A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow

Lila is only 18 but she has had her whole life planned out. Suddenly, all of her plans come crashing down and she does not deal with this well. Her family decides that she needs a change of scenery. They send her to relatives in England completely against her will. She is supposed to rest and recuperate. After the summer, she can come back home and resume her plans to take over operations in her family's bakery.Obviously, the way you think your life is going to go at 18 is not what is really going to happen. The story of how Lila learns to let go of her need to control everything and everyone around her is the heart of this book. She learns that it is ok to change her mind and her surroundings. She can let other people make their own decisions too. That's hard for her. She has that adolescent mindset where she thinks she knows best for everyone and that she doesn't need to learn from anyone else. That can be exhausting to read, especially for older people like me, but it was part of the character's growth here so I didn't mind it. The food in this book sounds amazing. I wish that there had been recipes for some of the baked goods that are described. I would have definitely made a few. This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story