A review by illstoptheworldandreadwithyou
Lightning in Her Hands by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

4.25

How would you feel if the weather always reflected your mood? That’s Teal Flores’s reality. Her sisters have control over their own magical powers, but Teal’s hinges on something her mother took from her when she disappeared from the girls’ lives years ago. For Teal, extreme happiness leads to rainbows while extreme anger, depression, and sadness all lead to literal storms. 

 

When her former best friend, Carter, proposes a marriage of convenience in exchange for helping Teal fund the search for her mother, she agrees. The longtime friends became estranged after kissing once last summer. Surely they can get past their hurt and pretend to be together long enough to accomplish their goals. 

 

But will they be able to resist that longtime love and mutual attraction that has been hovering just under the surface of their friendship for so long? 

 

At a glance: 

• Single POV
• Marriage of convenience
• Estranged best friends-to-lovers
• Witches / magical realism
• Latine representation
• Bipolar representation
• Family dynamics/issues
• Abusive relationship (past)
• Book 2 of the series (I highly recommend reading Witch of Wild Things first.)

I think it’s important to know going into this one that Teal is not a warm and fuzzy heroine, and this is not a romantic comedy. She has admittedly made many selfish decisions and caused others pain in the past. She has a rough history herself and is still navigating unhealthy friendships and family dynamics.
  
And the external representation of her inner turmoil through weather heightens everything for Teal. 

She has a lot to overcome, but I loved watching her grow in this book.
  
And I adored Carter.
 
I look forward to reading Sky’s story next.
 
I received an advance copy of the book from Berkley. All review opinions are my own.