Thank you so much to @_Mira_Books_ & @NetGalley for giving me this eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 01 September 2020)

SYNOPSIS | Margot is concerned as her mom (Mina) isn't answering the phone. She decides to show up at her apartment where she discovers her mothers body. Margot begins the journey to understand what really happened & what her mothers life was like as an undocumented immigrant living in Koreatown, LA.

WHAT I LIKED:
- alternating chapters & timelines between Margot (present) & Mina's (past) worked really well
- as a fellow immigrant in America, I loved hearing Mina's story & struggles

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- the mystery subplot didn't really work for me
- the pacing felt extremely slow in parts
- there was almost nothing positive in Mina's life
- I wanted more page time with Mina before she moved to America

The story of immigration to the US from Korea + the struggle of being a single mom. Would recommend the perspective this book brings. Great book!

The Last Story of Min Lee is a beautifully written mother-daughter story. All about women working hard to support their families and find their way on their own. Sometimes leaving behind family to be able to provide isn't easy, and coming to the states not speaking the language can prove to be difficult, and not having friends who you can share the stressful times with makes you feel so alone. For Margot she grew up helping her mother at the store and swap meet and she resented having to help her so the work, why can't she support her without making her work as well? Min Lee and Margot weren't close but when Margot finds out her mom has died she feels like she must find out all the details. Did she die alone? Was she depressed or sad? Margot feels she doesn't know who her mom really was or what she did in her spare time, and that saddens her. As a final way to say goodbye Margot will need to ask a lot of questions and put all the pieces together of her mothers life.

Finally got to this book and struggled to finish it. Author doesn't trust the reader. Lacked strong character development.

I am sorry for not reviewing fully but I don’t have the time to read this at the moment. I believe that it wouldn't benefit you as a publisher or your book if I only skimmed it and wrote a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for not fully reviewing!

An incredible story about mother-daughter relationships, grief, mental health, and the immigrant experience. I loved this story.

This dual timeline story started off really well. Mina and Margot's story kept me interested. It was such a sad story of things left unsaid about Mina's former life before coming to the States.

I honestly tried to like this book- I thought it would be perfect for me since I love Amy Tan. The difference here is that there was absolutely no hope in this book. I made it to 38% and couldn't take it anymore. So, I didn't finish it. Since I didn't, I will not post a review on Goodreads. Thanks for the opportunity!

This mother-daughter story was so well written. Its very culturally rich and the characters are fully realized. This book has quite a lot of buzz which I think is well-deserved. I'm interested to read more from this author in the future.

Wow, I don't know if I could have read this a few months ago, but daughter Margot Lee travels from Seattle to her old home in LA with a friend and hopes to see her mother after not being able to reach her by phone. There, in their old apartment, she finds her mother, Mina Lee, alone and dead. The police don't think there is anything suspicious, but Margot, with her friend Miguel, want to find out more about MIna's life, Margot's unknown father and whether or not she died accidentally or on purpose. The story goes back and forth between Mina's new life in LA in the 80's, leaving Korea after much personal sadness. In the present, Margot struggles to find people who want to talk about her mom and hopefully lead her to more of the story about her life. It's heartbreaking in parts and a very emotional journey for Margot.

This was a story filled with suspense as it bounces between the past and present. A really promising debut by this author!

The one thing that Margot Lee has always been able to count on is her mother Mina's undivided attention. When Mina neglects to return her calls, Margot visits her childhood apartment in Koreatown, California, and is shocked as to what she finds. The discovery leads Margot to investigate her mother's past, a story that her mother kept secret.

The novel is written in a dual perspective format, with Mina's past weaved in as Margot investigates in the present. Although it does give the reader a lot of information about Margot's past, the back and forth in time fragments the story. The plot moves too slowly and the pacing did nothing to help capture my attention. Margot's characterization is minimal at best, as the focus of the book is more on Mina.

Overall, I felt that the author spent too much time detailing the past and not enough on the present. Additionally, the connection to the characters was lacking and I would not recommend The Last Story of Mina Lee, as a result.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy by NetGalley and the publisher, Park Row. The decision to review this novel was entirely my own.

This was a little out my comfort zone, but it was a Reese’s Book Club pick. I definitely enjoyed it. It’s the right amount suspenseful for me - I couldn’t stop listening to it, but it wasn’t going to keep me awake a night. I enjoyed reading about Mina’s story of her immigration and about Margot’s story of being the daughter of an immigrant.

Thanks to @NetGalley and Harlequin for my ARC!

Sadly I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I wanted to, it seemed to fall flat for me and didn’t keep my attention much throughout!

Told in interweaving stories of past and present, The Last Story of Mina Lee explores themes of immigration and family through the story of a single mother and her only living daughter. This might have been stronger as pure historical fiction; the present-day threads of the daughter unraveling her mother's history didn't quite work for me, though I enjoyed the book overall.

I received an advanced digital copy of this novel from the author, publisher and NetGalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

An amazing story of mothers and daughters. The stories we tell and the secrets we keep. An emotional and raw tale that stays with you long after you've read it.

5 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

I think this is a great book club book. It tackles family, culture, secrets, and what we know and don't know about our loved ones. For me, the mystery wasn't as important as Margot learning about her mother.

This book is a gem. It takes you on an emotional journey between a mother and daughter that struggled with their relationship. They didn't understand each other. They were angry with each other. They were opposites all the time. But when her mother doesn't pick up any calls anymore, her daughter goes on a wild search to find her and piece together what could have happened. In her journey she realizes her mother had lived an entirely different life that she has never told anyone or hid from her because it was too much to share. Unexpectedly, I ended up bawling at this one particular scene where they were fighting over religion and how important it was to her mother because of her past circumstances. It was heartbreaking, emotional, and fantastic read to any immigrant or immigrant child.

This family drama had it's moments of greatness. It is great for readers who don't like a lot of action but still need a story that will make you think and work out a conclusion.

3.5 stars

This novel offers a moving view of the immigrant experience and reflects on a mother-daughter relationship filled with secrets, regret, and love. There are two time lines . Margot in 2014 seeks to find answers about what happened to her mother, her mother’s past and in doing so she finds out about herself. Her mother, Mina is the focus of the second alternating narrative in 1987, and we discover her losses and the sad life before she arrived in the US from Seoul, after having fled North Korea. Mina’s story was heartbreaking. I found it to be a sad story in many ways for Margot, as well, as she struggled to come to terms with herself as a daughter of an immigrant. She wants so much to be American and consequently, distances herself from her mother and her heritage. At times I found the story to be repetitive. The mystery part didn’t appeal to me since I’m not a fan of mysteries and it felt a little contrived. However, this story has so much to offer. The ending of this moving story was perfect, and that’s why I upped to 4 stars.


After I finished the book, I read an interview with the author here :
https://www.writeordietribe.com/author-interviews/interview-with-nancy-jooyoun-kim. “ I myself don’t speak Korean well and my mother, who is also an immigrant and single mother like Mina, does not speak much English either. And although this book is not autobiographical, I wanted to write a story that was true to the sometimes painful complexities, forms of conflict, and unacknowledged labor within working-class immigrant families. “
So while not totally autobiographical, Kim knows about the life of a child of a Korean immigrant and shares that with the reader in many ways.


I received a copy of this from Park Row through both Netgalley and Edelweiss.