I loved learning about BC and also of the Indian culture. I found this story very interesting.
Many thanks to Fernwood Publishing and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Unfortunately, I was not able to finish this book. I'm sure others may find it pleasing, but it just didn't pick up for me. Thank you for the ARC Net Galley.

DNF - This wasn't for me, though I had been hopeful that it would have been. I can envision the reader who will appreciate this story for everything that it is. Ultimately, that person just wasn't me.

I think this is a great book if you’re looking for Indian historical fiction which is one part of the story with Rubina set in the 1600s. While the other part of the story is about Ruby, an Indian Canadian woman whose mother named her after Rubina and her and her family’s life mainly in 2017. The story goes back and forth from Rubina’s story/POV to Ruby’s story/POV and sometimes her families POV as well. The historical aspect of the story connects a few times to the current timeline of Ruby’s life which was really interesting seeing it all unfold and the prevalence of Rubina and her history to Ruby and her life. I had high hopes for this book, the cover really drew me to it and then the description of the book made me really want to read it. I think it’s a really good book, just wasn’t for me. I wasn’t as into the historical aspect of the book like I was hoping, some parts were interesting like learning more about some aspects of Indian culture but I sometimes found myself bored and just uninterested in it and didn’t get at times why this part of the book was such a big part of the story…I wanted more from the “main” story and character of Ruby and found the end hopeful and sweet but a little unsatisfying and felt like she could have done more with Ruby’s story. I also found Ruby, her family and her friend all kind of I unlikeable characters for many reasons yet I still wanted to know more about them all. I didn’t really like any of them and was hoping that they would get redeemed or something by the end but they didn’t…and Ruby’s character was hard for me to read since sometimes I just wanted to shake her and tell her to wake up and do something with herself and her life and it takes her so long to do anything and I hate how the story felt unfinished for Ruby and her daughter with the whole dad situation (don’t want to put spoilers). Ruby’s husband and daughter were always so awful to her and even her best friend betrays her too. You always feel so bad for Ruby and it was nice to see her have a wake up call and start to change. This book put me in a bit of a reading slump and I almost DNF it many times. But I do like the authors writing style and know that this will be a great read for many people..

You have to spend the time reading both stories until they converge and blend into one amazing ending. It is worth the time and you will cheer (well, I did) for karma. When things get lopsided in life, karma evens everything out in the end. The portrayal of an outsider in novels such as this one demonstrates great role models for those who believe they are outsiders for whatever reason (cultural, political, geographic, gender, age, and on and on). It offers hope to the hopeless and kindness to the downtrodden.
Excellent story told by an outstanding author.

Okay, I really didn’t want to leave this review, but I decided it was better than DNF’ing. Before I start I want to say this is in NO WAY a bash against the author.

Personally, I had a hard time understanding the correlation between the timeline. Due to this being a large part of the book it was hard for me get through it and make sense of it. This was probably a ME problem, but I encourage you to read this book and form your own opinion. There was amazing political points in this book!

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC for exchange of an honesty review.