(2.5 / 5)
I really wanted to like this book. My interest was peeked when one of my favorite book bloggers put it on her list of top Summer new releases and the premise grabbed me immediately. Unfortunately, despite its promising synopsis, the novel never really found its rhythm and the reader is left to slog through a couple hundred pages of fairly boring and frustrating material.
A River of Stars follows the journey of a young Chinese woman (Scarlett) who find herself pregnant with her Boss’s baby. An early ultrasound reveals the baby to be a boy and her Boss (who has three grown daughters with his wife) is overjoyed with the news . He sends Scarlett to LA to a maternity home for Asian women where she can be safely cared for and deliver their son on American soil. Once in the United States and about a month before she gives birth, Scarlett finds out an error and been made regarding the gender of her baby. Panicked and armed with only a basic knowledge of how to drive she flees the maternity home with a sixteen year old pregnant (and stubborn!) stowaway. Together they must carve out a life for themselves (and their soon to arrive babies) with limited English and a travel visa soon to expire.
I was so excited to dig in to the dynamic of Asian immigrant culture and get a front row seat to the emotional struggle and progression of a new mother in a foreign country. But the book never quite came together. I was frustrated with the unlikeable protagonist and the back and side stories of most of the secondary characters (who I just didn’t care about) and couldn’t really get invested in. This made for a very long book where no character could really make a substantial amount of progression and most people are more or less the same as they were when I started the book. The middle was particularly long only to come to a manufactured and perfect end. I did appreciate the protagonist’s resourcefulness and resilience and I loved reading about Chinatown in San Fransisco, but in this case the pros didn’t outweigh the cons.
Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy.
Violence: Low Language: Medium Adult Content: Low/Medium