Review: Tea with Elephants by Robin Jones Gunn

Tea with Elephants (Suitcase Sisters #1)
by Robin Jones Gunn

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Women’s Fiction
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
Ever since they met as teenagers volunteering at a conference center in Costa Rica 20 years ago, Fern Espinoza and Lily Graden have shared a close friendship, even though they live in different states. They can hardly believe it when their teen dream of traveling to Africa together becomes a reality. It’s the trip of a lifetime–but life sure isn’t what they thought it would be back when they were young.

Along with their suitcases, each woman brings along emotional baggage that weighs heavily on them. Yet the people they meet and the places they experience have the power to change their hearts–but only if they surrender to the lessons God wants to teach them in this unexpected land of emerald tea fields, graceful giraffes, and rambunctious elephants.

Pack your bags and get ready for adventure as Robin Jones Gunn invites you on a safari of the heart in this vulnerable exploration of how to move forward in faith even when the future is uncertain.

My Review

I received a free copy from the publisher through Netgalley and voluntarily reviewed it.

The title and cover of this one caught my eye when I saw it on Netgalley. When I was in this mood for reading Women’s Fiction books with a theme of finding yourself I remembered getting this one for review a long time ago and finally picked it up. It was a great fit for my reading mood and I really enjoyed this book.

Tea with Elephants follows best friends Lily and Fren. They met years ago in a summer camp and have stayed in touch ever since despite living in different states. Now they chance have come to finally travel together like they planned all those years ago and they go on a trip together to Kenya. Both have struggles in their personal life they take along with them on their journey and as they view the beautiful vistas, see wildlife and enjoy everything Africa has to offer they slowly figure out how to move forward with their lives.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked reading about Africa, a place I’ve never been to and haven’t even read much about. I enjoyed coming along with fern and Lily as they experience the different places they stay along their vacation in Africa and everything they experience and the characters they meet along the way. I enjoyed reading about the different places they stay at and the sights they see along the way and the nature and animals they observe. The author does a great job describing the setting and how the characters experience it.

The finding yourself/ way forward theme was nicely woven throughout it. Quite early on it becomes clear what each of them is struggling with, but they need time to just experience Africa before they’re ready to address their struggles and how they want to move forward. The last few chapters are more heavily focussed on this and has both of them figuring out the way forward and I really liked seeing how their trip together and good advice from their best friend helped them find the path forward. I liked the last chapter and how it wraps things up and shows what their lives are like after their trip to Africa.

Both Fern and Lily were great characters to read about. And despite it being told only from fern’s point of view, I felt I got a good feel for Lily as well, although not quite as much as Fern. I like stories like this where you get to see the characters outside of their normal lives and despite that I still felt like we got a good feel for what their lives are like normally. Although at first it did feel a bit tough to get a good feel for them as the book basically starts only shortly before they leave for Africa, so it took some time to really build the picture in my mind what their lives are like. I also really liked reading about their friendship, they are such good friends and I really liked how they are there for each other, sometimes just enjoying their vacation together or offering comfort when the other has to talk through things and then later on give advice once they’re ready for that.

This book has a pretty strong religious theme. I hadn’t expected that and struggled with it at times. Both character are religious and there are multiple mentions of God, Jesus, the way they think about their religion and how it shows up in their lives. I hadn’t expected it and as I am not religious myself I struggled relating and understanding this part of the characters. And while I kept feeling that I also found it kinda interesting reading about characters like this who had such a different belief system than I have and how much support they got from their belief in god.

To summarize: I really enjoyed this book. It was fun to travel to Africa with Lily and Fern. I enjoyed experiencing Africa alongside the characters and getting to read about Kenya, a country I don’t know a lot about. I also liked the theme of both characters having to figure out what’s next for them in their lives and I liked how this gently progressed throughout the book, with a lot of the resolution waiting till the end of their vacation once they were ready for advice and moving forward. I liked the last chapter and the way it all got wrapped up and gave a glimpse of how their lives are like after their trip. I liked reading about Fern and Lily, they both were interesting characters to read about and it like reading about characters outside of their normal lives, while still getting a feel for their normal lives, although it took some time for the picture of their normal lives to grow clearer in my head as the book progressed. There is a strong religious theme to this book with both characters being religious and this influences how they think and process things. I could not relate to this and sometimes struggled with those parts, but I also found it interesting to read about characters with such a different belief system than I do. All in all I had a great time being transported to Africa in this book and experiencing this journey alongside Fern and Lily.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.