I really enjoyed this memoir about a girl growing up in south Florida. It allowed for me to understand more about a different type of background then my own. I like hearing others stories, so if you do too, this book is for you. I also appreciate hearing the narrator (being the author). It gave it more authenticity in my opinion.

Riveting from the start! I couldn’t stop listening to this. The narrator was wonderful and the story was compelling and beautifully told. Thank you for the early copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review. I highly recommend “The Mango Tree!”

What a moving and entertaining memoir of growing up in Florida as the daughter of a Filipina immigrant and a white father from the northeast! I listened to the audio book narrated by the author, and I think she did a fabulous job. Annabelle was born and grew up in Ft. Myers, Florida, even though "Nobody is from Ft. Myers!" And even though she is indeed from Ft. Myers, she can't help feeling like an outsider as she grows up there in the '80s and '90s, dealing with her parents' contentious relationship and their dysfunctional family life. And even though her mom shot at a guy for trying to steal her mangos (with a BB gun), it turns out that the normalcy she sought after her whole life was kind of an illusion--no one's family is normal, after all. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Hatchette Audio for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I hate to DNF an early copy of a book but I’m having such difficulty connecting with the storytelling and making it through this. Each time I set it down, I lack the desire to pick it back up and when I do, I immediately want to put it back down.

Overall Grade: A-
Personal Stories: A-
Writing: A-
Best Aspect: Very open and interesting memoir.
Worst Aspect: I was lost sometimes with the time line but it didn’t ruin the memoir.
Recommend: Yes.

This was... fine? While I feel bad rating a memoir low, this one didn't feel like it had any real arc to it or point. The book starts and ends with her mother's run ins with the legal system, but her mother's descent into mania is not really explored. The author went into depth in times that did not really need it, and brushed over the times that did. The 'felony' aspect of this memoir was pretty minimal, and to me did not deserve a part of the subtitle.

I enjoyed this, yes. I think it was just advertised/sold as something different than t

Thank you to Hachette Audio and NetGalley for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I tried, but the narrator of this book is ruining any good things I could have pulled from this. I can't do it anymore lol. There was nothing that hooked me in this book and nothing I found very relatable so this is a DNF for me. I have no motivation or desire to listen any further than I already have.

The opening chapter of the book certainly hooked me--trying to figure out why the author's mother had been arrested for harming someone over a mango tree--but the subsequent chapters lost momentum in going back pretty far in the author's life. I wanted more of the action in the present, so this didn't end up being the book for me.