I had hoped for more of the historical time line, and also less of the current day timeline, which was a little too focused on romance and the anxieties of the daughter/central character in the story. It ws well plotted, but I felt more time could have been spent on the history of Korean women/people during WWII.

<b>4.5 stars</b>
Angelina Lee, an Korean-American is trying to come in terms with her mother, Gongju 's suicide. She is one of the four daughters of Gongju, where she sets out to find answers to her mother's actions and buried family secrets, all the while tangled with her divorce and heart breaks. Jumping between Angelina's timeline and her aunt Sunyuh's, we see the women grappling with abuse, social/cultural pressure in modern and WWII era, side by side.

It was a great story of family, love, loss, grief, healing and strong women. It gives a strong message on moving on and self acceptance. No matter what we do, the path is ridden with mistakes and regret and never let these you from doing what you want to do next.

I thank Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
<b>Happy Reading!!</b>

Set primarily in beautiful, exotic Korea, this family drama is at once captivating, educational and inspiring. The heroine is struggling with everything in her tumultuous life as she studies in Korea and tries to locate her mother’s family. The alternating POV story is of her aunt who sadly was kidnapped and lived her teenage years as a prisoner. As they each grow through their tragedies, their separate stories of love, life and redemption are an inspiration to thrive after unimaginable hardships.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the opportunity to read this ARC.

A recent divorcee travels to Korea to learn the language and search for traces of her long-lost aunt who disappeared during the Japanese occupation.

Wow. This is a beautifully written story about moving on from trauma. (That said, if you have unresolved trauma you aren't ready to face, it's probably in here.)

Although it has three points of view, the main storyline follows Angelina, a 40-year-old Korean American who recently went through a messy divorce and has come to Seoul to improve her Korean, reconnect with her maternal relatives, and (though she doesn't immediately recognize it) reconnect with herself. The other two points of view are of her late mother and her mother's sister, who has been missing since she was 16.

I really can't say much more about the plot without unforgivable spoilers because everything connects back around and ... You'll find out. And you'll be awash in beautiful writing while you do.

I read an advance copy via NetGalley for no consideration other than an honest review.

Stone angel seems to be the extended metaphor for three generations of Korean women who shadow their emotions in stoicism, rarely sharing how they truly feel. Angelina, the youngest, in an attempt to understand her mother’s behavior spends time in her native land, learning the Korean language and reacquainting herself with the culture. Her mother Gongju who criticized harshly is unhappily married, having not produced a son, and rarely shows affection. Her own mother is steeped in grief and shame, hiding behind a cold facade. While in Korea, Angelina discovers through a journalist, Keisuke, whose Korean mother never was accepted in Japan, the possibility of finding her mothers sister, gone missing during the War. Sunyuh, the aunt, had been kidnapped by the Japanese soldiers and made a sex slave, “comfort woman,” She was brutally used and abused for the duration and witnessed the murder of her friends. Once freed, she could not go home; instead, she started over in a strange community unwilling to let her grieve. Sunyuh teaches her new-found niece that she need not stay in an unhappy life. She shows her what real love is and how family influences our choices. Helena Rho’s novel reveals the suffering of the Korean people during World War II. It delves into their stoicism; it celebrates friends who listen and support; it emphasizes the need to attend to one’s joy and release the stone angel.

Five stars based on exquisite writing and devotion to the historical necessity of preserving the story of “comfort women”.

Before and during WWII, the Japanese forced thousands of young girls and women into sexual slavery to serve the “needs” of their armies. This novel, based on fact, explores the atrocities forced on these women and the irreparable harm done to them and their families. A fictional niece that serves as the main character in the present day supplies some of the book’s tension and romantic conflict.

The book was well written, characters were superbly developed, and this was definitely a story that needed to be told. My only criticism is the current day love story tended to overshadow the much more important historical one.


Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing/The Hatchet Group for the ARC to read and review.

Angelina Lee, 40, a newly-divorced Korean-American, feels "...completely unmoored by the sudden and tragic death of her mother, she hopes studying Korean will reconnect her to her roots, but nothing about Seoul feels familiar. Further complicating matters is the resurgence of an alluring man from Angelina’s past, and fellow classmate Keisuke Ono, an irritatingly good looking Japanese American journalist who refuses to leave her alone. What she’ll barely admit, however, is the true reason behind her trip. She’s convinced the key to understanding her mother’s suicide lies in Korea." She finds out that her mother's older sister, Sunyuh, with whom she was extremely close "...disappeared under the Japanese occupation of Korea during WWII—a secret the family buried for over sixty years.' Angelina is convinced that the secret to her mother's death is linked to Sunyuh--so she travels to Seoul to find out.

Of family [3 generations], love, mothers and daughters, disconnect, the horrors of the Japanese occupation/comfort women--to frame a few issues. Angelina's time in Seoul is complicated by Lars [a man from her past] and Keisuke [fellow student and journalist].

A dual timeline--past [1945] and present [2005]--primarily, but not exclusively.

Description:
"Angelina looked down at the top of her mother's scalp, gray roots defying a forest of brown"

"Disconnect" mush: "She left herself melt into him."
Sometimes melodramatic.

No spoiler but I thought the breadcrumbs were obvious for resolution. And I do not like a neat and tidy ending--which I thought it was on two fronts.

Somewhat pedestrian.

Engaged at first, but slowly lost interest/momentum.

3.5, not rounding up.

Be sure to read the Author's Note.

Stone Angels is saga of finding one’s roots, while trying to understand her mother’s last actions for Angelina Lee. By Helena Rho this is the voice of three women of Lee’s family. Part history lesson not only for Angelina, a Korean American woman, but also for the reader. It is not difficult to follow the back and forward with the women, showing how the past can affect the present. It is a gripping read if heartbreaking to read at times. A story that needed to be told and is done so with grace and quiet boldness.

Stone Angels by Helena Rho is an important read that brings up a dark time in history of "comfort women" in Japan that were young girls taken from Korea. That is a small part of this story but an important one. The families that were broken apart have an effect for generations and this is what we see in this book. Angelina's story is so important as she travels to her mom's country to learn Korean after her mom. has passed. While there she uncovers more about the family's history. There were parts of Angelina's story that I didn't love, but I understand why the author included it to show the human side of the next generations. This book has so much to discuss and would make a great bookclub pick., my book club was able to get a copy from The Book Club cookbook Galley Match program and our discussion was fantastic, with varying views and we all picked up different important parts of the book as important. Look for this book out in March 2025.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Helena Rho for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Stone Angels coming out March 4, 2025. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I really love Korean stories. I’ve learned a lot about Korea’s history. So I was intrigued by the summary of this book. It was good. I think it was well-written. I think I was just expecting a little something different. I usually enjoy journey books, but there were some things I didn’t enjoy about this book. The affairs weren’t my favorite. I would check out other books by this author.

Stone Angels is a page turner driven by a quest to understand multicultural identity and the inherited trauma of exile. The stories of multiple characters are tightly woven together in an international drama. Dynamic characters in complex relationships, interesting historical context and crisp description of place will draw you into the story. You will be intrigued, heartbroken, and long for more. I fully recommend Rho's masterful novel!

A love letter to women; an ode to motherhood. ‘Stone Angels’ tells the story, from multiple points of view, of three generations of women in a Korean family. It is an ambitious novel that explores loneliness and grief, love and loss, intergenerational trauma, cultural identity, and redemption.

By far the most compelling story is that of Sunyuh, kidnapped and forced to become a ‘comfort woman’ by the Japanese during WWII. Her story is an important and horrific part of history that needs to be heard and remembered, and for that alone, I am thankful for this book. Her story is the emotional backbone of the story as her experience ripples out with devastating impact on her mother, her sister Gongju, and then down to her niece Angelina.

Most of the story revolves around Angelina, and while her narrative is the least-compelling, it resonates with authenticity as she explores her cultural heritage and personal history, faces her perceived failings, and ultimately finds what she has been seeking. And with her we become immersed in Korean culture, with beautiful depictions of its land, its rich history, and its people [I particularly loved learning more about the haenyo, the female free divers on Jeju Island].

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This is an important story and I thank Helena Rho for writing it. I am very glad to have read it. (Pub Date for this novel is March 4, 2025)

This novel follows three generations of women in a Korean family, with the most compelling story being that of Sunyuh, a "comfort woman" abducted by the Japanese during WWII. Her harrowing experience is the emotional core of the book. However, the focus shifts to her niece, Angelina, whose love life detracts from the more poignant themes of the story. While the descriptions of Korea are beautiful, the pacing felt uneven. Overall, it’s a thought-provoking novel about trauma across generations, but I wished it had stayed more focused on Sunyuh’s story.

I love a story of a family that spans time and historical events. That's the historian in me, so I was excited to read this story of a Korean/Korean American family. Unfortunately for me, I really did not connect with the primary MC, Angelina, a 40 year old recent divorcee. She travels to her mother's home, Korea, after her mother's death, to take a Korean language course, but also to reconnect with her mother's family. When she arrives at her grandmother's house, she learns from a cousin about a family secret, that her mother had a sister she never mentioned, an aunt that Angelina is named for, Sunyuh.

The rest of my review contains spoilers, and can be found at Goodreads (with spoilers hidden).

"Stone Angels" is narrated from multiple perspectives, including a woman in the mid-2000s and her mother and aunt from earlier times. The mother and aunt's storylines are complex and resonate with the human experience. The modern storyline follows the young woman's search for her family and belongings. However, her repeated focus on her sense of unworthiness and trauma was frustrating, although it effectively highlighted the theme of intergenerational trauma. Overall, the young woman's storyline was also enjoyable.

I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley. I've read another book recently about Comfort Women which is not the main focus of this book, but does spend a bit of time on them. It's good to see more attention being brought to this horrible time when armies stole young girls to use and abuse them. I was not a fan of Angelina, the main character in this book. She is useful to see how generations of Korean women react to each generation before, but she seems pretty lost and pliable most of the time as she keeps quickly getting involved with men and new projects while not really thinking about what she wants or doing what's best for her children.

The best form of literature comes from the existential conflict of a character at war with herself, and in Stone Angels we get war in sweeping charges and retreats with Angelina. We also work through an immersion in another culture, led by the character herself; Korea comes to us as confusingly as it comes to our protagonist, an American-Korean who seeks to find her Korean family and to understand what cultural forces shaped her mother and hence herself.

Stone Angels holds a family secret finally big enough to anchor a big book – the sex slaves taken and abused by the Japanese and unacknowledged both by their tormentors and by their own country. This isn't backdrop or political frippery—it's laid out for us through direct, horrific experience.

There are chapters of anguish and chapters where we take wing. There is dark lyricism (as in February 1945) and there is resolution (as in Gongju's salvation as she loses her unrequited love). There is nearly a Buddhist guidebook on how to recover a crumbled adult life from failure. The author takes huge risks in what is a novel of interiority, with complex structure and double timelines, and wins through. Stone Angels is a redemption story, and we all love redemption.

This is an important book you won't truck off to the book sale. Keep it and revisit it like calling up an old friend.

After her mother commits suicide in 2006, Angelina Lee uses the opportunity of a summer course in Korea as part of her doctoral program studies. She left Seoul thirty-five years before as a child when her parents emigrated to the US. She returns in search of answers about the crippling sadness that led her mother to end her life. It’s also an opportunity for her to examine her own life’s trajectory after divorce. Her excavation of the family’s past bring light to history dating from the World War II era Japanese occupation of Korea. Her mother’s sister was kidnapped and forced to become one of the “comfort” women brutalized by Japanese troops. The entire family suffered in unimaginable, long-lasting ways. Readers will cheer for Angelina’s courage as she persists in her dual missions, join her in sorrow for her scarred family, and admire her as she opens herself to a life that permits joy

Author Helena Rho weaves past and present into a compelling whole, telling a multi-layered tale of generational effects of trauma. In this skillfully wrought novel, she employs powerful scenes, lyrical descriptions of settings, and flawless plotting to create a compelling experience for her readers. I heartily recommend Stone Angels.

3.5 Stars

I enjoyed the historical part of this book a great deal, but the dynamics between the men and women, husbands and wives, not so much. The stories of the kidnapping of Korean women and what they went through at the hands of the Japanese was horrific, inhumane, and cruel.