As a whole, I like the book a lot. It’s about this stubborn seventeen year old Cuban American girl who takes charge in the kitchen and in the lives of everyone around her. Lila Reyes has just finished high school, but not before her abuela dies suddenly, her boyfriend of 3 years breaks up with her days before prom, and she falls out with her best friend all within 2 months. After making her family worried and nearly putting herself into the hospital over her grief they send her to stay with her mother’s cousin, Catalina, and her family at their inn in Winchester, England. Lila hates this plan because she wants to start taking over their family bakery as planned. Eventually Winchester wins her heart and she wins the heart of Winchester with her cooking and baking. She meets new friends and starts blending British and Cuban in her recipes. During her stay she meets nineteen year old tea connoisseur, Orion Maxwell, who knows about a very different kind of loss. They develop a beautiful friendship that turns into something more. 

I think the friendships, the romantic relationship, familial bonds were depicted very well in this story. I like that Lila is this headstrong young woman, and in typical teenage fashion, believes she knows best for herself and her loved ones. Lila thinks the plans she makes are set in stone and struggles when those plans fall through. I related a lot with Lila. I had little to no control in my life, so I made plans for others thinking I knew best. I also know what it’s like to struggle with leaving a place you love so much, in fact, I fell in love with the UK before I even set foot in the country and when I was forced to return to the States during the pandemic, I was heartbroken. I think this book does a good job as a YA depicting different kinds of loss, plans falling through, and just growing into a young adult. 

All that being said, I have some issues with this book. I sometimes find it charming when American authors write about the UK and vice versa, it can be comical at times, but it just started grating my nerves that some of the cultural and language aspects we’re just wrong. But even more importantly, the glaring issue with this book is the references to “Africa”. As soon as I read that Lila’s friend Stef essentially joined the Catholic missionaries for medical aid I was immediately put off. And the very vague references to some remote village in Africa (you know, that huge ass continent with over a billion people and is, in fact, made up of 54 countries?) and the insinuation that where Stef was going wouldn’t have electricity or food? Sure they finally say she’s in Ghana but the racist stereotypes and assumptions just really irritated me whenever it was brought up. If the author actually took the time to learn about the continent and referenced an actual city or town and stopped making these assumptions about the place, then the book would be a 4/5 contemporary YA coming-of-age that I’d recommend. Stef could’ve gone anywhere else in the world (better yet, why have a completely untrained teenager go anywhere in desperate need of aid?) but it’s just this stereotype that “Africa” is completely cut off from modern technology and medical aid.