Pioneer Girl: A Novel by Bich Minh Nguyen

Book: Pioneer Girl: A Novel
 
Author: Bich Minh Nguyen
 
Narrator (if applicable): n/a

Release date (if applicable): Published

Synopsis: New Ph.D. yet jobless, Lee Lien is forced to return to her parent's home outside Chicago to work in the family restaurant. Soon after arriving home, her brother disappears leaving a gold broach that was left behind in the parent's restaurant in Vietnam by an female American journalist while she was there covering the Vietnam War. It is up to Lee to return her brother to the family, but what influence does this piece of jewelery have on a family of immigrants? Can Lee help her family to heal?
 
My rating: 4 Stars
 
My opinion: I must admit that I have mixed feelings about this book. I felt the primary storyline about Lee Lien's family's dysfunction and the disappearance of her brother to be boring and could not keep my interest no matter how hard I tried.  I found the characters and the storyline to be flat. They were written, but poorly developed. There were aspects to the story that were predictable and, as a result, easy to write.

On that note, I am a huge fan of Rose Wilder Lane and have been studying her bio lately. I found this book to be well researched. There were very specific details regarding Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane that I had not come across in my research, yet were mentioned in general. It would be interesting to know if the author took artistic liberty or if they were indeed factual. 

Had this book been about authors that weren't interesting to me, I have no doubt that this would have been a 1 or 2 star book review.
 

Source: Publisher for review

       

Would I recommend? : Not really.
 
Stand Alone or Part of a Series: Stand Alone