Alaine was being sent to Haiti as punishment. Well, sort of. She was getting out of the line of fire after a really dramatic school presentation that almost resulted in the death of another student. She had been suspended, instead of expelled, and was going to conduct not only independent studies but would also be interning under her aunt, the minister of tourism of Haiti. Alaine would also have the chance to bond with her mother and possibly end the curse that has been affecting her family since Haiti won its independence.

This was a mix of quite a few things but most importantly this book was fun. There’s humor and foolishness, as well as history and adventure, while also exploring familial relationships and how complicated that can truly be. All of it explored through Alaine, who is one of those characters that is just very entertaining. She has a very distinct voice and character. She gets into some shenanigans that you simultaneously laugh and shake your head at. Extremely outgoing and sure of herself but she is nowhere near perfect. Her family is complicated. She lives with her father while her mom pursues her career. Both of her parents are from Haiti and her mother’s family are descendants of one of Haiti’s most famed leaders. It is there where our story really takes off.

One of things that I really enjoyed while reading this book was the way it was told. Most of it is in the form of diary entries but there are also emails, text messages, letters, postcards even newspaper clippings and list. The different mediums never felt like a distraction and were used to inform or bring in a different point of view or simply as a moment of humor but all were done well. I also really enjoyed the snippets of Haitian history littered and explored throughout. The deep dive into Haitian culture, the poverty besides the richness and even the spiritual elements explored were all so interesting. If you know nothing about Haitian history then this will be an interesting crash course. In all honesty though I am very intrigued. Haiti has a very unique history. One that I don’t feel like is celebrated enough.

Overall, I am really excited about this book and will definitely recommend it. It was so easy to read and so much fun. It was quite a ride with so many emotional highs and lows. I loved that Alaine had to come to terms with so many different aspects of her life and her family’s history as well as her future. I have few complaints regarding this book. There were a few loose strings that I wish had been tightened up but besides that I absolutely enjoyed this.

I just adored this book and especially the character of Alaine. It was smart, charming, and poignant, and so was Alaine! I loved learning facts here and there about Haiti and it's residents, but the story was so captivating on its own and does a great job introducing the Haitian-American experience both in America and Haiti. Excellent new title!

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine is the story of a high school senior who has been sent to live with her aunt and mother in their childhood home in Haiti. Alaine's mother, Celeste, was a star political journalist in DC doing high profile interviews and anchoring a Sunday morning program until an on-air breakdown. Alaine lives with her father in Miami, and has run into trouble at her prestigious private school, what she refers to as "the incident." I won't spoil it for you, but trust me, it's definitely a new way to get almost expelled. Her father is able to broker a deal where she will spend the remainder of her senior year in what has been deemed a "volunteer immersion experience," through fast thinking, smoothing ruffled feathers, and a history of substantial donations to the school. A forced residence with a mother who is ill but won't discuss it is balanced out with the opportunity to explore her Haitian heritage. Alaine may not like everything she finds in her family's history or in the reality of Haiti.

I thought this was a phenomenal book. Alaine's voice grabbed me immediately, and stayed strong throughout the novel. While the teacher who reads Alaine's assignments requests that she editorialize less on factual assignments, her snark and quick wit had me smiling even when she confronted difficult topics. Few of the plot points will surprise the reader, but I was engaged all the same. Maika and Martina Moulite have painted a picture of Haiti that encompasses many facets of the island nation and its history, rather than focusing on a single narrative. Highly recommended for any contemporary YA fans, and for those who are just looking for a good book to read but aren't looking for an adrenaline rush with their story.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

I read this book as a hard copy courtesy of Goodreads.

The first word that came to mind when I was done was WOW. WOW. WOW. WOW. WOW. I was instantly hooked to Alaine's story from the moment that I began reading. I absolutely adore pretty much any book that is written in epistolary style, so before I knew it I was already deep into the story. This wonderfully written novel is genre-bending with elements of realistic young adult, magical realism, romance, thriller & suspense, crime fiction, and probably other genres that I did not include here. This book, simply put, is amazing. And, plus, it has a strikingly gorgeous cover.

As mentioned in the author's note, practically anyone can relate to one aspect in this book or another. The aspect that I related to the most was the way that early onset Alzheimer's took control of Celeste's mother. My grandmother developed full-blown Alzheimer's and succumbed to the disease in 2010. I was so young when the disease progressed that I did not get a fighting chance to know my grandma. Although this disease isn't rare, it seems to me that it is rarely mentioned and discussed in young adult literature. I think that Alzheimer's needs to be discussed more in young adult novels with factual information and new perspectives like Dear Haiti, Love Alaine provided - the readers of these novels (of all ages) could be surrounded by this disease in the future, and/or even could be the ones to discover remedies and cures for it in our lifetime! You never know.

There are HUGE opportunities here for sequels and even prequels to this book. I would read anything else that includes these multidimensional characters in it. I can see novels expanding on Celeste and Jules's love story highlighted by the beauty of their romance, underneath the gorgeous Haiti sunset. I can see Alaine & Jason's relationship becoming a novel - a long distance relationship that includes letters back and forth after Alaine's gap year? Or a book about Celeste's childhood and her rise to stardom as a journalist, as well as her challenges and accomplishments. I would love to read Celeste's perspective more in regards to her own individuality before she became a mother. The possibilities are endless! (Yes, the book is not even officially released yet and I'm suggesting ideas for a whole series. Yes, this book is THAT amazing.)

We need more books like this to represent a multitude of different cultures as well as to defy misleading stereotypes. I will be definitely recommending this book to my students, and I'm excited to read the next book by the authors - and hopefully, Maika and Maritza will expand on the ideas for more books in Alaine's world!

The delightful Moulite sisters have teamed up for this stunning debut written in epistolary style. Full of heart, humor, and love, this one deserves a place on your shelf.

beautiful topic, but didn't really wow me and wasn't a book for me but i think i will try again after published

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine is the debut novel for sisters Maika and Maritza Moulite. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

Alaine is your average 17 year old high school student trying to navigate life with her divorced parents, her family in Haiti and everything else that comes along with being in high school. When she uses a school presentation as an act of revenge on a classmate, everything comes to a screeching halt and she gets sent to Haiti for a two month volunteer experience rather than being expelled.

Told in emails, diary entries and from the mouth of Alaine herself, Dear Haiti starts out super strong. Up until the minute Alaine travels to Haiti, this book was a solid four star for me. The humor and warmth and over all down to earthness (I can make up words if I want) were perfection. Unfortunately, for me, once the story moved to the next part, I felt the story started to fall apart a bit. While I appreciate everything at work here, I found it hard to keep up. This may be due, in part, to the quality of the ARC I received. A lot of sentences were out of place and I had a hard time tracking what was going on. In the long run, however, I just feel that the story tried to do too much and would have been better had it been narrower in focus.

I still enjoyed the story and rated it 3 out of 5 stars. Dear Haiti, Love Alaine comes out September 2019.

I was not as impressed with this book as I thought I would be. I love diverse voices in YA lit and I'm always trying to read as widespread culturally as I can, but the mixed up way the story was told was just something I couldn't get into. Alaine herself was a great character, but the format was just not good for me. Maybe it was because I read an e-arc on my phone, like it would look better on paper, I don't know. A lot of that stuff felt like it disrupted the flow of the story. It gave me an overall negative feel to the book.

I wanted to love this book, I mean look at that cover! Unfortunately I didnt love it at all. It felt pretty flat to me, and even a bit tedious at times. Reading it became more of a chore than an enjoyable task and ultimately I decided not to finish the book. I will agree with others, the formatting of the file was problematic, but not entirely detrimental. I think my expectations were just too high for this one.

"Dear Haiti, Love Alaine" follows seventeen-year-old Haitian American Alaine. Alaine lives in Miami with her father and has a famous mother who is a reporter living in Washington, D.C. Alaine is what I think most people would call "too much." She is definitely intelligent and it seems holds some pain over the fact that her mother is barely around due to her job and late breaking stories. Her actions in this book made my head hurt. She does a prank to get back at someone and almost ends up killing another classmate. She gets suspended although she was initially threatened with being expelled. As a way to make amends at her school she is supposed to do an assignment on her family's history in Haiti.

So Alaine was aggravating. She ends up going back to Haiti to stay with her aunt and mother for two months and learns barely anything I think about the history of the country. Instead this book focuses on her mother and aunt's history, a cousin with her own messed up sense of values, and curses. I think that if the authors had just focused on Alaine that would have worked better. I really wish that we had Alaine exploring Haiti and finding out about the history of the country. She works at her aunt's foundation and is crushing on an intern. They have a lot of IMs and texts to each other and she just stumbles on information about her family by people just giving her that information.

I can't say much about the secondary characters because they barely matter in this book. Alaine's father is written so weird as is the mother. We know that they both came from Haiti, but we don't get into why they got divorced. And the authors try to throw a little out there about why Alaine's mother had her go live with her father full-time but it made zero sense and then you throw in family curses and I just didn't care anymore. Due to the writing style we flip flop all over the place and you can barely focus on anyone.

The writing style was not for me. The authors decided to tell this story via Alaine's online journal I think and also included excerpts from her mother's diary, letters between her aunt, mother, texts, newspaper articles, etc. I felt like I was being stuffed with information and not a lot of it made sense. Also certain words or whole paragraphs here and there were in red. Also sometimes the fonts would be really big and then change all over the place. I have no idea why that was and I hope that's just a weird formatting issue with my ARC and is not going to be issued like this. I get why "House of Leaves" did certain things to make the book more immersive for readers. This book is not "House of Leaves."

The book mainly takes place in Miami and Haiti. You don't get a sense of Miami at all and the authors take more care to describe Haiti. I am disappointed though that I am still left with not knowing much about Haiti besides two women's names who kept getting mentioned: Marie-Madeline Lachenais and Marie-Louise Coidavid. I really wish the authors had gone into more of its history and how the country had changed through the centuries when under Spanish, French, and American rule. I also wanted to hear more about how the people in the country spoke French as well as Creole. I was fascinated by that and it was just thrown here and there as an aside.

The ending was a mess. I don't want to get into it, but good grief I don't know what the authors were aiming for in this story. Curses are real?

NetGalley eArcs are hit-or-miss on formatting, and this one was a clear miss. It's especially disappointing because, as a mixed media book, consistency between the different types of correspondence (via Twitter, emails, journal entries, and more) is important. I wish I had waited and gotten a physical copy of the book to fully appreciate this.

I also debated whether the formatting or the content of the book was the reason for my rating. I was really looking forward to reading this book and learning more about Haiti from authors who have experienced it, and the book delivered on that. I also appreciated Alaine's snark, which shines through during her time in the US and in Haiti. Unfortunately, the book deviates from exploring the relationships between Alaine and her relatives (namely, her mother) in favor of scattered side plots--including a family curse--and the inclusion of multimedia correspondence from peripheral characters.

I struggled to read this because the formatting of the digital copy was so off. There were times when the story moved on but I didn’t realize and it confused me. I had to DNF this Netgalley but I plan on grabbing a finished copy so I can read it how it’s intended to be read.

The titular Alaine, a first generation Haitian-American living in Miami, had never been to the homeland before being extra at school one too many times nearly got her expelled and packed off to stay with family in Cap Haitïen and intern at her Tati Estelle's nonprofit, PATRON PAL. Alaine Beauparlant is a raucous kid to begin with, but living with her doctor dad and playing second fiddle (or maybe third or fourth) to her mom's high profile journalist career may cause Alaine to act out more than is strictly necessary. That's my interpretation, anyway. When a bad thing happens to her mom, Alaine gets to spend more time with the famous Celeste Beauparlant. Secrets are revealed and mistakes are made. There's a romance that is mostly on the side, and that I could have done without, but I guess that's what makes YA YA.

I love that the book was written by sisters, one who majored in marketing and earned an MBA and the other, who was a women's studies major and has a master's in journalism. I'm curious about their writing process! And also about the fact that the MBA holder is the one with a bald head.

Alaine's naughty behavior at school, including a tongue-in-cheek telling of the Haitian Revolution reminds me of a snarky response to a chemistry test I was convinced I should use as my college application essay. Ah, privileged, know-it-all youth.

Alaine comes by her snarky communications generationally. He's an excerpt from her mother's high school diary

When I was young enough to still love [my father, Haiti's Minister of Communication], I'd watch as he would lean back in his chair and spin food shortages and riots into "slight agricultural setbacks" and "passionate gatherings." No one in the country believed a word that came out of his office, but he kept the press releases coming, convinced that his time to lead would come soon.

Alaine wants to be a journalist like her mother. Minister of Communications might seem like the opposite of journalism, but it's still writing.

Celeste takes apart a pundit's weirdo claim about the 2010 earthquake being somehow the result of voodoo, "So the countries behind hideous atrocities like colonizing occupied lands and raping and murdering their inhabitants and enslaving millions of people...what has been their retribution?" But that doesn't mean Dear Haiti is without vodou, that is painfully retributive.

Alaine (and the Moulite sisters) share some fun (the opposite of fun) facts about Haitian tourism, which Alaine's aunt Estelle is minister of: Haiti earns just $9 per cruise ship visitor to Labadie, its luxury beach, where tourists come to enjoy the white sand, and do not venture beyond the artificial environment created for them. The real Haiti is a more honest place, as Alaine notes about an exchange between her father Jules, and his childhood friend.

"Well if it isn't Ti Blanc!" he said, referring to my dad as a "white man" the way Haitians routinely did expats or their children.

"Daniel. You have a beautiful family. How are you?" they clapped each other forcefully on the back."

"Not bad. Hungry--but what's new?" I always found it fascinating that Haitians were more likely to tell you the truth about their conditions. No "I'm fine" here, not when the children were so plainly thin."

Despite being about "the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere," as Haiti is repeatedly referred to, to the Beauparlant women's annoyance, Dear Haiti does lightness as well as handles its heavier material.

First off, the cover is STUNNING! 100% why I immediately one-clicked this on Netgalley without even reading the description, and I’m so happy I did! Alaine was a fabulous narrator and I just adored her voice throughout the novel. So snarky and entertaining! I’ve never read much about Haiti aside from high school history classes, so I really enjoyed that aspect of the novel—immersing myself in a new culture and learning more about it. I definitely recommended for fans of YA contemporaries!

**Thanks to Netgalley for giving me this book in exchange for an honest review.

I first need to mention that I read an earc of this book.  The formatting was messed up which made it harder to read.  It's possible that I would have gone up a half star, but I found myself lost during quite a few different parts of the book.  It's also a story told through letters, e-mails, social media, diary type entries, and more.  My arc didn't have chapters, so I'm not sure if the book will.  Hopefully, because I feel it will be easier to follow.



I mostly requested this book because it takes place in Haiti.  I always try to find books to read that will help me see the culture and beauty of another country.  My favorite parts of this book were the stories, scenery, and the curse/vodou stories.  I really wanted to connect with the characters in the book, but I struggled with this part.  Alaine was fun.  I liked that she was funny and sarcastic.  Her project for school made me laugh.  I would have loved more from her best friend, Tatiana.  I did like Jason and wish we would have had more of his interactions with Alaine.



This book mostly focused on family.  Alaine grew up with her dad.  Her mom was a political reporter with her own popular show on TV.  Because her mom was always busy, she often times flaked out on doing things with or for Alaine.  Alaine's mom is everything she wants to be though.  A strong journalist that never falters during her interviews and stories.  That is until she slaps a senator on live TV.  Alaine's mom leaves and goes back home to Haiti, the place she said she'd never return to.  After Alaine's issues at school, she is also sent there to do special work at her aunt's program to help poor children.  Alaine finds out that her mom has very early onset Alzheimer's.  This is shocking and terrifying to Alaine.  She spends time trying to understand her mom's disease, do her work, and learn about her history.  Her aunt gives Alaine her mom's old diaries and Alaine learns of a curse and what four teens did to try to break it.  She gets it into her head that maybe she can break it and her mom will get better.



I enjoyed some parts of the story, but I also found it hard to pick up at times.  Because of that, I gave this 3  1/2 stars (rounded up to 4).  Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my review copy.



Warnings for abuse, attempted sexual assault, miscarriage, Alzheimer's, death, curses, voudu, and some very shady business/political dealings.

(Thanks to NetGalley, which kindly provided an ARC in exchange for an honest review.)
Dear Haiti, Love Alaine, the debut novel by Haitian-American authors Maika and Maritza Moulite, chronicles the adventures of sassy, wisecracking Haitian-American protagonist, Alaine Beauparlant. A high school senior and daughter of divorced immigrant parents, Alaine returns to her ancestral homeland of Haiti for a senior service project, joining her mother, famous social and political affairs commentator Celeste, who has retreated to the island following a disastrous professional incident. On the island, Alaine begins interning for a charitable non-profit, finds romance, and uncovers a plethora of family secrets. The novel is epistolary with magical realism elements, and unfolds via a series of texts, emails, and narrative diary entries peppered with pop culture references, giving the book a decidedly contemporary feel. The aforementioned style, however, also arguably creates some fragmentation in the story’s narrative arc, an issue further exacerbated by an error-riddled ARC—several places in the manuscript had omitted passages. Quibbles aside, Dear Haiti, Love Alaine is both entertaining, as well as thought-provoking, providing a lens into Haitian history and culture and addressing the complexities inherent in navigating family and teen relationships.

Goodreads review URL: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2872093233

This was one of my most highly anticipated books this year. I don't know if it was because this novel has two writers but I found that Dear Haiti, Love Alaine was not quite sure what type of book it wanted to be at times. And there were so many different angles it tried to take. Was it a coming of age book about a teen girl who embraces her West Indian heritage and has a romance with a college boy? The parts of the novel featuring Alaine working with cute intern Jason as her aunt's startup certainly felt that way. Was it an adventure novel about breaking a family curse? Because some of those allusions to blood magic felt like a segway into a fantasy adventure. Though you can't mention Haiti without mentioning vodou. Were they trying to tell a story about about coping with family hardship through the plot with Alaine's mother?

I learned a lot about Haiti from this book. I already have had a bit of a fascination with Haiti culture this year but this just solidified it. It was nice to read about it from a perspective not told by the media. Yes, we know Haiti is poor but there's so much more to the island. Alaine's family on her mother's side is very prominent in the country so they give us a look into the wealthy side of Haitian society. This book also brought into perspective the positive and negatives effects of American aid.

My least favorite part of this novel was the mixed media (social media chats, newspaper articles, emails, letters, postcards,etc) that took me right out of the story each time. Especially since in the ARC they are formatted horribly to the point where you'll be reading one line before it skips to another paragraph and then you find the rest of your sentence after that paragraph. The tone was just different in those parts too.

I rate this book a 3.5. It wasn't perfect and was a little slow in the middle but it picked up at the end and there were many parts I did enjoy.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

While I did enjoy this book, I didn't love it like I wanted to. I did like Alaine and reading about her relationship with her parents, especially her mother. I also loved getting a look at the culture and history of Haiti.

The writing was good but I was a bit thrown off by the multiple formats that we get here. Speaking of being thrown off, the generational curses was a weird touch as well.

All in all, I did enjoy this one despite some issues and I'm excited to see what these two sisters write next.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin TEEN and Inkyard Press for the advance reader copy of Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by debut authors and sisters, Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite. Teens will love this action-packed story, narrated by fearless, sassy Alaine, daughter of a psychiatrist and a famous talk show host mom, who finds herself punished for a school joke by being sent to her parents’ home of Haiti. There was so much to love about this story; the rich past and present history of Haiti, a family curse, strong female characters, and a plot that includes lists, emails, letters, transcripts. This is such a diverse, authentic, multi-faceted book with rich storytelling by the Moulite sisters; I loved the cover, Alaine, her aunts, the beauty and poverty of Haiti and all who work tirelessly for Haiti’s survival. Highly recommended!

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine weaves multiple issues of class, identity, and culture in a highly engaging story. Readers will like the multi-faceted format of narrative, emails, and texts that bring depth to the story. This book is perfect for diaspora readers who can relate to the experience of learning about one’s culture. Highly recommend.