Recipe for the Book – A Cuban’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey
From the Kitchen of The Urban Reader
Ingredients: A Cuban girl, a grieving trifecta (loss of grandmother, boyfriend and best friend), one ticket to England, a cute English bloke, many flavours of tea. Flour, water, yeast, sugar, salt and all things required to bake.
Preparation: The grieving trifecta will form the base for this story. Our Cuban girl, Lila is the one grieving. To ensure that the solid base is layered with love and a gentle push of self care from family, Lila is sent to England to live with her aunt Cate for the summer. This is a cool off period, which allows Lila the space and time to heal from her disaster of a life in Miami. The baking will be done in Winchester, where she makes new friends, starts baking in her aunt’s Inn and exploring the small city with a super cute English lad – Orion, possibly falling for him too. Don’t get too annoyed by the baking time or the fact that Lila has a hard time moving on from her trifecta of grief because as the story progresses so will her healing. Be prepared for constantly having a watery mouth after the very elaborate descriptions of cakes, breads and Cuban delicacies. Now that this story has completely baked, serve hot and fresh. Top it with a generous amount of singing, laughter, hugs and temple kisses for best results.
Cooking temperature: 280 degrees Celsius, because this book most certainly DID NOT need to be 300 pages long. The build-up was slow but the finale to this YA romance novel completely surprised me, it was super heartwarming and I loved that it ended in the most perfect way!
Thankyou Simon & Schusterin India for sending me a review copy of this adorable book.
