I received an e-galley of The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh from Simon and Schuster Canada in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good multi-generational family story and in The Fortunes of Jaded Women is a story about generations of cursed women in the Duong family. Marriages don't end well, they bear only girls and no songs, and the relationships between mothers and daughters are strained and full of tension. This story is told through multiple perspectives of these Vietnamese women as they work through family drama, love and relationships. Guiding them through this year is a fortune foretelling that the family is going to go through one death, one marriage, and one birth. As the year progresses, the lives of these women and the unbinding of the curse's hold on them will take place.

I really enjoyed reading this story and seeing the hilarious yet touching interactions between these women. The women in this family are complicated - beautiful, messy, chaotic, lonely, loveable, and strong. Each of these women start off in this novel separate and apart from one another as their stories progress, they begin to reconnect and intertwine. It all accumulates in a big reunion that is filled with more than a few surprises that are bound to make you laugh and gasp and feel all the feelings. If you are looking for a story about Vietnamese women, hilarious and heartwarming family dynamics, curses, fortune telling, man problems and boy drama, the Vietnamese diaspora and generational stories of trauma and healing - The Fortunes of Jaded Women does all this and more.

I didn’t know what to expect but i like books with several generations, it was about women, and women were Vietnamese, so i was sold.

It made me sad, it made me laugh, it made me think, it has a little bit of everything, and that’s probably the beauty of it.
On the lighter side of generational sagas and - do i hope it’ll be a movie one day! :)))))

(ARC provided by NetGalley and Atria Books in exchange for an honest review)

While I am not Vietnamese, I am Thai; so I felt a lot of similarities about the mother-daughter and sister dynamics that were portrayed in this novel. This book tackles many issues in a light-hearted and comical way! I highly recommend this to anyone, hut especially for anyone who has an Asian mother!

3.5 stars An entertaining multi-narrative debut novel about a family of Vietnamese-American women living in Orange County, California's Little Saigon and the curse that was placed on one of their ancestors that she and her descendants would never find love or happiness and would only give birth to daughters. Mai Nguyen has been estranged from her sisters and her mother for a decade when her trusted psychic's prediction that the family will experience a birth, a wedding and a funeral in the coming year reunites the various mothers, daughters, aunts and cousins. The Fortunes of Jaded Women is a mostly lighthearted story about mother/daughter relationships and healing from the past in the context of the Vietnamese immigrant community in Southern California. There are a lot of characters to keep track of and the plot becomes a bit slapstick toward the end but overall an enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I liked this book but didn't love it. With so many characters I felt like they weren't as fleshed out as I'd like (some seemed rather cliche). That said, it was fun and it could make a good movie.

Really really enjoyed this book! The inter-generational drama was compelling and the characters were endearing and I loved how it all came together in the end. The dysfunctional family dynamics although seem crazy and over the top are incredibly relatable and handled by the author with incredible depth and understanding. Great read that is super unique to anything I’ve read before and highly recommend!

Joy Luck Club meets a 21st century multigenerational Vietnamese family.
I love the premise of this book. Multiple POVs, multiple generations of a cursed family of only Vietnamese women. The pride and joy of Vietnamese families is only as successful as the boys and men they breed and raise. The Duong family had a cursed placed on them 4 generations ago that meant they would never have male offspring.

Not only is this a novel about Vietnamese culture, it is a feminist novel, and a near satire on the shameful female children in the family. The Duong sisters could have (and do have) some of the most successful children on paper - CEOs, dermatologists, millionnaires - but the children have on fault - they are still women. The Duong sisters are strong women themselves, leaving bad marriages and making their own fortunes in America, against all odds. But they still experience huge rifts between each other and their daughters. It must be the curse. Mai discovers that this will be the year of change for their family. There will be a wedding, a death, and a birth.

There is nothing I love more in a book than when it lays out a groundwork for you of what you can expect. I loved following Mai’s children and truly could’ve read a whole book about each of them. Their stories were very unique and varied and I was sucked in. I do feel like there were too many POVs to care about all the characters, and some others were less intriguing or relevant. It was a very well rounded story in the end, and all the crossover and surprising twists really tied the book together well. Thuy’s ending specifically was so satisfying and surprising I was in tears.

The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh is a terrific read. The influence of a matriarch on a family dynamic is significant and sibling rivalry is a universal theme. The characters are engaging and dynamic and relatable. The cultural history adds beautiful splashes of colour to the stories. This is a really enjoyable read from a skilled author.

3.5
This was a perfect hot day, reading binge for me. A seemingly hopeless situations for many women in the Duong family provided for an excellent read, because which way is there to go but up? The witty and sharp dialogue, embedded in the fantastic Vietnamese culture were huge highlights. Thank you for a great read!

I received this ARC of 'The Fortunes of Jaded Women' by Caroyln Huynh from NetGalley, The review is my own personal thoughts an opinions.

This book follows a family of 3 generations of Vietnamese women who were cursed to give birth to daughters only. This book was funny, sad, full of grief and happiness. I honestly enjoyed learning more about each character as the story progressed, and was very intrigued to see how the story would end! I enjoyed getting a small look into Vietnamese culture, as well as the ups and downs of relationships between mothers and daughters.

I always say, a book that has a family tree and the beginning is going to be a good one - and this was no exception! I definitely recommend giving this book a read when it is published on September 6th, 2022.

A super fun, humourous novel about a gang of badass and difficult women. A family fiction saga, connecting generations of Vietnamese women. They fight, they scream and they nitpick career, family and marriage choices.
They believe that their family has suffered a curse, and can only bear female children. And being a Vietnamese female is not easy.
There are a lot of characters and sometimes I had a bit of a hard time keeping track of everyone, but that would be my only compliant.
I loved learning more about the Vietnamese culture, and the strong women.
I think it was supposed to be funny and a bit of a satire, and I read it like that.
It made me laugh and was often biting.
Overall, a fun read!