I really liked this story of multiple generations of women from the Dương family, all of whom are allegedly suffering from a curse cast against the women of their family generations before when Oanh Dương left her husband when she found true love. His mother wasn't super happy about it, so she sought a witch who would curse the Dương women to only give birth to daughters and never sons. The current generation of Dương women includes four mothers and eight daughters, mostly living across the US, and most of whom are essentially estranged from one another. Mai Dương, now Mai Nguyễn, goes on an annual visit to a Vietnamese psychic in Hawaii, who predicts for her family a funeral, a wedding, and a grandson. She brings her sisters together and they all try to reconcile with each other, with their mother, and with their own daughters. I loved all of the Dương women, who are very real - funny and stubborn and sad and angry and joyful. There are so many funny details here, and the epic fights among the Dương women, well known throughout Little Saigon, are funny and touching even when they're intense. I look forward to seeing what Carolyn Huynh comes out with next!

The Fortunes of Jaded Women takes a broad look at a family of Vietnamese American women who have been "cursed" so they can only give birth to daughters. I became dizzy with the number of characters - three mothers and several daughters and their lovers. Huynh zooms in on various women for short scenes but not enough to get to know them or always remember who is who. I found many of the characters catty and unlikable.

The Fortunes of Jaded Women
by Carolyn Huynh
Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ATria
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. For fans of Jonathan Tropper, KJ Dell’Antonia, and Kevin Kwan, this “sharp, smart, and gloriously extra” (Nancy Jooyoun Kim, The Last Story of Mina Lee) debut follows a family of estranged Vietnamese women—cursed to never know love or happiness—as they reunite when a psychic makes a startling prediction.
I loved this book! The Fortunes of Jaded Women is a perfect light read, with a hilarious and crazy climax and a sweet ending, plus it’s filled with insight into the Vietnamese-American experience.
4 stars

I now see why this book keeps getting recommended to me. I falsely assumed it was going to be another cross generational downer (nothing against them, I just like to mentally prepare since they can be triggering). What I read instead was a darkly hilarious book about mothers and daughters and curses. Not the swear word variety - the eye of newt, burning sage, chanting to rid the curses type of curses. I loved this.

At first I worried that there were too many characters to remember- and there are MANY, but they each had a distinguishable voice and equally interesting in their own right. I loved the over the top visuals and could tell where the Korean Dramas/Chinese Soaps had influence. They were so ridiculous and batsh*t…yet worked.

This book gets an extra star for a reveal towards the end that had me laughing out loud and then I immediately reread it to laugh again.

With that said, the first half (more serious) felt like a different book to the 2nd half (much funnier). Almost as if it was written by two different authors. Interested to hear if anyone else felt that way.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“The Fortunes of Jaded Women” focuses on a family of Vietnamese women who deal with a curse over several generations. The curse is that the family only has daughters, who will never know happiness. Mai Nguyen is told by a psychic that her family will have a marriage, birth and a death within their family that year. This is a well written story about how relationships come apart and back together again. I liked the insight into the Vietnamese American culture in California, and the diversity of stories and experiences included in this novel.

There are so many characters it was difficult to follow, and I felt like I needed a refresher on the family tree every so often. Having to remember which character I was reading about was distracting. Overall I think the book is well written and I’ll definitely read this author’s next book.

Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The best part of this novel for sure were the characters - while sometimes, the volume felt a little overwhelming, the way they were drawn was wholly entertaining. Rich family drama, great representation - this was a fully enjoyable debut!

I really appreciate books that show different cultures becoming main stream! This was a wonderful story about Vietnamese American women. Great read!

This story follows a family of estranged Vietnamese women who has been cursed never to know love or happiness. This curse started with their ancestor (Oanh), who dared to leave her marriage for love.
As punishment, a Vietnamese witch cursed her and her descendants with the world's most awful plights. They must give birth to daughters, never find love, and never experience happiness.

This multi-narrative novel goes through the family's current descendants, who are experiencing everything that the curse entailed. We have shifting viewpoints as they struggle with new updates on their curse from a local psychic. This psychic predicts a marriage, a funeral, and a son's birth. They must reunite to get to the bottom of their discoveries and be a family, for better or worse.

There are some brilliantly written scenes in this, particularly the one-upmanship of bragging about families and how we can cut each other at our core when we know the nature of each other's most vulnerable weaknesses. In addition, there are some laugh-out-loud scenes that I had to read out loud to my husband.

I think the biggest challenge with this was Huynh's volume of characters she was introducing. At times, I felt a little overwhelmed with the three daughters, the mother, cousins, and side characters. It didn't give us the immersive experience in the story that the reader always deserves.

When it shined through, it shined. I love books that remind us of the importance of family, and I also appreciated learning more about the challenges of moving to the United States and creating your legacy as a Vietnamese American. The way that Mai builds her legacy made me teary-eyed and produced a beautifully believable end for their family's future.

This is a promising debut and would be fun to read with a book club. It is on my list of contenders this year.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A Vietnamese-American family saga focusing on mothers and daughters.

I LOVED this one. Has a lot of dysfunctional family drama, while still being very emotional and funny at times. Talks a lot about Asian culture, family expectations, and mother-daughter and sister relationships. I love that it highlighted different types of Asians across the diasporas and across generations. It shows that there is not one way to represent your culture and who you are is valid.

Funny and serious as well as heartwarming . Asian American chick lit that I almost thought I would not like as I struggled through keeping tract of the characters . Chick lit is usually hit or miss with me but I have been a huge fan of Lisa See and Amy Tan and tend to enjoy Asian culture and stories more . This book was very funny ! Story was engaging as well . Loved the voices of the characters . A fun book about being a daughter within generations of daughters also being a wanted woman whether by a mate or by a Vietnamese mother . This is a book turned out to be highly entertaining and enjoyable ! Thank you Netgalley for a review copy in exchange for my honest review .

"The Fortunes of Jaded Women" focuses on a family of Vietnamese women, and the implications that a family curse (allowing only women to exist in the lineage) has on its future descendents, especially as their youngest grow up in America. At the onset, we're introduced to three sisters in their older years: Mai Nguyen is the oldest with three daughters, and is recovering from a recent divorce that left the family reeling. The middle sister Minh Pham is known to be the peacemaker, but is hiding her own troubles from her sisters. The youngest, Khuyen Lam, frequently butts heads with Mai, and while in good financial status, isn't fully transparent on the source of her income. The three come together after a chilling prophecy from an esteemed psychic, and they and the rest of their children are forced to confront their histories and relationships with each other.

While I appreciate what Carlyn Huynh was trying to do here, each of these characters felt like such strong caricatures that it felt at times that I was reading a comedy. She sets up each of the three sisters to follow such strong Asian stereotypes and doesn't leave enough room for their individual personalities to shine. Creating a lineage of daughters that are also even more pigeonholed (a celebrity dermatologist, a successful programmer, a CEO) doesn't help with this either. Nonetheless, I appreciated the overall story that took us through experiences of grief and loss against the love and joy that this family of women experiences and its focus on the Asian American experience for women.

Mai learns from a psychic that there will be a death, a marriage and a birth in her family this year. So she sets out to reconnect and reconcile with her sisters, daughters and mother. What ensues is a delightful and heartfelt drama involving the women in Mai's multigenerational Vietnamese-American family. This novel quickly pulled me in. The characters are not all lovable, but I really loved this family - their arguing, their love for each other, and their attempts to make things right. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

I read an excerpt of this book in the 2022 Fall/Winter Buzz Books which definitely made me want to read more! The Fortunes of Jaded Women tells the multi-generational story of a family of Vietnamese-American women, most of whom don't really get along with one another. The chapters are told in alternating perspectives from mothers and daughters, and the author does a really great job of helping the reader to keep the many characters straight. The book really explores the bonds between sisters and between mothers and daughters and also offers real insight into Vietnamese culture in California in particular. The characters were deeply human and real, and I was really rooting for them to succeed and to find their ways back to each other. This would be a great book for book clubs, as there are lots of issues and perspectives to discuss. Highly recommend! And thanks to NetGalley for the free copy.

Overall a nice book that gives insight of the Vietnamese culture and the sentiments revolved around womanhood and family. It shows the cultural dynamics that are apparent and allows for an understanding behind the context of the culture presented.

The Fortunes of Jaded Women
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 9/6/22
Author: Carolyn Huynh
Publisher: Atria Books
Pages: 272
Goodreads Rating: 4.27

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing a digital copy of the book for me to read in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: The Duong Sisters are cursed with no love life or happiness and will only have daughters. Mai Nguyen is divorced, and she’s estranged from her younger sisters. Though Mai’s three adult daughters are successful in their careers, the same can’t be said for their love life. Desperate for guidance, she 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 Thoughts: This is just a beautiful book written about multigeneration women. The story is narrated through various perspectives, from each of the women, from our MC, through the sisters, and the daughers. The author’s writing of this Vietnamese women going through their life facing estrangement, laughter, love, careers, to their healing journey is just beyond anything I have read before. This was an emotional read, from happiness, laughter, sadness, it just heartfelt throughout the book. I am not of Vietnamese decent and I could deeply relate to their struggles and their celebrations. The characters are well developed and have depth to them and showed the changes through different generations. The author’s writing style is complex, creative, and intriguing. I loved how the author explores the Vietnamese culture and traditions and provides a glimpse into what these women endured over the years. I highly recommend this book.

A smart, witty, clever story of multigenerational Vietnamese-American women estranged from each other and cursed in finding love. Well written with alot of rich cultural references, a page turning story that is captivating and laugh out loud funny at times. This novel teaches and entertains.

This novel is a muli-generational wonder. I was taken to a variety of places. There is a line about Geminis in the book that made me laugh. The culture is incredibly rich and satisfying. It carries the story.

Everyone in Orange County’s Little Saigon knew the Dương sisters were cursed.

ARC provided by the publisher Atria Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Fortunes of Jaded Women is the embodiment of the good, the bad, and the ugly of a mother-daughter relationship, encapsulated within the pages of a book. A fascinatingly raw view point of familial love that is equal parts dramatic and emotional.

For the longest time I’ve searched for a book that can deliver that buzz from reading a good book that unapologetically tells a story about that personal and dear to the author’s heart. I also wanted to find a story that remind of that feeling of reading a story about Asian families. The last one I’ve read that fits this vibe I was looking for was Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. Now I am happy to say that I found that buzz again in an ARC that is graciously granted to me by the publishers through NetGalley titled The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh.

Honestly, when I requested this ARC I didn’t fully read the synopsis because as a reader I always go into a book blind. What caught my attention initially was the words Vietnamese women, curse, and family. That was enough buzz words to get me to request the book. Plus the constant promotion I’ve seen from my fellow book bloggers and writers hyping up this book.

Before I continue on into the review I would like to spotlight the beautiful cover that highlights the story contained within the book done by Sandra Chiu and art direction from Min Choi. It is such a simple cover that speaks louder about the story than you might think and the gorgeous sea foam green really makes this book stand out.

Though the outside looked idyllic, the inside of the house was far from the promise of the American dream.

The Fortunes of Jaded Women is a story about three generations of a Vietnamese-American family, the Duongs, that is famous for their very public familial drama and curse that seems to follow them for generations especially the women. It all started when Oanh Duong that started this curse when she decided to leave her first marriage for love. All the Duong women since then are blessed only with daughters and never sons.

The story is told from the perspectives of the current descendants of Oanh Duong, starting off with the matriarch Ly Minh Duong and her three daughter, Mai Nguyen (the eldest sister) and her daughters : Priscilla, Thuy, and Thao; Minh Pham (the middle sister) and her only daughter Joyce; and Khuyen Lam (the youngest sister) and her daughters : Elaine and Christine. Though there is a fourth sister and eldest before Mai from Lyn Minh Duong’s first marriage that isn’t mentioned until later in the story, Kim Luong and her daughters : Lily and Rosie.

Mai and Minh’s daughters are all spread around the globe while Khuyen’s daughters still live within Orange County running her nail salons and coffee shop. While Kim’s daughter are the youngest amongst the daughters with Lily being in a different state and Rosie still living with Kim.

Was it too late to fix her relationship with her daughters?

As you can see The Fortunes of Jaded Women involves a lot of characters and perspectives. I understand that this can overwhelm a few readers but I’d argue the more readers progress into the story readers will be familiarized with the names and the colourful personalities of the characters. Each character have their own signature behaviour, personality, and sometimes tag line that shows their individuality. Huynh masterful skill in smoothly transitioning perspectives between each women makes it easier for readers to catch up on each character with no worry for confusion whatsoever. This is proof that this what makes the story succeed in telling a story about multi generational family.

Though there are a lot of characters in this story the book can easily be broken down to two halfs. The first half focused more on the second generation of Duong women : Mai, Minh, Khuyen, and Kim. The relationship between the sisters and their mother is the central focus of the plot. How the first and second generation found closure to reconcile after years of estrangement. The road to healing isn’t at all peaceful and calm. It takes a lot fights, stubborn arguments, and the slow painful release of pent up anger to get the Duong sisters to reconcile their decades long rivalry.

The second half of the story focuses more on the daughters : Priscilla, Thuy, Thao, Joyce, Elaine, Christine, Lily, and Rosie. The third generation of Duongs either yeeted themselves out of their mother’s grasps to a different state or country or stayed within their area code but is stuck unable to progress further. They are slowly pulled by an invisible magnet that once cursed the Duong women now bring them together.

“In true love there is no pride. Thích Nhất Hạnh”

Huynh weaves themes about family, love, and what it means being an Asian woman through the eyes of three generations of Vietnamese women living far away from their home country maneuvering through the ups and downs of life to survive. The resilience of these Viet women through their sacrifices, stubborn will, and unwavering love for their daughters can relate deeply for readers who are Asian decent as this story hits close to home.

Not to mention the multi-generational eldest daughter struggles depicted in these characters with all their emotional burden and expectations written emotionally hard hitting in these pages. Even though I am a middle child, I am the only daughter in my family, so I still know what it feels like to wear multiple hats to keep the family together.

This book also explores the views of Asian through the white male gaze as they fetishize Asian women for the colour of their skin, their origin, and their heritage. How Asian women are boiled down to mere traits, stereotypes, and a location pin that hides a sinisterly toxic skewed views of male masculinity. Huynh definitely did not hold back in showing how disgusting the views of men with yellow fever is.

Out of all the themes Huynh highlighted the theme that defined the whole soul of The Fortunes of Jaded Women is the mother-daughter relationships between the characters. The relationship depicted by Huynh is deeply personal and relatable. Each mother in this book represents a certain worry that comes with motherhood and the complicated relationship that reflects real life experiences only a mother-daughter would know. For me personally I see me and my mother in these women. Their struggle, fights, and love for each other mirrors mine deeply.

The family was together again, after several decades apart, and she was grateful to be alive to see everyone’s faces one last time. The women weren’t perfect, but no Vietnamese woman was.

It is very hard to put down The Fortunes of Jaded women once I started reading. The development of the characters and overall plot go hand in hand. I want to highlight a certain scene (without spoilers) that is the peak of drama and plot of the story. That chapter deserves legendary status. When I thought things were already bad it got even worse and worse which made it even more fun to read. I flew through that chapter screaming and cackling like a hyena.

The magical realism aspect is something that is familiar—the psychic—as it is something that I have witnessed among the older generation from friends and family in my lifetime. It gives the story that spark to draw me in and immerse myself because it is hard to predict what will happen when supernatural powers are at work behind the scene.


This time, this generation, it would be different.

Final thoughts, The Fortunes of Jaded Women is a brilliant love letter for Asian women and Asian families in general. It is a story that keeps on giving from the intriguing plot to the colourful and fleshed out characters (that are mostly women). For the longest time I have dreamed about a book that is like The Fortunes of Jaded Women and I am so thankful to Carolyn Huynh for writing this story. Seeing a representation of me, my mother, my heritage, and other Asian women alike in this book is just out of this world.

I highly recommend The Fortunes of Jaded Women for any reader, whether you like literary fiction or contemporary or fantasy, especially if you are from Asia or of Asian decent. From the plethora of characters I am sure that any reader will find themselves in the characters. If you’re looking for an exciting, dramatic, and emotional book about a multi generational family set in modern settings that focus on themes such as familial love, womanhood, motherhood, and being an Asian immigrant in America The Fortunes of Jaded Women is for you.

The quotes in this review were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

As an eldest daughter in an Asian household, this was surprisingly relatable. I salute the Duong women Full review to come!