Told from two alternating points of view two decades apart this is the story of Elsie, the single mom who started out with high hopes and good intentions when she fell in love with a married man.

"It was 1996, the middle of March, a brutal part of the year when spring was supposed to hit but didn't, when I'd given up on ever being warm again."

Elsie's only daughter Luljeta both loves and hates her mother, never quite feeling like she fits in anywhere. She has been told very little about her father and now that she is growing from child to young woman decides to find out the truth for herself.

Part love story, part coming of age tale, part family drama but without being sappy this bittersweet novel touched my heart and hit my funny bone with sarcastic wit.

Here is a review by Jennifer: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2179334645

I did enjoy this book. Read it awhile ago and forgot to post review. Interesting story about cultural differences and women's struggles.

I found this a real struggle to get into, i felt that the pace was slow and i just couldnt connect or relate with any of the characters. It is a well written book but just not for me.

I received an arc copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my review of it. I just could not get into this book is the characters. I would not recommend. Too slow.

This is one of the books where all the drama happens on the cover. I found the cover to be far more interesting than anything I read. That said, the novel made some keen insights on an individual's strength, courage, and determination. This story was told in alternating perspectives which is not one of my favorite styles but Aliu made it work and seem a natural means to more the story forward.

“One look at my stringy White Rain hair and yeah right I’d ever be the girlfriend of a boy named Laird or Lawrence or Anything the III.”

There are so many stories about girls full of sunshine and promise ,which can be wonderful, reading about their struggles with which ivy league college to pick, or which country to start their European vacation in but this isn’t about the haves. Elsie works as a waitress at the Betsy Ross Diner, her upbringing and surroundings have jaded her but even with her sarcasm and hope to get out of the dreary life she seems destined for she still find herself destroyed by love. Bashkim, an Albanian immigrant has come to the land of opportunity, but all Elsie can see is that it’s ‘the crappiest place on earth.’ Bashkim is far more schooled in the disturbances of the world, has seen things and lived in poverty that no amount of national geographic pictures can educate Elsie on. It isn’t long before she is seduced by this seasoned man, impregnated and dizzy with shock that Bashkim’s wife may not be as far from his thoughts as she once seemed. Elsie’s plan to earn enough to escape this dying town becomes muddled through the choices she makes. She isn’t sure this rawboned existence is going to work, where Bashkim is satisfied with meager surroundings, Elsie knows this is the dead end she feared.

17 years later, the reader meets Luljeta (LuLu), Elsie’s daughter. LuLu is learning being smart isn’t enough, everything she has worked hard for is slipping through her fingers like sand. She knows to some she is just a fatherless daughter, a lifelong recipient of free lunches… but she has always been good, has a high IQ, she shows promise. Everything is different now, and she is ready to mess up big! Maybe failing is in her DNA, maybe she should simply stop trying! She has just been rejected by NYU, it was her only escape plan, she isn’t so special after-all. How could she have thought she could compete with exceptional students going to expensive private schools whose education eclipses her own sub-par learning? Could it really be, is she going to be stuck with her mother in this dead end life?

Now that her plan has unraveled, it’s time to sift through her mothers secrets and omissions about her father. In this novel, everyone’s skin is too tight, they all want out in different ways. For the immigrant experience isn’t always paved with gold american streets and sometimes just surviving is enough for some, it’s better than the hell they left behind in the motherland. It’s a desperate straining, against the reality of your opportunities, because despite all the Hollywood endings many times lack of money and class will keep you pinned to a life neither you, nor your mother wanted. Sometimes when you go searching for answers, you’re left with just more questions. Some of our stories never settle like the dust in some seedy diner. Could there be family members wondering about LuLu nearby, maybe her father is closer than she thinks?

This isn’t a happy little story, it has bite and it’s painful but I find it far more easy to recognize than stories about people who have everything they want and never face rejection. It’s the American dream sold at a discount because it expired yesterday. Just what I needed to read. Add it to your reading list for 2018.

Publication Date: January 30, 2018

Random House

This had some of my favorite novel components: more than one generation of mother daughter relationships, blue collar town, struggle, American dream...it was like a Bruce Springsteen song off The River album.

I loved the writing, the story itself was a little secondary to that.

Free e-book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was really good for a debut novel! Very real mother/daughter story---with both of them in search for a better life and pursuing their respective dreams. Honestly I loved both characters and the story so much. I could not put this own down! Thanks for the ARC! Will look for more from this author in the future. LOVED it!

I didn't end up reading this book because I found the style to be too showy. I don't like language that calls too much attention to itself, makes you think all the time about how clever the author is, rather than focusing on the story or characters.

I was in a mood for a literary novel and this certainly fit the bill. Strikingly good for a debut, if only all too bleak as the realities of the American dream often can be, this novel is essentially a mother daughter story, told in alternating perspectives from both at around the same age. The mother plotline is definitively more compelling and interesting, taking up the bulk of the book and rightly so. Drawing on autobiographical experiences in this case works really well for the author as she presents the small town USA life and an intercultural economically and otherwise challenged romance, something of a quintessential melting pot story, something like a Springsteen or Mellencamp song. It's utterly unflinchingly realistic and the sort of thing that will engage readers in direct proportion to how much they'll be able to relate to the story. The main characters are indeed tough as brass, which is pretty much the prerequisite amount of toughness it takes to survive this world or, at least, their world. Very well written somewhat depressing slice of life tale from a promising obviously talented author. Thanks Netgalley.