So thankful to NetGalley and Carolina for allowing me to read this book early!!! This is a book that needed to be written!!!! This is political and for young readers, it will inform them without being too hard to understand. This will resonate with so many readers just like it did for me, even as an adult reader. I loved Carolina’s debut, and this novel stretched her as a writer, I saw a lot of growth here. What I loved and appreciated most about the story was how Paloma’s points of views and viewpoints of right and wrong were really challenged by those she loved around her, and within herself. I can tell that some readers may get frustrated with Paloma’s decisions and I did at times, but I was also able to understand her point of view with Selva as well as her family and friends (her Ma, her pa, and Ale). The romance part of this book was beautiful and refreshing. I would definitely recommend this book if you like high stakes, easy witting, and tension over important matters!

Having read and loved Ixta's Shut Up, This Is Serious, I had high hopes for Few Blue Skies. For the most part I feel that those were met. Slightly more speculative in setting than her debut, Carolina Ixta's newest novel is just as heartfelt, true, and important. Her teenage protagonist is dealing with all kinds of grief and stress. Alongside her college applications, scholarship season, weirdness with her best friend, and dealing with the fallout of a breakup, Paloma is negotiating the changes brought to her hometown by mega-conglomerate Selva, whose abysmal work conditions have contributed to rising rates of asthma and lung cancer in her hometown. Her ex is grieving the loss of his father, but things are off between them because they haven't talked since the funeral. Her own dad's striking to improve conditions, but only getting sicker, and it's making things complicated with him and Paloma's mother.

What a complex situation. What a difficult place to be put in. Paloma navigates it all with a huge amount of stubborn, tenacious independence that really reminds me of Belén from Ixta's first novel. I will say the only minor issue I had was that the writing style of short paragraphs, sometimes only 1-2 sentences a piece, didn't work as well for me... but as the plot picked up I felt myself immerse more and that became less of a distraction. It's also a personal preference, not an actual problem I had with the book! I'll be recommending to speculative fiction and cli-fi readers, fans of Ixta's debut, and teen activists.