⭐⭐⭐.🌓 -- A hard book to review!

<b>PROS</b>
-- Gorgeous cover. ❤️
-- Phenomenal writing. ✅
-- Well paced. ✅
-- Engaging plot. ✅
-- Beautiful lush setting. 🌴
-- Loved the dictionary at the start for the Patois language, however a bit impractical when reading on a tablet! ✅
-- Andre...sigh...just Andre (and Mia, I guess). ❤️

<b>CONS</b>
-- Every single character (bar like two) was horrible in this book. And I don't mean, just unlikable. They were abusive, rapists, racists, neglectful. With a family like this, who the hell needs enemies! 🤬
-- Tilla...this girl really needed to grow a pair and stand up for herself WAY before she actually did. She also made some pretty selfish and stupid decisions that left me scratching my head. 🙄
-- This book is full of MAJOR triggers that are never expanded on, or given the page space they deserve. If you are going to throw in bullying, cheating, racism, rape, slut shaming, physical and mental abuse, death (and that isn't even all of them) they need to be fleshed out. Everything was just glossed over in favor of moving on to the next "big" trigger. 🤷🏻‍♀️
-- A lot things were left unresolved. 😒
-- Why was Mia spared from all the abusive toxicity❓
-- The ending...JEZUS...on one hand, I was glad Tilla finally grew a backbone, but seriously author? There wasn't enough dark, depressing and shitty stuff you had to do the ONE likable character that way??!! 🤬

**ARC Via NetGalley**

Tilla's father leaves every few months to return to Jamaica. When her mother tells her that she'll spend a summer there, she dreads it. While there, she will have to face the upcoming hurricane, as well the underbelly of paradise and the ties that keep her father going back.


My heart went out to Tilla from the start. Her father didn't follow through with any promises to visit that he made, and gets treated like royalty by family and neighbors in the Jamaican countryside because he gives out money and has farmland to feed them. He doesn't even consistently visit Tilla and her sister, so Tilla is out of place with cousins and other teens who call her Princess, make fun of the fact she doesn't know the Patois and make snide comments about her behavior and clothes. The aunt who was displaced to take over family affairs in her father's absence doesn't enjoy her presence. I wanted to reach through the pages to throttle her, because as much as they all say they're God fearing and Tilla is the heathen, their own prejudices, colorism, and classism are full in force.


I was crying in the final fourth of the book. Tilla's struggle grabbed my heart and wouldn't let go. I felt for her and for the jumbled emotions she went through. At the same time, she had incredible grace and fortitude, more than she thought herself capable of. I was so proud of her, and cheered when she defended her truth and realized she could stand on her own without leaning on others for strength.

This was as wonderful as I expected it to be. Family relationships, coming of age, secrets, romance, all on the beautiful island of Jamaica. CW for colorism, classism, sexual assault, domestic violence. So many feels in this novel..

“Mom says you get two birthdays. The first one is the day you are born. The second is the day you leave home and give birth to yourself.”

Tilla has wanted nothing more than her father’s love and one summer it seems she finally has the chance to get it. Tilla and her sister will be spending the summer with their father in his home country of Jamaica! Tilla can finally see what tears her father away from his family for months at a time and have time to spend with him. Of course things don’t always go as their planned and Tilla is forced to deal with many challenges during her summer. That doesn’t even include the hurricane either! Will Tilla and her father build a special bond?

Okay, holy wow what a book!! Asha Bromfield knocked it out of the park with this one!! And it’s a debut 🤯 I will admit it took me a while to get used to the Patois and the storyline was a little slow at first, but when things started happening...they just didn’t stop!! Bromfield did such a phenomenal job with writing the characters in this!! There were characters I loved like Tilla and her sister and then there were characters I loathed!!! I won’t say who because that would just spoil everything!! If you’re looking for a very well written coming of age story then definitely grab this one!! 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

When you build yourself upon other people, it can take a storm to break you down enough to rebuild. Hurricane Summer is a coming of age story of love, adventure, heartache, and desperation that helped Tilla eventually find her home within herself.
Themes of sexuality, victimization, racism, friendship and family are the bones that hold this enchanting tale together. It gave me all the feels and spelled out so many truths that deep inside I know, but the reminders can still take my breath away. The setting is lush, foreign and Bromfield made me feel like I was in Jamaica in all its glory and poverty at once. A must read for the summer.

First of all, this is really beautiful cover art. I'm glad I was given the opportunity to read this book and can recommend it to others.

Hurricane Summer sounded like a book I would really enjoy and right up my alley with the subject matter. However, the writing style made it difficult for me to engage with the characters hindering my enjoyment. I'm kind of glad I wasn't able to engage with the characters, though, since the book was traumatic to the point that it felt like it was just to see how awful the characters could feel.

SO, this was a RIDE. Let me tell ya.
I think my issue with it was wasn't the characters or the plot of the Jamacian dialect thrown in there but the fact that it ended so QUICKLY. I almost would have rathered an ambiguous ending than the one we got. It ended so FAST and NEATLY. It was a bit hard to be there for it. All of a sudden everything was neatly wrapped up and it was done so fast.
All-in-all, I really enjoyed this though!
CW: sexual assault, death, and bullying

The beginning of this book reminded me of Clap When You Land because the main character is on her way to a Caribbean island to visit the father who has essentially abandoned her. The descriptions of Jamaica were vivid and beautiful. Much of the book contained Patois dialogue (English-based creole language) which was interesting at first but ultimately slowed me down. There are a LOT of trigger warnings for this book: domestic violence, physical, mental, and sexual abuse, family secrets. There really weren't any resolutions to the problems the main character encountered and it left me with a very negative impression of Jamaicans which I hope is untrue. There were very few kind characters in this book. Some of the repetitive language really got on my nerves as well. I lost count of how many times the characters "kissed" their teeth but my Kindle tells me it was 37 times!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

Hurricane Summer is a book I've been wanting to read ever since I saw the author revealed the beautiful cover! Then I didn't realized this was her debut novel? Like what?! It was such a great ya contemporary novel that I wasn't expecting a whole lot from it but totally fell in love with it from the first page to the last.
In this novel we had a huge diverse cast. Our main character background is jamician. So she had family in jamicia, which I have never been to myself at all, but it felt like I was there with how wonderful the writing was. I pictured everything so clean and vivided. I also wasn't excpecting a character death in a contemporary book which is very rare.
This cast of characters were really amazing! Our main character is name Tilla. She is in a devoirce family so that has been hard for her lately. Her father left her when she was ten and then this one summer mom decides to send her to jamicia where her father lives.. But, to soon find out a reveal that u will get to know while reading. Which was a shock to me too!!
Trigger warrings: Death of a family member, cuttings, Depresion, abuse/rape, cheating

Although I read this book from cover to cover, there were some issues that I found with it. Some of the issues included repetitive text throughout this book. Also, as this book is targeted towards a younger audience I felt that some of the issues: colorism, racism, abuse, rape, etc., just might be a bit too serious.

TW: death, sexual assault (on-page), rape (on-page, explicit), colorism, physical abuse (explicit), slut-shaming

Hurricane Summer is actor and author Asha Bromfield's debut novel. Being of Jamaican descent, this novel is #ownvoices.

Be warned: this novel is heavy, with little reprieve or brevity to break the tension. And while that may turn some readers off, I tend to gravitate to these types of stories. At once intense, emotional, dark, and visceral, Hurricane Summer is the tale of Tilla, a young woman we can all see facets of ourselves and our experiences represented. Tilla spends the majority of this novel surviving the trials and tribulations on the journey from childhood to young womanhood. She is met with a litany of abuses at the hands of relatives close and extended, she will face shaming and harassment, verbal, physical, and sexual abuse... The list goes on.

Hurricane Summer immediately reminds me of Kathleen Glasgow's Girl in Pieces. So prepare yourself for unimaginable suffering.
Because, at least in my opinion and experience, that is what it means to be a woman: to suffer.

cracked the cover and didn’t put it down until it was done.

I related to the lead character Tilla in so many ways that we shared the same shoes and walked the same path in life. I do not want to share to much as I don’t want to give any spoilers.

This coming of age book shows the strength we must have in ourselves. The authors style of writing is so easy to read and stay connected with making the characters much more than text on a page.

As a parent reading this book, one thing I hope people take away from this is we must listen. We must be present and do the best that we can for our children and ourselves.

Nothing is better, or worse, to read in a pandemic than a book set on the beautiful island of Jamaica. Even with a hurricane, literal and figurative, brewing there is no escaping the beauty and destruction brewing. Tilla is desperate for a relationship with her father, and with the island he loves enough to leave her for. This book is beautiful as it is painful qnd I recommend having a jumbo size box of tissues beside you as you read!

A powerful and atmospheric #ownvoice coming of age story about family heartbreak and first love. Vivid and emotional, this is Tilla’s journey to Jamaica to spend time with her family and, in the process, discovers self-love and a deep well of unknown resilience. An incredible read that is relatable, transformative, and deeply moving! I bawled my eyes out!

Tilla travels to Jamaica with her younger sister in hopes of reconnecting with her absent father, but instead finds a country filled with family secrets, devastatingly gorgeous surroundings, and a culture that will help destroy her and recreate her.

I want to hug this book! You can tell Bromfield bled her heart and soul into the pages of this beautiful and incredibly well written novel. This story is for every girl and woman who has ever experienced neglect, sexual assault, verbal abuse, or trauma. The message within its pages are healing, redemptive, and empowering. I love how Bromfield gave Tilla a strong and brave voice who fought for the truth, fought for herself, and didn’t back down when faced with some of the most devastating circumstances of her life. A story that captured my heart and reminded me I am not my my tragedies, but my tragedies can transform me, much like a hurricane!

There is a lot going on in Hurricane Summer, and I wasn't quite prepared for how tough of a read it would be.

Tilla and her sister are spending the summer with their father in Jamaica. Her sister plays a very minor roll. Hurricane Summer is mostly about Tilla and find her true self. With that said she has to deal with a lot for that to happen. There is grief, an assault, a hurricane and a lot of hatred. I don't read a lot of these types of books, so I definitely felt this one pulling my mood down. That doesn't mean it was a bad book, just that it's not my normal type of read.

There was a lot that was well done in Hurricane Summer, Tilla finding her strength, her relationship with her cousin, and how wealth is perceived by different groups of people. I did struggle though with the fact that almost nothing in Hurricane Summer painted the country, nor it's people, in a positive light. There is SO MUCH wrong with her extended family, and some of the others, and to me it really highlighted the worst of people.

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of the book. This YA coming of age story is so well told. Tilla’s summer In Jamaica in hopes to earn her father‘a love and in turn she learns so much more. I felt bad for her at how she was treated by her “family” and labeled as foreigner. I love how the hurricane became part of the story which is a norm for the island. There are so explicit scenes in the book that could be trigger warnings for some.

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The synopsis of this story had me hook, line and sinker. Stories based around family and family drama typically get moved to the top of my TBR pile. Not to mention, the fact that I love #ownvoice stories. So this book from the outside had everything I could ever want in a story. And it started off very promising. However, as much as I hate to say it, the need to somewhat understand the Jamaican language was a large distraction for me. I found myself going back and forth to understand terms and words that were being said. This really broke up the flow of the story for me. So at 24% I finally called it quits and DNF the book.

I plan to try to read it again in hardback format in hopes that that will make for a better reading experience for me.

🌀Heavy content
🌀Character growth
🌀Mature YA

This is a coming of age story that shows a side of Jamaica we don’t often hear about; the country. The writing pulled me into the setting in the story and gave me a lot to think about while reading. This is a hard book to read at times; Tilla’s family and peers treated her harshly while visiting and there are some serious trigger warnings in this. I loved the parallels to the hurricane and to Tilla’s emotions and character growth. I was fascinated with this beautifully written, heartbreaking story and will definitely keep an eye out for future books from this author. Wonderful debut.

I have mixed feelings on this book. On one hand, I liked it and the important themes displayed throughout the story, but on the other hand, there were certain things that I didn't love.

In this book, we follow our main character, Tilla, who travels to Jamaica to spend the summer with her father. Tilla's parents have separated (kinda), after many issues that they had in their marriage. One of them being that Tilla's father would leave every six months to return to his true home, the island of Jamaica. Tilla's not excited to see him, but she is very interested to see what’s on this island that he loves so much. BUT, it's not quite the paradise that she was expecting.

Let's talked about what I liked first.

As I mentioned, there were so many important themes and topics discussed in this book that I really enjoyed. This book was much darker than I expected, but I didn't mind that at all. I actually think that I wouldn't have liked this book much without those topics being discussed. This was definitely an interesting book that did enjoy for the most part.

Now for the things I didn't like.

As for the writing, it did feel like a debut book. I feel like the author was trying to do a little too much. It did feel rushed at times. But, I think the overall message was conveyed. Other things I didn't like included the characters. Tilla's family was AWFUL. The only redeeming family member was Andre. This was not a positive story, so beware of that. And the whole time Tilla was talking about how she was enjoying her time in Jamaica even though she was met with nothing but physical and verbal abuse.

Overall, I did like this book, but there were certain things that I didn't love. I loved the messages conveyed, but some things that just missed the mark.