This book is another slice of life kind of book. There is no clear plot really. You follow Dominicana Ana, who courted by Juan since the age of 11, marries him at 15 as per her fierce mother's wishes, so she can be taken to New York and live a better life, far from rural Dominican Republic.

You discover New York in the 1960s through Ana's eyes, the cold, the noise, her new life with this man twice her age, the life and people she left behind and misses.

Both funny and tragic at times, the story gives a great feel for what the emigration experience was like in the 1960s.

A beautifully written but very sad story. My heart went out to Ana acting in what she believed were the best interests of her family. Watching her grow in confidence and maturity was a pleasure to read. Her husbands attitude and treatment of her not so. At times it was hard to believe she was really just a child.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

This was an interesting and enjoyable exploration of the immigrant experience in 1960s New York. Not a lot really happened, which is where it fell short for me. Sometimes this technique works in a book, but here I was just left churning through, waiting for the plot to develop or some action to happen. It also felt over-stylised in places. However, I really liked the characterisation of New York as a city, as well as learning about a period of history I don’t know much about, from a point of view that I don’t normally read from.

Ana has always been an extraordinarily pretty child, so when she becomes a teenager, her parents see this as a chance to escape their poor situation. At the age of fifteen, she is married to one of the Ruiz brothers, a family making a fortune in the US which allows them to control more and more land in the Dominican Republic. Ana has to follow her new husband to New York where she lives in a poor, rundown apartment and the promises of being able to go to school are soon forgotten. She has to serve Juan and his brothers and if she doesn’t obey or dares to speak up, he shows her with brutal force who has the say in their home. She becomes more and more desperate and finally develops a plan to flee, but she underestimates her new family.

Angie Cruz’s novel is set in the 1960s, but her protagonist’s fate could be as real in 2020. Young and naive girls fall prey to seducing men or are forced by their parents to leave their home country for a supposedly better life abroad where they, with the status as an illegal immigrant, hardly have a chance to escape their domestic situation which is often marked by poverty, oppression and being exposed to violence of all kinds by their domineering husbands. Dependence due to lack of language knowledge often combined with isolation makes them sooner or later give up all opposition and succumbing to the life they are forced to live.

It is easy to sympathise with Ana; at the beginning, she is a lively girl with dreams and vivid emotions even though she has also experienced her parents’ strict and at times brutal education. She is quite clever, nevertheless, the new life in New York overburdens her and she needs some time to accommodate and develop coping strategies. However, then, she becomes the independent thinker I had hoped for, but never egoistically does she only think about herself, she also reflects what any step could mean for her family at home whose situation with the political turmoil of 1965 worsens dramatically.

A wonderful novel about emancipation and a strong-willed young woman which allows a glance behind normally closed doors.

This was a really interesting read. The story is told from Anas perspective. Her feelings about life in America and her new husband kept me reading. Ana is very trusting of everybody and loves her family above everything else. She has a sense of duty towards them. Juan does treat Ana the way he should and parts of their relationship are hard to read.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Angie Cruz really captures the atmosphere immigrants [ illegal and otherwise ] experienced in New York in the 1960's. Her novel tells the story of a young Dominican girl, Ana, who finds herself married at 15 and taken off to live in New York by Juan - one of 3 brothers who are all rumoured to be doing well there. Reality is very different and Ana struggles to create herself a life in a tiny flat overlooking Broadway. But circumstances provide her with the opportunity to build self-confidence. By the end of the novel there is some light at what has been a long dark tunnel and we see a 17 year old with the courage and confidence to forge brighter future.

I recieved a free copy through Netgalley and now I'm leaving a voluntary review.

This isn't something I would normally read but from the first page it had me hooked. 

I thought it was fun and lighthearted to read. The writing makes the story run smoothly and I couldn't put it down

Fifteen year old Ana is married off to a man double her age with whom she has nothing in common. Her family see her as a stepping stone to other things, things including them joining her in America. Her husband Juan takes her to New York City to start their married life together. For a young girl from Dominica Republic it's all quite a shock to the system and Ana is confused, frightened and scared. They live on the top floor of a block of flats and as Juan is away working a lot and Ana feels homesick and lonely. One day she decides she's leaving and at the bus depot bumps into Cesar, Juan's younger brother. He persuades her to stay.

With political turmoil brewing back home Juan leaves pregnant Ana in the care of his brother. She learns to live life to the full - going to school, going shopping, starting a small business with Cesar - feeding his colleagues at the factory, having fun and going to the beach. As her feelings deepen for Cesar she has to decide not only what's best for her but also her loving family back home.

I just loved Ana! She grows from being shy and timid into someone who is strong and knows what she wants. The story is based on the author's mother's story as an immigrant and others around the same period in the 1960s. Highly recommend.

I found this a difficult book to get on with, less I think because of the themes and more because of how they were with and the insular nature of the writing style. Because everything is written from Ana’s perspective - and that is a naive one at best - you end up with a very two dimensional view of things at best. Somehow the novel didn’t quite succeed at conveying the abject isolation I think the author intended; Ana rarely leaves the flat for much of the narrative but with the way it’s written, you don’t get the sense that this is an issue.

The more obvious issue lies in how young she is when she is married off and all but shipped off to America with her husband. And in how her husband treats her - she is undeniably a victim of abuse, and not just because of how young she is when she is expected to begin her marital duties. The problem is that other than a couple of truly disturbing moments, the overall relationship aspects felt flat. He is actively violent against her and yet I just didn’t engage, not in the way I would have expected to.

In all, I found this a disappointment. It’s too closed and insular and it felt like a series of disjointed events that never really came together properly.

Thanks for NetGalley and the publishers for my review copy of this title.

An absolutely beautiful and moving story, about being taken from everything you know to begin a ‘better’ life , set in the 60s but is full of relevance for today, all the issues are relevant and sadly haven’t changed much. A powerful read about immigration, coming of age, love, family and freedom. This book taught me so much and opened my eyes, thank you so much Angie Cruz for writing this and bringing your story to the world

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I enjoyed Dominicana - it was really readable, and the storyline of a young Dominican girl moving to inner-city New York was one that really appealed to me. Sadly I didn't always get along with the writing style, and I feel like the ending was very rushed.

Ana is just fifteen years old but she's already married to a man that twice her age. Ana has no control over what happens to her. Arriving in America from the Dominican Republic, Ana can ot speak any English. She misses her siblings and her mother pressures her to send money back home.

Set in the 1960's. We get a glimpse into what it must feel like to e taken from your own country and taken to a strange foreign country where everything is different. Having an older husband you loathe would be hard enough ut when it's also been arranged by your mother for financial gain makes it worse. This story is based on the authors own others experiences. She deals with depression and her husband is often unfaithful. I was moved by this story.

I would like to thank NetGalley, John Murray Press and the author Angie Cruz for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book follows a 15-year-old Dominican girl Ana who marries a 32 year old man on behest from her family so she can move to New York from the Dominican Republic.

The story is a coming of age story and quite predictable. It was an easy read but felt unfinished. I wanted to know more of Ana, what happens next in her life. Also, other than Ana I didn’t feel any of the other character were developed enough.

Overall, though I enjoyed parts of the book, not all of it flowed well and the ending felt rushed leaving me feeling frustrated and annoyed.

I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I have seen highly rated reviews on goodreads but these people must have been reading a different book to the one I have just ploughed through. This read like a series of unconnected events. It failed to spark my imagination and I could feel nothing for any of the characters. For me kit was toneless and flat. To be fair there was some building of narrative towards the end but it was just too little, too late for me. Not an author i would seek out again.

This was an engaging read full of ups and downs. It felt like a realistic portrayal of what it is like to be an immigrant and the hopes and fears that go along with the journey.

I adored this book about the immigrant experience in America. I think it was because it was from such a different POV (Dominican, clearly!). I learnt a lot about a political situation that I hadn't really heard of before.

I loved Ana as a character, and was so frustrated with most of the others, but surely that's the sign of a great novel, when you feel like you know the characters personally?!

It's one of those books that you can't put down - I felt like I was holding my breath throughout as I was so anxious to find out what would happen to Ana.

Fabulous - 5 stars!

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. I enjoyed this story very much and felt like I knew each character personally due to the description of them. I enjoyed the storyline. This is not my usual genre but in this instance I am extremely pleased and grateful for opening up my mind to something totally different. Thanks again.

Fifteen year old Ana reluctantly leaves her village in the Dominican Republic and her whole family, to become a bride of a much older man. Juan Ruiz takes her to New York, where she is expected to be obedient, dutiful and bear them a child. Only then her parents can apply for the coveted prize - US citizenship. Only then they can bring the rest of her family, to begin a new life there.
In her mother’s pursuit of a better life in States, Ana becomes a ticket, a commodity. She is traded off, really, she doesn’t love her husband, she is terrified of the unknown, and the life she so bravely steps into is not as rosy as she was led to believe. Life of an illegal immigrant is hard – Ana is dependent on her husband in every way. Gone is her dream of school, trips around the city, freedom. Instead, she spends her days in their flat, scared to go out on her own, scared of her husband, desperately lonely. But when she tried to escape, her husband’s brother stops her. But then a chance for the freedom arrives and Ana is left on her own to discover the real America.
"Dominicana"by Angie Cruz is a beautiful and powerful novel of love, heartbreak, loneliness, affection and growing up. It is also a portrait of an immigrant women– so common, yet still so underrepresented in books, and even fewer are own voices stories. This is perhaps the part that hit me the most. Although being an immigrant myself, I often forget how privileged my position is. To leave your own country behind, to arrive to a new place without language, money, friends and family, without knowledge of the local customs, rules, or experiences - it is so much harder if you are a woman. To be reliant on a man, who can treat you like he sees it fit, who has law, custom and money on his side, who can make demands and threats – it is so much more dangerous too. All those immigration stories are important – not everyone’s story is the same, not every experience is comparable, some are happier than others, but they deserve to be seen, remembered, understood. And then, to have those stories told by someone else – it someone makes it harder to find yourself in them.

“Dominicana” is a voice of a child finding their own future and learning to adapt, to stand for herself, to start dreaming. Beautifully told, heart-breaking and somehow optimistic, this is a gem of a book.

I requested this book because I was going to Dominican Republic and wanted to know more about the people and the place. I’ve just returned and the book and the island have made me want to find out more about the history and the struggles. The book is a memoir of a relative and therefore the story has already been filtered and a little sanitised. However I enjoyed reading about Ana and how she coped being only 15 and effectively sold to her much older husband in order to be the conduit for the rest of the family to go to America. I think the balance of the grim life story was well judged with lighter moments, which were very necessary as otherwise the book would have been too depressing.

This is a wholesome story, an affectionate recreation by Angie Cruz of her mother's arrival and first years in New York as a Dominican immigrant. Ana, as she is known, comes from a poor farming family and is groomed to become the wife of Juan, to go with him to New York and to become a provider for the family. Ana would rather not go, she doesn't want to leave her friends and she is young but she is railroaded into it. In New York, Juan does not treat her well but he works hard.

So, the meat of the story is about how Ana gets used to living as an immigrant in the big American city, becoming increasingly confident and learning English. She has a difficult pregnancy, falls in love with her husband's brother and, eventually, finds her feet and the book ends with her family visiting and her relationship with Juan continuing. Although that side of her life still seems precarious the book ends on an optimistic note.

Of course it is clearly a documentary account as well as a novel but it provides what you might call a received view of being a peasant in Dominica. Life is poor and hard and then gets harder. Maybe it was like that but it is laid on quite heavily perhaps to create the justification for selling your daughter into an arranged marriage!

Juan and his brothers have the potential to be interesting characters and certainly get halfway there. They give themselves airs and graces in Dominica but are really a gang of spivs and in New York they are at the bottom of the Labour pile struggling to make money. Juan is always on the lookout for the next opportunity or the next woman. Although he treats Ana badly, there is a sense of affection there as if he would like to do better in other circumstances.

In the end though this reads like a dramatic reconstruction from a series of shared memories and old photographs and if you like that kind of thing then it is for you but there are no great depths of character and once I got the picture of peasant life in Dominica contrasted against the poor immigrant life in New York that was somehow it. I'd have liked a bit more!