Cecily Wong

audio historical fiction (~13 hrs, multiple narrators), beginning in Honolulu (Oahu), Hawai'i, 1964, and alternating time periods to tell the stories of previous generations back to 1890s Guangdong, Guangzhou/Canton, China (1899-1901 Boxer Rebellion), connecting past to present with tangled mystical threads that connect people to their intended loves and that can also punish them for not honoring those bonds.

I enjoyed this--the storytelling (and excellent narration) pulls you in immediately, and even though I usually struggle a bit when there are more than a handful of characters to keep track of, I'm found the story relatively easy to follow without getting bored. I do agree that it just sort of ends without much happening and I think there was opportunity for a lot more development in the relationships between the women, but overall I liked it. I would read more from this author.… (mais)

I'm ambivalent about this one.

What I liked: The story centers women's voices. Each woman is a fully realized character with a complete backstory. They're all interesting and the audiobook narrators portraying them were excellent!

What I didn't like: The women's lives revolve around men and the men are kind of flat one-dimensional characters, especially Bohai. I never understood what his deal was.

What I liked: The story stretches from the 1890s to the 1960s, spanning three generations, showing how each woman is impacted by her relationship to her parents -- and also how they're impacted by the Boxer Rebellion and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The story moves around in time, putting the pieces of the puzzle together in a mostly satisfying way.

What I didn't like: Sometimes the writing was on the florid side and seemed to meander. Some of the revelations were not so satisfying to me and ultimately the story doesn't offer a lot of hope (at least not the way I read it), particularly when it came to the theme of finding your "fated match."

Overall, I was a little disappointed but I still liked it.… (mais)