A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow

By: Laura Taylor Namey

Narrated by: Frankie Corzo

Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

A New York Times Best Seller

A Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club YA Pick

Love & Gelato meets Don’t Date Rosa Santos in this charming, heartfelt story following a Miami girl who unexpectedly finds love - and herself - in a small English town.

For Lila Reyes, a summer in England was never part of the plan. The plan was: one, take over her abuela’s role as head baker at their panadería; two, move in with her best friend after graduation; and three, live happily ever after with her boyfriend. But then the Trifecta happened, and everything - including Lila herself - fell apart.

Worried about Lila’s mental health, her parents make a new plan for her: Spend three months with family friends in Winchester, England, to relax and reset. But with the lack of sun, a grumpy inn cook, and a small town lacking Miami flavor (both in food and otherwise), what would be a dream trip for some feels more like a nightmare to Lila…until she meets Orion Maxwell. 

A tea shop clerk with troubles of his own, Orion is determined to help Lila out of her funk, and appoints himself as her personal tour guide. From Winchester’s drama-filled music scene to the sweeping English countryside, it isn’t long before Lila is not only charmed by Orion, but England itself. Soon a new future is beginning to form in Lila’s mind - one that would mean leaving everything she ever planned behind.

©2020 Laura Taylor Namey (P)2020 Simon & Schuster Audio

wonderful and fun read

absolutely loved it! it was such a fun and quick read. The characters were wonderful and Likeable

Here for the food & culture

I picked up this book because I like Reese’s book recommendations, young adult books, and learning about other cultures.

The narration: The main character is a 17-year-old girl named Lila, and the story is told from her perspective. The narrator was a great fit for Lila and did a great job with the Spanish accent when there were Spanish words peppered here and there through the narration (I don’t speak Spanish but it sounded fluent to me). Her British accents were OK, and her male voices were OK, but her male British voices were not that great. What makes great audiobook narration for me is that it adds to the overall experience of listening to a book, or even makes the listening a better experience. The male British voices were distracting because of how unrealistic they were.

The story: Lila has her future planned out, but then life happens, and she goes through some relatable heartache. I enjoyed hearing about Cuban culture and British Culture, as well as the descriptions of food, tea, Miami, and England. However, I didn’t connect with any of the characters. The story line is cute, cheesy, and at times unrealistic, and Lila does some bratty things, too (a teenager going into someone’s kitchen at a business and acting like you know more than them? Rude.). The romance is trope-y and cheesy, and I rolled my eyes more than once. I did like that Lila learned to appreciate a new culture and also learned she wasn’t perfect, took charge, and made changes to her life. That is respectable.

Would I read it again? No. Do I recommend? Yes, if you’re looking for a light, quick read where the best parts are the food and culture descriptions.

Soooo good!

Such a great book! Absolutely loved listening! The story brings to light a beautiful story of heart break, love and finding oneself.

Beautifuy Written

This book gave me all the feels! it was funny, sad, romantic all in one. I highly recommend!

Smart, Witty, Fresh, Creative, and Intriguing

What a brilliant novel! I loved everything about this little book. I didn’t know of Namey before but I’m super glad that Witherspoon shined light on this book. I highly recommend reading it. Lighthearted and genuine. Definitely one of those that I could listen to again. Oh, speaking of listening, what a brilliant narrated novel! It was a pleasure listening to it!

Loved Every Moment

I listened to this on audible and the story and performance was excellent. It was a feel good story, the narrator always kept me interested and the time flew by too fast. Well done!

good story, mediocre accents

The narrator's accents struggled a bit, but the story was good! I don't love when females try to do male voices. is comes across as make believe play. These were young people, the voices that the narrator did for the men all sounded old and the same regardless of age being portrayed.
Cute story! Made me want to try Cuban food and visit England.

So stinking cute!!

Absolutely loved it!! Coming from a background so similar, made me love it more.

Didn't realize it was a YA Book

Didn't quite turn my crank and was a little hard to follow. I didn't finish the audio book.

Beautiful story!

Loved it! Had me crying before the end, but relished at the ending of this wonderful, loving story. Excellent reading.

Fake accents

This was a sweet story, but English people just don’t talk that way. I really struggled with the poor pronunciation of English words and the forced accent. Spoiled it for me and became a drag to listen to.