Love the characters. The main character is definitely something you can relate to. Great real life situation. Loved it.

I adore the author’s voice. The characters came alive for me; I laughed, I cried, I dreamed - I felt seen, and I saw. I too, love a good 80’s makeover montage - and enjoyed how she wove that ‘squee’ feeling right into the scenes (which were mostly also plot-relevant + character dev.) (… also, that closet!!) I enjoyed the inclusion + consideration of multiple viewpoints, how she richly portrayed insight into each character - including some of those ‘offstage,’ as it were - throughout, revealing expertly drawn personalities, incl. body language, emotion, motivation, etc. while maintaining the integrity of the protagonist’s viewpoint. I like how she touched on a variety of social challenges, some of which many of us would have been oblivious to, and the multi-faceted dilemmas inherent therein, and why and how the protagonist chose to deal with them the way she did - and why and how her choices changed (and how they might have changed over time, given different eras and/or social contexts). Trying to be careful re: spoilers, but yes, there were some weak areas - particularly the culmination and resolution of her interactions w/ Sam - (the conflicts didn’t hold as well past a certain point) - more satisfying was the resolution of plot threads with the rest of her family. However, this was an absolute gem of a book, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It made me think, it gave me insight, and it gave me hope. It was satisfying and well done - Lily Chu has earned herself a spot on my very short auto-buy list.

The book had a lot of promise but the main character was all over the place. She’s strong but weak, knows her worth then is a doormat, wants to help but then can’t get over how she’s living a lie… it’s like she can’t just make a decision and stick with it. Also, the constant, “what does this mean” inner monologue every time she has an interaction with Sam gets old. She needs some spine and to just hold her own vs. lose all self-respect when he looks anywhere in her direction. All in all, it had a lot of promise and ultimately is ok

The plot was great, the delivery not so much. It was slow paced and the author over shared on details that were irrelevant. It also often felt that the main character was meant to be strong but still a damsel in distress and it didn’t mesh well.

I really enjoyed this book, I highly recommend it! I was completely immersed in the story, and didn’t want it to end.