The Fortunes of Jaded Women: 4.5/5 ⭐️

The Fortunes of Jaded Women is an amazing debut novel by Carolyn Huynh. This book truly is an ode to the first generation women of the Vietnamese diaspora and their daughters.

Huynh’s writing is humorous, metaphorical, and vivid. She has a captivating way of making each scene so easy to imagine. While some parts of the book were a little predictable, overall The Fortunes of Jaded Women is a poignant story and a fun read.

I especially loved that Vietnamese culture including the language was such a central tenant in this book. The pacing of the book is phenomenal. I was drawn into the story on the first page and by the end I couldn’t put it down because of all the plot twists and drama!

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves to read contemporary fiction!

This is a cute story with some wonderful insight into Vietnamese culture. I enjoyed reading about the family so much! However, sometimes the amount of characters was a little difficult to keep up with. I think this would make a wonderful series, with less characters in each book.

The book has a little bit of everything - laugh out loud moments and serious, emotional moments. Overall, a great read!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the digital ARC. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

Overall, I rated this book a 4/5 stars. There’s a lively cast of characters and the pace and feel of the book (the tea runneth over!) reminded me of CRA with much less label/name dropping and much more relatable characters. In fact, I’m convinced there’s a character for everyone to relate to in this story since they’re all so diverse yet approachable. No one is perfect, nor do they claim to be, yet that didn’t stop them from loudly expressing their expert opinions on everything to everyone.

The book can be repetitive at times, but in this case, it was beneficial for me to get the characters and their many entangled relationships sorted out.

While some themes resonated deeply with me as an AA woman, they are also themes that other people can easily relate to: parental disapproval of one’s partner, differing expectations for success, unfulfilled relationships/careers, and duties to familial ties. The deep cuts for me as an Asian woman though include the concept of the model minority, racial identity conflicts, and the lingering mental health effects of war atrocities, not to mention the harsh truths that aunties and mothers can deliver…to your face!

It was a fun read that literally made me laugh out loud, but it did pack an emotional punch. Plus, having lived in Southern California for a very short period of time, it was cool reading about the different neighborhoods/landmarks and getting a particular vibe for the setting.

I can definitely see how this is “a love letter to Vietnamese women” because the heritage/culture is so meticulously written. And the jaded/jaded reference? Chef’s kiss, perfection!

*Thanks to Atria Books via NetGalley for the ARC*

The Fortunes of Jaded Women follows the women in a Vietnamese family who has been cursed to only have daughters. Mai receives a prediction from a fortune teller that there will be a death, a wedding, and a pregnancy within the next year but only if she gets her family reunited. Thus sets off a chain of events to restore the bonds that had been broken years before.

I liked parts of this book, including a lot of the characters. However, I felt like there was so much jumping back and forth between character perspectives in chapters that I was never able to connect with one character as much as I'd like. I also felt the epilogue didn't resonate with how the book ended before that. If you like family drama books though, this is a good book to read.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed this character driven story about the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters and sisters. I have to admit though, that this really isn’t my style of book. I prefer fast paced, plot driven stories. I think I would have preferred if this was a series, covering a few of the women per book and delving deeper into their stories, instead of condensing the stories, complications, and drama of a dozen women in one 270 paged novel. The last quarter of the book moved at a better pace and was really good. A lot in this book made me sad, some of it made me angry, but the end had my laughing.

Thanks to Net Galley and Atria Books for this digital arc in exchange for my honest review which is not affiliated with any brand.

#NetGalley #TheFortunesofJadedWomen

Have you ever wandered into another culture or wondered what it’s like to grow up in America as a person from a different culture? Or visited a psychic? Or wondered why you have bad luck? Or even fallen in or out of love? All of this is in this tremendous book about Vietnamese women and their lives in the United States. Infused with tender insights into the Vietnamese culture—many that you may not know. It is a story of women across generations, of family, of love and of the struggle to assimilate into a new culture. Spanning several generations and a sweeping saga of mothers and daughters and the men who love or almost love them, the book will hold your attention, make you want to know Vietnamese women, and certainly wear some jade jewelry and laugh and weep. A definite five star read.

The Duong family has been cursed since their ancestor Oanh ran away from her husband to be with her true love. This book focuses on 3 sisters and and their daughters, who alternate between feuding and fighting with each other, while also trying to heal the family and finally reverse the curse based on a psychic's prediction for the year to come: a death, a marriage, and a grandson.

The cast of characters that is introduced in this short novel can be a lot to keep up with, especially since more and more side characters are added as the action progresses. There's a lot of snide commentary that I can tell were aimed to appeal to readers within the Asian American community, and unfortunately I'm not part of that target audience. That said, this book is fun and entertaining while also exploring how complex mother-daughter-sister relationships can be, and families in general.

I rated this 3 stars primarily because of how short this book is and how quickly the events all seemed to pile up. It was difficult to tell sometimes how much time was passing. As I said it was entertaining, but also lacking on dialogue and exposition at times.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the electronic ARC copy of this novel for review.

I enjoyed this funny, emotional novel about a multigenerational family of Vietnamese American women. The novel centers on a curse affecting the women. Through the story, the older matriarchs attempt to break the curse while the younger women meander through careers and relationships.

I liked that the author explored Vietnamese neighborhoods and businesses in Southern California. I’ve always felt that we need more stories focused on these cultural enclaves.

The relationships between the characters made me laugh and felt real in their complex messiness. The author also touched on intergenerational trauma from the Vietnam War and life as refugees. Still, the book didn’t lose its funny lightness, and the story moved quickly.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I would like to thank @netgalley and @simonandschuster for the opportunity to review this ARC.

I read this on Valentine’s Day and it was the perfect read, some family drama and some romance. It explores the relationships between mothers and daughters.

The Duane family is cursed when Oanh leaves her marriage to find true love. The family will never know happiness or have a son. The family line is only daughters who have tense relationships. The family relationships are rocky and strained. The family comes together when the birth of a boy is predicated. The book is a fun read and I highly recommend it.

I firstly want to thank to netgalley and atriabooks for the ARC. I really like this book so much and it was first time I read a book like this. There was really different elements that I got introduced to. Something that really made it hard for me to focus and not enjoy more is for sure the characters. It was really hard for me to keep track of who was who and there was a lot of characters. Also I kept looking at the family tree for a lot part of the book and it can be me to blame since it is really hard for me to remember character’s names. Other than that I really liked how the book evolved and other than remembering this as a good book, it was great to see more Vietnamese culture and family. I think I would have liked it more if the book was focused on just some characters but thanks to the author for making me introduced to Vietnamese culture.

A huge thank you to @netgalley for the arc of this exciting and diverse story 🌸

This multi-narrative story centers around the women of the Duong family & a multi generational ‘curse’ on the all-female descendants of the family - there’s love, magic, revenge, aunties galore 👀 and ultimately healing.

There were so many moments in this book that literally made me LOL - I could easily imagine the aunties in this book as those I grew up with and their penchant for random gossip alongside their daily attempts at out-doing each other while also fiercely loving and protecting one another. But this isn’t a book just about aunties! While it was fun to read about their antics and see the similarities between our diverse cultures, this book was equally about family, identity, the cycles that we inherit & the joys and oftentimes struggles of being a part of a diasporic community from so many different perspectives.

I could easily imagine a story like this being spread out over a series but overall, I loved the Duong sisters, this story had it all & I think it’s an impressive debut! I am so looking forward to reading more from Caroline Huynh 🌸💖

The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh is one amazing debut novel!
A story about a Vietnamese family going through some high and lows.
This story is filled with triumph, despair, adversity and much more.
These fierce ladies tell what it's like growing up in the culture where they always have to defend and support for a place to be.
This book was so special. It was beautifully written, full of touching moments, amazing connections, and great humor, 
TFOJW is wrapped together so flawlessly.
Our characters are independent, strong, lovely, fierce and always fighting for what is right!
I couldn't have loved this story more if I tried.
Everything about it was blissful!

Atria Books,
WoW! Thank You for the eARC.

It was an interesting and enjoyable read for me. I really liked how fun the characters were. And, I really liked the word building, although, I find the beginning a tad bit slow, but the ending made up, so good for it!! Overall, it’s a 4 stars read for me.

I really wanted to loved this but it fell flat for me.

The main issue was just too many characters. I felt like every other chapter was someone new, and it's harder in an ebook format to flip back to the family tree at the beginning. The author clearly has a sharp eye for family dynamics, and I enjoyed the characters we did meet, but eventually approached the book as a series of vignettes because I could not keep track of all the family ties. This could absolutely be some of my own cultural ignorance at play, but if the author wanted so many characters I wish she had spent more time developing them early on.

Highly recommend!! This book is a definite page-turner! You'll be left thinking about the story long after you put the book down. First book to read by this author but definitely not my last!

The novel started out well enough, with an interesting focus on three Vietnamese American sisters who are constantly warring with each other and with their mother. Their disagreements carry over to the rest of their families, to their children, some of whom are also estranged from each other.

It was difficult to see how culture and tradition played into their stories of disharmony and disfunction, but this is blamed on an old curse placed on an ancestor and on all her descendants. The curse allows the woman's children and their children to have only females born to them, and no sons.

The book seemed too long, new characters regularly introduced, and their stories added on in what could have been two different books to tell the different stories. It was hard to know who to focus on.

An interesting look at the Vietnamese American community, however, though this extended family seemed to be unique and not an example of the norm.