A review by babewithabookandabeer
Flores and Miss Paula by Melissa Rivero

5.0

Thank you Harper Collins for my Netgalley copy of FLORES AND MISS PAULA by Melissa Rivero, out 12/5/23.

I adored this tender, sweet and loving book. For fans of Angie Cruz’s HOW TO NOT DROWN IN A GLASS OF WATER and Gabriela Garcia’s OF WOMEN AND SALT, this book follows thirtysomething Flores and her mother Paula, a firstgen daughter with student loan debt and Peruvian immigrant in alternating POVs living together in one apartment in Brooklyn over a single summer. Three years following the death of their beloved patriarch, MartÍn, Flores finds a note in her mother’s handwriting that says “PerdÍname si te falle. Recuerda que siempre te quise.” Forgive me if I failed you. Remember that I always loved you. Both women recall old memories, grapple with their grief and try to figure out their purpose.

Paula thinks her daughter should focus more on finding love instead of working tirelessly for an aquarium start-up her old college friend runs. Flores thinks her mother needs to learn to stick up for herself and stop aching for a married man. Suddenly, the mother-daughter duo learns they have to leave the one home they’ve shared together, and with the one they miss the most, and they are forced to confront each other with hard-to-accept truths. I cried, cried, and cried some more during the final chapters. It is so soft and caring. The two women’s voices are so distinct and cared for with such grace! Rivero is an author I am sure to seek out again with anything she writes. The ending is beautiful! Brava brava brava. Preorder this one.