Review: Flowers in the Sky by Lynn Joseph

Flowers in the Sky

Author: Lynn Joseph
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: March 5, 2013
Hardcover: 232 pages
Summary:
Fifteen-year-old Nina Perez is faced with a future she never expected. She must leave her Garden of Eden, her lush island home in Samana, Dominican Republic, when she's sent by her mother to live with her brother, Darrio, in New York to seek out a better life. As Nina searches for some glimpse of familiarity amid the urban and jarring world of Washington Heights, she learns to uncover her own strength and independence. She finds a way to grow, just like the orchids that blossom on her fire escape. And as she is confronted by ugly secrets about her brother's business, she comes to understand the realities of life in this new place. But then she meets him- that tall, green-eyed boy- one that she can't erase from her thoughts, who just might help her learn to see beauty in spite of tragedy


Review:
Flowers in the Sky is a very short and small book. And it took me approximately 5 hours to finish it (bragging rights to being an avid reader!). I love the Latin culture in this book from the way Nina describes everything: the food, setting, the language, etc. And while I'm not Latin, I could still connect with Nina. She was very likable.
While I liked Nina, I didn't very much like her mother. I understand she is being protective of Nina, I think she's being a bit too overprotective. All her mother want to do is move Nina to New York and her to marry...while mom cares all about money. She doesn't really listen to her daughter. But its worse when a mother ships her child away from her homeland to another unknown country. And that's what Nina mother does.
While Samana is warm sand, wonderful weather, and peaceful (and somewhat poor), New York is the complete opposite. Its loud, crowded, fast-paced, polluted with hot and suffocating weather (in the summer).
But things get interesting when Nina meets the one, the only, the green-eyed boy named Luis. The boy that everyone warns her about, for her to stay away from. That he's bad and dangerous. But Nina doesn't see that. She doesn't think of him as bad at all. She know there's something about him that everyone overlooks.
One thing that I didn't like about this book was the secrets that everyone-especially Dorrio and Luis kept from Nina. That frustrated me. Not only that, but the way Luis would walk away from Nina whenever she asked him a question. That's a totally jerk move, Luis! But eventually, he comes around and starts being nice to Nina, and much more.


Conclusion:
Flowers in the Sky is a novel about family, culture, love, and acceptance. Lynn Joseph creates a beautiful story that I will defintely will be on the look out for more of her stories.
4.6/5