Very fun novel of a cursed family of Vietnamese women as they navigate familial and romantic relationships. ( )

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This just didn’t work for me. Way too many characters so it’s hard to keep track of narratives and I didn’t feel invested in any of them. ( )

Digital audiobook read by Vyvy Nguyen

From the book jacket: Everyone in Orange County’s Little Saigon knew that the Durong sisters were cursed. It started with their ancestor Oanh, who left her marriage for love. So, a witch cursed Oanh and her descendants so that they would never know love or happiness, and the Duong women would give birth to daughters, never sons. Oanh’s descendant Mai Nguyen knows the curse well. Her three adult daughters – Priscilla, Thuy and Thao – have found success in their careers but not in their love lives. Mai consults Auntie Hua, her trusted psychic in Hawaii, who delivers an unexpected prediction: this year, her family will witness a marriage, a funeral and the birth of a son.

My reactions:
Oh, what a tangled web of melodrama! I think part of the difficulty I had with this work was my fault. I chose to listen to the audiobook and the names were just not sufficiently familiar to my ear for me to clearly identify the many different females. It doesn’t help that Mai is one of three sisters, all of which have daughters. While the action focuses on Mai and her three daughters, the various aunties and cousins also come into play, and I was often confused about relationships.

In general, this is about family – especially an extended family whose members are always in each other’s business. They meddle, fight, make-up, mourn, and celebrate. Ultimately, they come together as a family, rising in unison, ready to conquer the world. And I have every confidence that these women WILL conquer.

Vyvy Nguyen does a very good job of voicing the audiobook. It was my own failure as a listener, and not her performance that caused my confusion at times. ( )

believably messy dysfunctional relationships. fun read. ( )