Storm clouds are on the horizon in L.A. WEATHER, a fun, fast-paced novel of a Mexican-American family from the author of the #1 Los Angeles Times bestseller Esperanza’s Box of Saints.
L.A. WEATHER
by María Amparo Escandón
St. Martin’s Press, September 2021
L.A. is parched, dry as a bone, and all Oscar, the weather-obsessed patriarch of the Alvarado family, desperately wants is a little rain. He’s harboring a costly secret that distracts him from everything else. His wife, Keila, desperate for a life with a little more intimacy and a little less Weather Channel, feels she has no choice but to end their marriage. Their three daughters―Claudia, a television chef with a hard-hearted attitude; Olivia, a successful architect who suffers from gentrification guilt; and Patricia, a social media wizard who has an uncanny knack for connecting with audiences but not with her lovers―are blindsided and left questioning everything they know. Each will have to take a critical look at her own relationships and make some tough decisions along the way.
With quick wit and humor, Maria Amparo Escandón follows the Alvarado family as they wrestle with impending evacuations, secrets, deception, and betrayal, and their toughest decision yet: whether to stick together or burn it all down.
*** Named one of Harper’s Bazaar Best Books 2021 ***
*** A Best Book of September 2021 (Barnes & Noble, Alta, PopSugar, Bustle, CNN, E! News, Ms. Magazine, Nylon, Good Morning America, and more!)***
“This story beautifully weaves together the theme of family and uses weather as a metaphor to peel back the curtain on the layered lives of three sisters and their parents.” ― Reese Witherspoon
“Enchanting.” ― Oprah Quarterly
« Absorbing, moving, comic and tragic, L.A. Weather will capture readers and never let them go. » ― Shelf Awareness
« A year in the life of a Mexican Jewish family whose problems include a near-drowning, a drought and drama galore as the marriages of the parents and all three daughters go off the rails. » ― People
María Amparo Escandón is the author of #1 L.A. Times bestseller Esperanza’s Box of Saints and González & Daughter Trucking Co. Named a writer to watch by both Newsweek and the L.A. Times, she was born in Mexico City and has lived in Los Angeles for nearly four decades.

Every story has its secrets.
Marlowe Banks’ life has come apart at the seams. Her last costume design for an off-Broadway show was a disaster, and she’s realized that her fiancé may not be the right guy for her after all. So she gives him back the ring and leaves New York for Los Angeles and a job as a lowly Production Assistant on a popular TV show. She just wants to fade into the background, do the meaningless work thrown at her by her demanding boss, and not have any more prickly run-ins with the show’s bad boy, Angus Gordon. But then a costume mix-up requires Marlowe to step in as a waitress for some background work in a scene. It should be simple; all she has to do is pour coffee—but Marlowe’s wish to stay in the background doesn’t last long. When the episode airs, some of her and Angus’ real-life tension has come through on screen, and now, suddenly, everyone wants Angus’ character to date Marlowe’s waitress. Soon Marlowe is offered an arc on the show, but when she doesn’t know who she is anymore, how can she pretend to be someone else? As she spends more time with Angus and starts to get to know the man behind the grumpy persona, she sees the possibility for another life that she isn’t sure she’ll ever be ready for. And when her old life in New York comes calling, Marlowe will have to decide which version of herself she wants to be. Perfect for fans of Emily Henry and Evvie Drake Starts Over, MARLOWE BANKS, REDESIGNED is a story about a woman taking a second chance on life, love, and herself.
Lulu Sanchez Pena and Cara Romera became friends soon after Cara’s son Fernando ran away. The mystery of why he ran away and the search to find him is central to their lives. When the two women are laid off from the factory where they work, the financial impacts are devastating; and when Cara unexpectedly dies and Fernando reappears, Lulu must question his intentions. Told from Lulu’s point of view, and with Cara’s voice coming through in a recorded transcript of a job interview, this is a novel that asks the reader not to accept the story as fact but to piece it together themselves. Much like gossip that vexes and catches a person in the way it spins and invents, Lulu and Cara spin tales about themselves assembling a memory of their lives and community. With its themes of immigration, aging, LGBTQ+ acceptance, and female friendship, this is a timely novel from a powerful literary voice.
Hannah Green is the last person you would envision as an Executive Protection Agent (aka “bodyguard”). Petite and non-descript, she is nevertheless an expert in her field who loves her job and the motley crew that make up her team. But when she is hired to protect Jack Stapleton, a Hollywood star with a tragic past who is coming home to Houston, she expects another spoiled, capricious player. Jack wants to keep her at arm’s length, which complicates her assignment. Hannah wants to keep him within arm’s length, which complicates her growing attraction to him. But each of them has secrets and heartbreak in their past that might prevent them from ever finding true love—even more than the different worlds they come from. With stalkers closing in, Jack and Hannah must each find a way to take chances…because every chance you take might bring you into harm’s way, but also might make you a little bit braver.