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5 full-blown amazing stars

This will be in my top reads for 2020. Amazing book. I don’t think I’ve read many books set in Mexico so at first this one didn’t jump out at me, then I started seeing all the hype and I was able to get the book through BookBrowse. Let me just say, this is SO worth it and I highly recommend this one. My review will not give away many details because I think it’s best to go into it blind.

The main character in this tale is Lydia, a bookstore owner in Acapulco, married to a journalist and with an adorable son Luca. As you might know, Acapulco is certainly not the tourist paradise that it was in the 1970s and 1980s. I just checked and the city has the second highest homicide rate in the world and the U.S. State Department has a travel advisory for the state of Guerrero �� do not travel due to crime. There are drug cartels and high rates of crime in the city.

Lydia’s husband writes about the crime and murder in Acapulco and there have been threats made against him and his family. Lydia is surprised to discover that the head of the most powerful cartel in Acapulco is a frequent visitor to her bookstore. The rest of the book deals with the fallout after Lydia’s husband publishes a full profile of the crime lord.

The rest of the book is fast-paced, and I tore through it. The many characters are so well developed, and Lydia and Luca become characters I didn’t want to part with at the end of the book. You will marvel at the generosity of strangers, the strength of the human bond, and the lengths someone will go to find a better place to live. I really didn’t know much about this part of the world or the migrant experience and I hope this book gets a wide range of people reading it. This one moved me to tears a few times. Overall, this is a story that needs to be told and it will stick with me for a long time.

Thank you to BookBrowse for a copy of the book to read and discuss in their online book club. I’m looking forward to the discussion on this one!