Really enjoyed this account of a young girl from the Dominican who marries a much older man and moves to New York. The inside view into immigrant communities and the struggles within them that mean they often cannot even trust each other was very interesting. The fact that this story is loosely based on the author's mother's story, and must reflect so many real life stories, brings the story home. Ana's voice throughout is engaging and emotive.

Dominicana is a moving and utterly engrossing book which I genuinely struggled to put down between sittings. From the first few pages I was so invested in the story and just wanted to find out what would happen to Ana and her family. Now I will say, some of the subject matter is definitely difficult and dark at times, largely due to the fact that Ana is 15 and is forced into marrying Juan, who is 32 and sexual assault and rape does occur within the book, as well as physical violence. I would advise readers who may be triggered by this kind of subject matter to steer clear unless you feel mentally and emotionally prepared, please stay safe guys!

While there is a lot of content in the book which is uncomfortable to read, in terms of the relationship between Ana and Juan specifically - it is also an intense and stirring portrayal of the immigrant experience and I feel like Angie Cruz really manages to capture the isolation and sense of detachment so many individuals experience being in a country where they may not know many people, may not have a grasp on the language and face discrimination simply because they are seeking better opportunities. I've read reviews of this book which are saying this novel offers nothing new or unique, but I have to say I don't think the fact that we've read immigrant stories before should discount the importance of this book or the specific story it tells. Cruz mentions in the authors note that the book was inspired by her mothers experiences and is a love letter to her and other Dominican women, which added even more meaning to the book for me. I can't speak to the rep within this book as I'm not an own voices reviewer for this story but I did learn somethings about the DR.

As well as the portrayal of the immigrant experience, Cruz also delves into the mind of Ana as she makes this move and adjusts to life in New York and comes into her self as a young woman. It's like a coming of age novel in many ways with a lot of gravity. Part of her growth as a character and finding herself happens when Juan goes back to the Dominican Republic and she is able to enjoy more freedoms such as going to classes to learn English, making money on the side selling traditional Dominican dishes as well as navigating her deepening and doomed relationship with her brother in law César. With César she can be herself and she finds herself falling in love for the first time, and it's uncomfortable and heartbreaking because they know it can't possibly work for so many reasons.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book and I think it will probably be a mixed experience for many readers, but I would recommend it if you're into historical fiction which explores important themes and issues, has diverse rep and has compelling characters and a coming of age tale.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It's mostly to do with the writing style. I just couldn't get behind it. The story itself was really good. It really makes you think about immigrants and how they leave their families and friends and homes and everything they know and move to a
new country where everything is new and unfamiliar right down to the language spoken. It makes you empathise with immigrants who are only move to get a chance at a better life.

During lockdown I have been able to catch up on a lot of reading. This was the next book on my list. I received an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I found it to be quite enjoyable and at times emotive book to read. Would recommend.

A really gorgeously written and moving novel; it feels particularly timely. Would definitely recommend.

I received an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, John Murray Press, and the author Angie Cruz.
I really enjoyed this book. An emotional and moving coming-of-age novel, inspired by the author's mother and her experience as a Dominican immigrant in New York in the mid 60s.

Really enjoyed this and gained insight into a time in history and place in history I knew little about.

Ana is just 15 when her Dominican Republic childhood is ripped away from her as she is forced into marriage with a much older man as a means to her family getting to move to the USA. Travelling to New York with her new husband and his brothers, she speaks no English and is left alone all day to cook and clean and wait for her abusive husband to return. A coming of age story, The ties to family and the loyalty, and a history lesson for me all rolled into one. A deserved shortlisted book for this years Women’s Prize for Fiction.

This is an interesting and captivating novel about 15 year old Ana as she leaves the Dominican countryside for a life in New York with her new Husband who is more than twice her age. Told through Ana's eyes we get to understand her fears, desires and her every day life as she embarks on this momentous journey.

I have read some reviews stating that it's all from Ana's perspective and the other characters feel a little flat in comparison. Whilst I can see that, I also feel that this point captures the essence of a scared 15 year old really well. What 15 year old who is suddenly taken from everything she knows and sent to American to follow the wishes of her family would be thinking about things from others perspectives? As far as I am concerned that was part of the writing style and makes Ana seem more young and innocent, and in turn makes her character much more realistic. It also helped me to feel empathetic towards her and the situations she finds herself in.

All in all I found it a great read and an interesting depiction of an overwhelmed 15 year old as she tries to understand a life that is thrust upon her.

This book has been quietly hyped, perhaps due to it being shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. I can see why. Angie Cruz captures the life of Ana, a young teenager from the Dominican Republic, who is coerced into marrying Juan, a man much older than her, and starting a new life in New York.

It is the early 1960s. Life in the DR is tough; there is poverty; families are big. Daughters are encouraged to marry and take opportunities they can in order to better themselves. Ana doesn’t want to leave her family, her siblings - she’s only 15 - but she has little choice. And when she arrives in New York, things are far from her idealised view of the American Dream.

Ana is forced to keep ‘house’ while Juan heads off, having an affair with Caridad, something that becomes known to Ana quite quickly. Juan, essentially, is violent; he abuses Ana in some many ways, while she provides for him, cooks and cleans. He warns her about the dangers of the city, trying to imprison her in their small apartment. Meanwhile, life in the DR is unsettled; war breaks out; and Juan returns to sort out some business.

In Juan’s absence, Ana becomes close to one of his brothers, Cesar, who is more human, more loving. Despite Ana being pregnant, her loyalty to Juan wanes and her feelings towards Cesar develop. He helps her to establish more of an independent life for herself, providing traditional food for factory workers, making her own way in the city. When Juan returns, Cesar’s promise to move Ana to Boston becomes further from reality.

This novel creates a world that encapsulates the intensity of being an immigrant at a turbulent time. Its prime focus is on Ana’s life, and how she tries to provide for her family back home, whilst doing what Juan wants. Even though it is set over 50 years ago, one can’t help but think that for immigrants today, their lives might be similar: dealing with the unfamiliar, navigating their way through so many obstacles that many of us take for granted.

This novel would be a deserving prize winner, for showing how life for immigrant women at the time would have been particularly challenging, if nothing else.

Congratulations to the author on being shortlisted for the Women’s Prize! This was a very interesting look at relationships, one of my favourite things in fiction.

On New Year’s Day 1965, 15-year-old Ana is forced to marry Juan Ruiz, a man twice her age who will take her away from her humble home in the Dominican Republic to an apartment in New York City. Her parents have assured her that it is the best thing for the family and that she will create a better life in the States which they will all eventually be able to join. But with political turmoil bubbling away in her homeland and feelings simmering for a man who isn’t her husband, Ana realises that perhaps her life won’t quite be the simple comfortable one she has been promised. Full of forbidden doomed romances, Dominicana is a beautifully written novel about a culture and time period that I’ve never read before. I learnt so much about the struggles and emotional pain that girls like Ana suffer. Forced marriages aren’t something that have been left in the 1960s, so although the book is set over 50 years ago, it actually reads as somewhat contemporary. It’s not hard to see why it was recently shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Ana is fifteen years old when Juan one of the Ruiz brothers who has pursued her for years, marries her and her life in New York begins,
This is the story of Dominican immigrants trying to make their way in America, set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement.
Ana endures domestic violence but her spirit is not broken, and she finds the strength to endure and even find happiness.
This is such a compelling novel - heartbreaking and inspiring and so very sad.
It really brings to life how Dominicans searching for a better life fared and the prejudice in 1960s America.
I’d really recommend it - Cruz is a great writer and you’ll feel utterly involved in the stories and fate of the resourceful Ana.

Dominicana by Angie Cruz is the story of Ana, her marriage to Juan, and their subsequent move to New York. She’s 15 and he is 32 and it was a match arranged by her family. The books weaves together themes of looking for a better life, the pull of a homeland, and making a family.

There are tough story points, making uncomfortable reading, including some characters suffering domestic abuse, bullying, hardship, and a super intense part with some missing money that will have you holding your breath. There is also joy, family, and mouthwatering food descriptions of things that Ana has an amazing talent for making.

It’s set during the mid 1960's, with race riots and a crime wave in New York, civil unrest and turbulence in Ana’s home country. It’s fascinating to see how her neighbourhood was so divided with the Dominican and African American communities sharing space but still so disparate - even the assassination of Malcolm X within sight of Ana’s building has little impact for her.

This won’t be for everyone. The writing style is straightforward and uncomplicated, but the characters are amazing. All are flawed and have positive and negative traits - Ana is not the virtuous hero and Juan has some redeeming moments. I couldn’t put it down, and will remember some of the characters for a long time to come.

It’s dramatic, desperately sad in places and ultimately deeply affecting.

I absolutely loved Dominicana, and here are some reasons why:

The writing is just beautiful. It was simultaneously simple and poetic. I also loved the interplay between Ana's memories of her life in the Dominican Republic and her present in New York.

Also, the descriptions of the food Ana prepared reminded me a bit of Like Water for Chocolate, and made me want to be in her kitchen to learn how to cook from her, and also try all her food.

I thought it was a wonderful example of an American immigrant stories. It was so similar to other stories of immigrants in America, and also had it's own unique flavor.

I loved seeing Ana come into herself and take control of her life. In a lot of ways she is a child, and it is difficult sometimes to read about what happens to her and the responsibility she is forced to take onto her young shoulders, but it is also so lovely and hopeful to see her get stronger while still holding onto her optimism and joy for life.

In a nutshell, great story and great writing.

liked it overall, loved Ana as she goes through a crucible and emerges better. The structure worries me a little as so many stereotypes were in here (15yr bride with no English, violent womanizing men, anchor babies etcetc) that it'd be easy to read this as conservative confirmation. Could have used more time in the Dominican republic to give more context.

A young woman's trials of making her way in life when she is taken from everything she knew. A new land a new language. A real thought provoking book showing the hardships of a young female immigrant who marries early and then has to learn to be a wife and more. A true contender for the women's prize.

A moving, intimate portrait of one woman's arrival in New York, straight from the Dominican Republic in the 1960s. Ana (aged 15), arrives on the arm of her, much older, new husband and has to navigate the new city, the new life and a new way of being. Her husband has a tight hold of her, quite literally at times - and when he has to return to DR for several weeks Ana suddenly experiences a freedom to try and explore the New York she thought she'd never find under the eye of her husband.

Told in an almost stream of consciousness style Ana's story is beautifully told.

As a Dominican, reading stories about Dominicans and the island gives me such a smile on my face. I am biased because from the beginning I had a feeling I was going to love this book. That said, this was not an easy read, it was a good read, amazing but as it deals with many issues, there were times I had to walk away to spare my emotions. It wasn't hard at all to root and love Ana, but also follow her journey and understand the hardships. I wasn't that happy with the ending as I expected something else. But I still feel this was an amazingly enthralling book.

This is an engrossing story about a fifteen year old girl from Dominican Republic who was forced to marry a man and move to New York. The girl was taught by her mum how to keep a husband to make sure the flat was always tidy, food was on the table and his needs always came first. I couldn’t put this book down and I was a bit disappointed that the ending wasn’t what I was expecting

"How in the world does anyone say good-bye to everyone they love, to everything they know?

This book tells the story of Ana, a 15 year old girl from the Dominican Republic, who is unwillingly betrothed to a man twice her age at the hands of her parents and is to start a new life in the big apple, NYC. She arrives in a city whose language she doesn't speak to find that her only companion is her new husband, who is not fond of her speaking to anyone besides him it seems.
The story watches Ana leave leave everything she's ever known behind her and move to New York to forge a new life with a man she doesn't love, all the while keeping in mind her family who she is doing this for so that they can have a better life.

I loved this book quite simply. The simple but effective storytelling made it hard not to fall in love with Ana + root for her from the very beginning. Watching her grow from a meek, timid child to a mother who has gained more confidence in herself is brilliant. The story covers everything from family, friends, love, lust, trust + sacrifice to re-locating and political unrest - lots to get your mind around but at no point did it ever feel too much.

I learned loads and found it a fascinating read. Cruz is a brilliant writer who made not only all of her characters full of life but also brought to life New York in the 1960s.

A huge thanks to #netgalley, #angiecruz and #johnmurraypress for the free copy to review.