine's narrative.  It's an interesting idea, and certainly made the book more fun.  Unfortunately I feel like the execution was messy.  I won't get into the areas that I assume will be fixed upon publication (odd pagination and misplaced sentences/ paragraphs) and will only highlight the issues I found that seem to be the purposeful.

The font changes.... a lot.  Color, size, sometimes it's bold and sometimes italics....  There are some moments where I feel like this was placed in order to tell that something was a different median- like email or a hand written note.  But we are always told that these things are coming, so using such devices seems unnecessary and only makes it harder for those reading in eBook format.  You see, some of the words will be in this color and sometimes not.  There was one time where the color changed in the middle of a word!  Add to this, some of the pieces will be in normal font size, some half font, and one area was four times larger than normal making me change my font size on my app constantly.  This is completely unnecessary and actually makes me mad.  I do understand that it won't be an issue for the hard copy- you don't have to do anything special for a paperback.... but not all of us read paper books anymore.  I probably buy fifty to seventy books a year easy- that's right, not library rentals, and not books given to me.  I have a hard time letting books go, and a very small home that I share with my husband and two cats.  If every book I bought was paper we would have a serious problem!  

Ugh! Where was I?  Oh yes.  Obviously this book has a lot going for it.  It has fantastic characters, a great premise, it's a fun fast read that allows you a peek into Haitian culture and history.  These are all pluses.  Add to this fact that there are some really strong females to look up to, and serious character growth being shown by the main character, and I feel like it would be good for a lot of teens to read.  My only issue is that the actual execution- pagination, etc... well, there were some questionable choices here.  Save yourself a headache and buy the paper copy, that's what I am going to do.  For me, this is a three star book with an extra star for creativity.  I loved it, and I highly recommend it... but it was just a little messy to me.

On the adult content scale, there's some drinking and language.  Nothing major... it's definitely geared toward teens and I would have no issue handing this to a younger teen.  Let's give it a two.

So this wasn't bad at it, it's just the more I read the more I raelized that this wasn't the book I thought it was going to be be and I just started enjoying it less. And while I love mixed media book formats, the ARC for this one was jumpy and hard to read. But it was wonderful seeing a spotlight on Haiti and Haitian culture - and Alaine's love for her family both in Miami and in Haiti. So overall, not for me, but I'm positve many readers will enjoy Alaine's story.

I had requested this book based on the cover and description as I haven’t read many books set in Haiti. I really enjoyed the characters and how the author developed the plot. I would definitely recommend this book to other readers who are interested in this setting.

You're going to love this book. Not only does it have Caribbean representation, it's all about family relationships. Especially those that occur with mothers and daughters and sisters. I was definitely in love with Alaine's outlook and attitude on life. She's highly opinionated and stubborn, which is how she lands herself into a heap of trouble, and on a flight to Haiti. The story that occurs is unlike any I've read, and reads so fluidly, you'll forget that two people wrote this book. Even having met them, I had forgotten that the sisters worked together on this masterpiece. Honestly, the book is raw in terms of feelings. It looks at life with someone who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, as well as how curses and superstitions can often be a way for people to look at something with a hope that things will change. People are going to love this story and I can't wait for our library to have it so that we can get it into the hands of all young readers that so desparately need to see themselves in books.

This book was a bit disappointing for me. I typically enjoy an epistolary format because it seems to read quicker. I didn’t feel that with this book. I slogged my way through many of the excerpts. It all felt a little disjointed. I’m not sure that YA readers will be interested in Alaine’s family history. I lost interest at the family curse.

Told from mostly emails, reports, and notes, Dear Haiti, Love Alaine is a story about making sense of our heritage and family. It's lyrical and what you will fall in love with is Alaine's personality. She is kind, incredibly clever, dramatic, and honest. In the way we can only be when we're writing to others and in our own memories. There's an openness from Alaine that keeps you reading. Whether it's envy or curiosity, Alaine will hook you.

What's more, Alaine's journey about researching Haitian history, and her own family's past, is an adventure. But it's more than that - introspective, deeply emotional, and intimate. Her fears that she is afraid of claiming her heritage, for fear of being 'not enough'. It's easy to fall in love with Alaine's charm, her hilarious jokes and drama. But it's as easy to fall in love with her honesty and vulnerability - her hurt feelings and disappointments.

The layout of this book threw me off at first. It's written like a journal with emails, text messages, and diary entries from others. But once I got past that, it's a beautiful story. I think teens will love this especially ones who can identify with Alaine, the main character. She is first generation Haitian American who has to return to Haiti while serving a school suspension. I loved all the Haitian history and the descriptions of Haiti's iconic landmarks. This book was both authentic and entertaining. The twists in the stories gut punched me. I was not ready for the book to end and I crave to hear more about Alaine in her college years.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so great that I basically read it in one sitting, I couldn't put it down. Alaine Beauparlant is a senior in high school who is dealing with family issues that have made their way into her social interactions at school. After "The Incident" at school leaves Alaine suspended from school, and on a trip to her parents native Haiti to volunteer she begins to learn more about her distant mother and her family history.

I love this book so much! The mixture of contemporary fiction with magical realism drew me in and had me hooked!

Very unique story. There were some parts of this story that I never would have seen coming.

Alaine has a pretty normal life.
Her parents are divorced. They are hard working professionals. Her mom comes off as too busy for Alaine a lot of the time. Her dad picks up the slack as best he can.
Her family is from Haiti.
Alaine has never taken that too seriously. She also doesn’t think the so-called family curse could be real.

Then Alaine’s mom has a bit of a break down on live tv. She goes into hiding in Haiti.
This causes Alaine to act up at school. Her parents agree to send her to Haiti to do charity work.

Soon she starts to learn a lot more about the family curse. She learns a lot about how her parents grew up.

This book was a page turner!

I got to read an early copy from NetGalley and really enjoyed it.

Really enjoyed the heroine and the way this book is written. It is full of emails, letters, post cards, school assignments and is written from the voice of a very self confident young woman.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of ‘Dear Haiti, Love Alaine’ by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite.

I love Alaine’s voice and how her character expresses herself in writing. Alaine’s world is turned upside down when she is sent to Haiti to stay with her mom and aunt after causing a disturbance during a school presentation.

There is humour, heartbreak, disappointment, and joy throughout the story. I would recommend this to fans of YA.

This book was slow going. We did not get to Haiti as quickly as I expected and there was so much happening that felt like it had little to do with the plot slowing the pace down. I am sure this will not be in the final book, but another thing that contributed to issues reading were the large chunks of text that were put out of order, forcing me to go back and forth between pages to try to understand what was happening.

3.5 stars

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine had as much promo at the ALA19 as Frankly in Love, and, for me, Moulite sisters' debut was a better fit.

When it comes to contemporary YA, the voice and the POV are everything. I personally have very little interest left in me for cafeteria drama and such. Dear Haiti, Love Alaine offered me something that I hadn't yet seen in YA, and in a package that appeals to me.

Alaine is the only daughter of divorced parents of Haitian descent. Both her parents are wealthy - her father is a psychiatrist and her absent mother is a famous political reporter. When Alaine's mom, Celeste, becomes the center of a big controversy ("slapgate"!) and when Alaine herself gets into a drama of a slightly different, but still outrageous, kind at school, both Alaine and Celeste travel back to Haiti to lick their wounds.

Like many debut novels, Dear Haiti, Love Alaine tries to do a lot, too much, if you ask me - Haitian history, politics, family curse, voodoo, Alzheimer's, magical realism. Plus, it does so using epistolary format - a collection of diary entries, school projects, emails, texts, letters.

I happen to love this kind of books (although it's been done more effectively elsewhere). And I was enormously entertained by everything that went on in Alaine's life. Learning about Haiti, even though from the POV of a very privileged person, was exciting and new.

Now onto the negative. I've read critical reviews of this novel, and while I don't disagree with the criticisms of messiness, it doesn't bother me. What needs more refection, IMO, is the fact that Dear Haiti, Love Alaine tries to address the issue of class inequality in Haiti, but it fails to truly acknowledge Alaine's and her family's privilege and the extent Haitian "elite's" exploitation of the country's poor population. There is a bigger issue inside Dear Haiti, Love Alaine that the authors didn't address head on. Maybe they'll do it better in their next book. I will certainly read it.

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine is a great story set in a place that you don't read a lot about. I think there was a lot of potential just based on the premise: teen girl discovers her home country for the first time, family issues, magic, and first romance. Unfortunately, I think the execution was a bit off. Some of this could have been because my e-ARC's formatting was a little weird. The story is in diary form, but also epistolary, texts, articles, transcripts, etc. It was a little all over the place and it felt a little bit like I was getting whiplash as it jumped from one thing to another. In addition to just the format being messy, Alaine as a narrator couldn't focus on one thing at a time. Sure, this could be a realistic teen way of thinking and dealing with things, but in a novel it felt like none of the huge life changing events matter much to her because it was mentioned, Alaine would say she was feeling a certain way, and then the story went on to the next thing.

Again, the story and premise is really strong. I think Dear Haiti, Love Alaine could use some cleaning up and streamlining to make it better.

**I received an e-ARC from Netgalley**

I love a strong female protagonist and I was excited to read about Haiti, which isn't a common topic in YA fiction. I liked the characters, which is good because this is definitely a character-driven novel. For someone as smart as Alaine to make the mistakes she does that get her sent to Haiti felt a bit contrived to me, but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief to allow the novel its initial setup.
There's a lot of other good stuff here, too. I love the descriptions of Haiti as more than just a rat-infested slum. I love seeing it through the eyes of the educated and privileged class. Why? Because this is a perspective that I have never seen before, and certainly not in YA lit.
The romance felt baseless and rushed and the curse was just plain weird. But, I think it was supposed to feel weird to someone like me with no previous exposure to Haitian culture. I enjoyed learning about Henri Christophe and the Haitian fight for independence and appreciated the authors' note at the end that gave a little info about where they had taken fictional license and what was actually real.
I enjoyed the family dynamics between Alaine and her parents - that felt very real to me! I actually would have appreciated some chapters from their POVs instead of all from Alaine. Quite honestly, the format of the book was confusing and contained a lot of info dumps. There were lots of emails Alaine had written that were supposedly "unsent" only it was hard to tell which ones were sent and which ones were not. I would have preferred a typical novel format with a first-person POV, that would have been more powerful and made more sense.
Overall, this is good solid read for fans of magical realism, "Own Voices" books, strong female protagonists, and anyone who would like to learn more about Haitian culture. It's definitely recommended.

Disclaimer: I received a free electronic copy of this book through Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

With stories like this (second generation ex-pat visits the motherland), I want history, culture and a bit of adventure. This book gave me all of that and more.

A sassy teenaged protagonist, a beautiful and complex setting, family drama, rich history, political intrigue, generationally repressed trauma, a curse, and even a brief foray into romance; this book has a lot going on. In many ways, some of these elements seem unnecessary, but the authors are able to balance these themes in a way that flows and is easily readable, even if there were many plotlines that seemed to wander carelessly in and out of the narrative.

In this regard, some of the events that were brushed aside could have used a little more detail (especially near the end), but I still really enjoyed this book.

Most of my enjoyment comes from Alaine, our narrator. Her voice is young, relatable, and rarely serious, even when the moment calls for decorum. She is strong despite her insecurities, her determination to help her family is admirable. Her honesty and her humour are both a delight and relief throughout the book.

The magical realism was both interesting and frustrating to me; interesting for obvious reasons and frustrating as we never quite get a direct answer regarding the superstitious elements of this story. I'm not sure whether I liked certain ambiguities.

Also, the romantic storyline seemed to fall apart at the end. Granted, it wasn't the main focus of the book, but I'd have liked at least a little more closure on that piece.

I think this might be closer to a 3.5* book, but I'm bumping it up to 4*.

I have some complaints, but I flew through this book and really enjoyed my time in this story, even if it wasn't perfect.

Plus I always love the epistolary style of conveying the story through diary entries, letters, transcripts, emails, articles, etc., so bonus points for that!