Few Blue Skies by Carolina Ixta

e-ALC, 09:44:35
Narrated by: Karla Serrato
Release Date: February 3, 2026
Published by: HarperCollins
Read from: May 16-18, 2026
Stand-alone
Source:  Library’s Libby (I also received a hardcover free from the publisher. This did nothing to influence my review.)  
Content Warning: Chronic Illness, Medical Content, Grief, Cancer, Blood, Death of a Parent
For Readers of: Audio, Climate Action, Coming of Age, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Coming of Age, DEAR, Own, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, Realistic Fiction, YA

     In her latest novel, Pura Belpré Award–winning author Carolina Ixta weaves a tender story about love and hope, following a teen as she works to protect her family and community from a major corporation taking over her town.

     Paloma Vistamontes is heartbroken. A year ago, her ex-boyfriend, Julio Ramos, broke up with her after his father’s death, a tragedy that drove Paloma and him apart. Ever since then, the mountains have felt flatter, the sky farther away.
     Now, her hometown of San Fermín, a place where honest people work on farms and in factories, is in danger. Selva, a massive e-commerce conglomerate, threatens to open one of their warehouses beside her high school.
     This isn’t the first time they’ve done this. Since Selva arrived, they’ve opened warehouses everywhere where there used to be green spaces. Because of them, the air pollution is so bad that school is often canceled. Many people, including Paloma’s ever-practical Ma, want to leave.
     But Paloma wants nothing more than to stay. Because when the smog clears, there is still hope. That hope drives Paloma to reconnect with Julio to expose and challenge the dangers that Selva introduces to communities like their own. Can they stop Selva from destroying everything they know? Is there still a chance for their budding romance?

*MY THOUGHTS*

When I realized what this book was about, I did not want to read this at all. I was terrified. I knew this was going to hurt me before I even opened it. And now after reading it, I can honestly say, CALLED IT. This was so good, so realistic, and so relevant to its time.

The entire time I was reading this I kept thinking about things that are happening right now. From Scamazon warehouses, to companies trying to buy out people’s homes to put up data centers in their place, to cancer alley, it’s all such a shitty practice. Seeing all of this happen in real time in this book, it was quite scary. There’s always something you know? These companies are really doing this to us and making us sick like this and no one is doing anything about it. And for them to be placed in Black and Brown places mostly, it just makes me more upset. And the ending where it’s obvious that no one is going to be happy about either way, it broke me. Because Lordt that was too real.

The writing style was amazing. I fell into this book and was immersed until the very end. It really felt like I was watching this on the news or in the movies. It was so realistic. Which is actually really sad when you think about it. Because how in the world is all of this happening to us and we can’t do anything about it? We NEED jobs, we NEED money, but we also NEED to be healthy so we can get up and go to work. It’s a vicious cycle and they’re just preying on us it seems like. Needless to say, this scary because of how realistic it was.

The romance was sad. It was so strange to see them together too. Most times they break up for differences like this. But as much as they were in love and then mad at each other and then mad again, I think they might actually make it. They both need to do some growing and some understanding and some compromising. To me it seemed like too much for high school students.

This story hit so close to home. I don’t think I’ve read a book about this before. Especially one that so accurately described real life. I definitely need more people to read this and see the moral grandstanding and how it is for people on both sides. Definitely an eye-opening book.

Overall, I give this