Debbie D. (debbiemd) reviewed on 9/20/2017

Very bleak throughout . . . until the last two chapters. And then I cried because there was hope for both Carla and Alice. Written in alternating chapters of Carla and Alice's story. Alice - an early 40s woman who owns a barbecue restaurant in Austin with her husband but is infertile. They desperately want a baby and otherwise they seem to have it all - successful business, deep love for each other. But they are unhappy and lost. Carla - from Honduras, her mother left for America when she was 5, her grandmother died when she was 12. She tells the story of how she escaped to America to find her mother. This is difficult reading - extreme poverty, drugs and crime, rape. At the end of the book she finally makes it. You could see in the book how Alice would end up happy but I kept reading thinking there was no hope for Carla even after she made it to America. Then the last chapter when I saw her way out I cried because there was a ray of hope at the end of the tunnel.

This is also the story of relationships between mothers and daughters. Alice's mom died when she was a teenager and she misses her, Her sister is a mom of 3 boys but has a miscarriage, Alice wants to be a mom, Carla misses her mom, Alice is a mentor to a girl from a rough part of town whose mom kicks her out but then lovingly takes her back in. Throughout the book there are mother/daughter relationships and near the end Carla says a few lines about those relationships which were very meaningful and about the tender love, time, and opportunity that should exist between a mother and daughter.

4 stars instead of 5 only because it meandered a bit in the middle and was so bleak in parts.

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