I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland Published by Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers on August 10, 2021
Genres: YA Contemporary Romance
Pages: 432
Source: the publisher
Format: ARC
My Rating:
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My Review:
Okay, I’m pretty sure this is going to be in the running for one of my favorite books of the year because I loved this one so much! It had me laughing, and crying, and even swooning! And the story was so much more than just a teenage girl with a crush and having issues with her parents. It was all that, but each of those things were so deep and so heavy but also so perfectly fitting for a girl that age.
I adored Moon. She was just the exact type of character I love to read about, because I connect in so many ways with her. She was snarky, and felt not as pretty/good as her sister who was as far as anyone could tell, her mother’s favorite. But there was a lot more to the story with the mother, and their father as well.
And then there was the love interest, Santiago. For so much of the book I really liked him and kept hoping he and Moon could get past their own insecurities and issues and make it work. But there was one point, towards the end, when I totally thought she was right to consider moving on. That he needed to take a step back and realize exactly how he was behaving.
Finally, there was Moon’s art. The descriptions really did give me a picture, but I wanted more! I wish there was a real Moon making this art so that I could see pretty pictures. I loved the connection to New Orleans that I didn’t realize this book would have, since I do adore that city. There was even a restaurant they described that I think is based on a real famous one in NOLA that now I want to make a visit just to try it! And oh yeah, Santiago’s cooking! All that food sounds so good! And his thoughts on salt, so true and I loved it!
I know this review is totally gushing and probably doesn’t make a ton of sense, but I really, really, really adored this book. Like I said, I’m pretty sure it will be in my top 10 books for the year and I can totally see nominating it to be a future award list for my state school library association next year!
The gif/video below shows how I feel about this one!
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I loved Moon and Santi too. All the food was sounded amazing, and I was really happy with Moon’s journey. I would love the author to revisit the world. Maybe focus on Star’s next moves.
That would be great to know Star’s story now! It was such a good book!
I’ve never swooned reading a book–maybe this will be the one!
Oh it’s so good! I hope you read it and if you swoon, come back and tell me! lol
Now I have to make sure I get a copy of this book after reading your review. I have this book on my TBR, but I’m adding it to my wish list today. I read Bridge of Souls this summer and spent lots of time researching the places mentioned in the book–I’ve never been to New Orleans, but really want to try beignets after reading one of the scenes. Have you eaten these? If so, did you get powdered sugar all over like Cass in the book did? LOL, now I’m hungry.
I LOVE beignets! All the ones I got always had tons of powered sugar on them, it’s probably why I liked them so much. lol. I love NOLA. I would go back every year if I could, there is so much history and culture! But it’s also so darn hot!
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