Some books are written primarily for men, some primarily for women. This is a woman's book! Told from the perspectives of a mother and daughter, the focus is on secrets and regrets and the words not spoken. Margot and Mina have difficulty understanding each other for many reasons. Margot seems to think it's been a cultural issue. Her mother is a Korean immigrant who refuses to learn English and fully participate in American culture, or so it seems to Margot. Mina is struggling, that's true, but she;s just trying to survive and doesn't understand her daughter and why Margot feels the need to be so American.

But this is not your typical cultural/generational misunderstanding, it is so much more. Much of the text is introspective -- Margot's efforts to understand why her mother died (not a spoiler -- it happens in the first chapter) and to understand why her mother failed to share so much of her life story with Margot. There are sometimes long passages that reflect Margot's thoughts. The whole story is revealed from Margot's point of view in 2014 and her mother's point of view from the early 80s to 2014. The real story is engaging and dramatic with several twists and surprises.

It seems to me that all mothers and daughters have issues -- some more than others. For women who struggle with the relationship with their mothers, or simply for women who have left things unsaid between mother & daughter, this is a gutwrenching and sometimes heartbreaking story. I found much that is relatable here. While this is an immigrant's story, the themes are universal and it's really the relationship that is the focus. I think any adult woman, no matter the state of her relationship with her mother, will find something that touches her heart.

Thank you Park Row Books for gifting me a copy of THE LAST STORY OF MINA LEE to read and review.

"Margot Lee's mother, Mina, isn't returning her calls. It's a mystery to twenty-six-year-old Margot, until she visits her childhood apartment in Koreatown, LA, and finds that her mother has suspiciously died. The discovery sends Margot digging through the past, unraveling the tenuous invisible strings that held together her single mother's life as a Korean War orphan and an undocumented immigrant, only to realize how little she truly knew about her mother.

Interwoven with Margot's present-day search is Mina's story of her first year in Los Angeles as she navigates the promises and perils of the American myth of reinvention. While she's barely earning a living by stocking shelves at a Korean grocery store, the last thing Mina ever expects is to fall in love. But that love story sets in motion a series of events that have consequences for years to come, leading up to the truth of what happened the night of her death.”

I was torn between loving this book and feeling complete sadness for the characters. I loved the alternating perspectives of Mina and Margot and the way that the timelines of the two women matched up as the reader learned more about Mina’s past and Margot’s discovery of a life she didn’t know anything about.

The chapters focusing on Mina were my favorite as I could feel such a deep connection to her as she struggled to navigate coming to America and adjusting to a world that didn’t seem as welcoming as she once had hoped. Nancy Jooyoun Kim painted a heartbreaking portrait of what life for an immigrant is like - it made me want to reach out to all of my friends who have come from immigrants to remind them that they are valued and loved deeply.

This book made me take a hard look at the sacrifices that our parents made for their children and as we so often take for granted that our parents had lives before us. They experienced grief, love and sought adventure.

I know that there was an underlying mystery presented in this story, and as much as I wanted to know what happened to Mina Lee, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about her history and getting to know her as a person.

THE LAST STORY OF MINA LEE will be published on September 1, 2020, and is available to pre-order now.

This is two-time line novel, telling the intertwined stories of Mina Lee, a Korean immigrant to the US, and her American born daughter Margot. Mina Lee dies suddenly, and Margot sets off on a quest to better understand her mother, perhaps hoping to find her father, and mostly, it seems, to untangle her own feelings about her heritage.

The Mina Lee story is much more successful than the Margot story. Mina Lee has had a difficult and complicated life, and the retelling is sympathetic largely non-judgmental. Margot’s voice, on the other hand, is preachy and prone to framing everything as a meta-issue -- immigration, feminism, racism, etc. I got bored with Margot, and stayed with the story because of her mother!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Last Story of Mina Lee is a lighter read that explores the complicated relationship between a single immigrant mother, Mina and her American born daughter Margot. The story is told in present chapters from Margot who, after returning home, finds her mother dead. Margot starts to realize there is much she doesn’t know about her mother, her past living in Korea, living in Los Angeles Koreatown and the secrets she kept from Margot. As she starts to uncovers past and present secrets she becomes suspicious Mina’s death wasn’t an accident and a mystery starts to develop. The story is also told in chapters from Mina in the past and we see a side to her that Margot doesn’t. I enjoyed seeing Mina’s life and secrets through her POV and found myself wanting to get to her chapters over Margot’s.

There is some distance between Mina and Margot and Nancy Jooyoun Kim does a good job showing us the strain of their relationship and how little Margot knows and understands her mother. It did make it harder for me to connect to their relationship and get that emotional response I wanted.

I enjoyed the mention of Korean food throughout the story, and the food scenes became an interesting part of the story for me. I could feel the connection the food had to the characters and the love and sense of belonging it gave them.

Even though the story didn’t have the emotional pull I wanted, I enjoyed the mystery to the story and liked how it all came together.

The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim is an emotional and moving tale that illustrates the realities and experiences of being an immigrant in America. This journey is told by the alternating voices of a Korean mother, during her first year in Los Angeles and by her daughter in present day.

Margot Lee cannot figure out why her mother, Mina Lee, is not returning her calls. At least until she visits her childhood apartment in Koreatown, LA and finds that her mother has died; possibly suspiciously. This event has Margot digging through her single mother’s past as a Korean War orphan and an undocumented immigrant, only to realize how little she really knew about her mother. Entwined with Margot’s search is the telling of Mina’s story of her first year in the US as she travels through the promises and perils of the American myth of reinventing oneself. Barely supporting herself, stocking shelves at a Korean grocery store, Mina unexpectedly finds love with another Korean worker. Events occurring at the store accidently puts into motion events that have consequences for years to come and leading up to the truth of what actually happened to cause her death. After years of struggling to understand each other, Margot is finally getting the opportunity to truly learn who her mother really is and possibly better understand her.

Ms. Kim wrote an emotional and powerful tale in her debut novel that should not be missed. She provided a tale exploring identity, family, secrets, and what it truly means to belong. I definitely recommend The Last Story of Mina Lee.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.

Mina is a first generation immigrant to the United States from Korea. She owns and works in her own store in a Koreatown swap meet in Los Angeles. This is The Last Story of Mina Lee.

Mina’s only child, Margot, has moved to Seattle. Margot only visits on holidays. She is embarrassed at her mother’s (and her own) foreign-ness. Margot has tried to blend in and perceives her mother as weak for not learning better English and her lack of upward ambition.

When Margot finds her mother dead on the floor of her apartment, the death is ruled accidental after a fall. However, as Margot starts to go through Mina’s things, and talks to Mina’s friends and neighbors, a different vision begins to emerge of both Mina’s recent and past life.

Even though The Last Story of Mina Lee is clearly women’s fiction, it also has a couple of compelling mysteries at its heart. In addition, it is a meditation on what it is like being an illegal immigrant in a foreign land. And how war is hell even on innocents involved solely by living in the center of it. It is most of all a heartfelt and heartwarming tale of family—both those you are born to and those you find along the way. 4 stars!

Thanks to Park Row Books, Harlequin Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

THE LAST STORY OF MINA LEE is told from dual perspectives: Margot and her mother Mina (present day/1987, respectively). Margot lives in Seattle and Mina lives in Koreatown. When Margot decides to visit her mother after many unanswered calls, she finds her dead.

This book centers around the mystery behind Mina's death and Margot's desire to know the truth behind her mother's life. It was so compelling to dig through Mina's past as we witness her (undocumented) immigrant's experiences. Being the daughter of Asian immigrants, I am certain that the hardships that Mina endured as well as the sacrifices she made were very similar to my parents' experiences. While having almost identical background to Margot, I couldn't stand her ungratefulness when dealing with her mother's wish to give her a better life. Having said that, navigating through Margot's grief was very emotional and relatable.

I thought that Kim did a great job at covering the theme of immigration, however, I wished that Mina's life before America could have been better explored. The mother-daughter relationship which Kim captures so well was something that I appreciated reading about. Moreover, I enjoyed all the Korean cultural references.

Personally, I was expecting to be more surprised by the mystery and I found the pace a bit uneven. Also, I was more invested in Mina's perspective and the story felt flat at times to me.
Overall, this book is great for readers who enjoy a light mystery with a diverse cast or for those wanting to read more about immigrant's experience.

This book is painful in the best kind of way. It's about immigrants. Mothers. Daughters. America. Struggling to fit in. Struggling to understand. Struggling to love.

Immigrant stories are always striving to reach the heart of readers and this one takes the heart and rips it out, pushes it back together with delicate hands and places it back inside.

I love this and have already ordered a hard copy for my mother.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

Margot cannot get her mother to answer the phone. When she arrives at her mother’s home, she finds out why. Her mother has died and it literally takes Margot by complete surprise. She and her mother have a complex relationship. But, Margot is just not ready to survive in a world if her mother is not in it.

This story started out very well and then lost a little steam. I think it was because I did not like Margot. I found her demanding, rude and little mean to people, especially people trying to help her. She just rubbed me the wrong way. Usually this adds to the story but, for some reason, this was a complete turn off for me.

However, I enjoyed the mystery surrounding Margot’s parentage and what actually happened to her mother, in the past and the present. This is what actually kept me reading this story. There is a very unique storyline surrounding Mina.

I received this copy from the publisher for a honest review.

I ended up picking up The Last Story of Mina Lee through the blog tour. I was super intrigued by the premise of this book. It tells the story of Korean immigrants and it also has a bit of a mystery element to it as well. I ended up enjoying the story so much more than I thought I would.

I honestly picked this up because of the mystery aspect. That ended up being such a small portion of this book. The story is focused on Mina Lee's life and the relationship between her and her daughter, Margot. The story is set up during two different perspectives and years. You have Mina's point of view which takes place in 1987 when she first moved to Los Angeles from Korea. Then you have Margot's view point in 2014 when she finds out her mother's dead. I really enjoyed Mina's perspective. You learn about her life when she was in Korea and why she decided to get away and move to Los Angeles. She has been through so much and is ready to start over. Soon she begins to realize just how hard it is here. You really feel for her when you learn about everything she has gone through. Then on the other hand you have Margot. She is ashamed of her mother and the life she ended up living. She moved away from her life in Los Angeles as soon as she could. Slowly she begins to learn the secrets her mother kept and just how hard life was for her. I feel the more I would learn about Mina the more I couldn't put the book down. I was so invested in learning more about her. It really was just so well done.

This novel made me call my mom and give her a virtual hug. As a daughter of an immigrant, and someone who grew up in Koreatown, Los Angeles in the late ‘80’s, I resonated with this book - the urban location, the people, the food brought back all kinds of memories for me. The neighborhood is as good as stepping into Seoul for its sights, smell and sounds. Through the points of view by mother (Mina) and daughter (Margot), and two distinct timelines and juxtaposition, we discover what tore them apart and what will bind them together.

I loved the writing, the pacing, the murder mystery component, and the great representation of the immigrant Korean-American experience. Kim did not hold back and told about the hardships, difficulties and struggles. This is truly an amazing and unforgaettavle debut by Nancy Jooyoun Kim.

Don’t miss this one!

Margot is worried about her mother not answering her phone calls, so decided to drive down to her mother’s apartment to check on her. To her dismay, her mother is found dead, which sets into motion a search to find out more about her mother’s life and death.

This novel is told by two parallel narratives, of Margot and her mother’s past, the reader starts to understand the life of Mina Lee and how she started her journey in America. While I initially thought this story was going to be more of a mystery, I found it to be more of an epic tale of discovery. Mina’s story is fascinating, and I always appreciate reading stories about people’s experiences with immigration and crossing cultural differences to make a life. As Margot learns more about her mother’s history, I think it centers on the themes that even our closest family members have their own untold stories, their lived experiences that we don’t always get to see. This novel made me reflect on the stories of my own parents, that I may not know, and makes me curious to learn more about their lives prior to children.

Very well done, highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a suspenseful and moving story that starts as a mystery with a mother dead in her LA Koreatown apartment and an adult daughter who finds her there and struggles to find answers to her mother's death. I lived in a Koreatown apartment and could picture this exact scenario. The landlord, the neighbors, the neighborhood - I could imagine it all so clearly. And living in Koreatown in LA, I met friends who grew up in the Valley and those who grew up like Margot, the daughter, in Koreatown and this book really nailed the atmosphere and difference between the two. It's a very quiet and sad book, one full of secrets, regrets and fear. But in this quiet story, you truly get a sense of living in the shadows, being undocumented and in a city where you can live for years just speaking your native Korean language and never having to learn English even though you are in America. Where you are more likely to learn Spanish like Mina did and my parents did, than English so you can communicate with workers who work beside you and for you. This reveals so much about life in Koreatown in the 80s but it also reveals so much about a mother and daughter with language as a barrier in communication. To not be able to express yourself fully to someone as intimate as a parent or child feels unbelievable to many but it's a reality for many of us who learned to speak English so well that we lost the ability to speak in our native tongue past an elementary level. There's a lot of heartbreak and heartache in that experience. The dual narrative was a perfect juxtoposition of not just time, but of life experiences between the two women. A powerful debut by Nancy Jooyoun Kim. I really think readers who have enjoyed Celeste Ng may really like this book as well, give this a try!

I went into this book not quite knowing what to expect. Was it more a mystery? Was it going to have some twists? Was it a drama? What is going to be full of secrets? The answer is it was a little bit of all of these things, and that's what made it work.

When Margot's mother won't return her calls, she begins to worry something isn't right. She drives to LA with her friend Miguel, and there she finds her mother is dead. The question is then of course, what happened? Margot feels there has to be more to the story, and she looks for answers.

In addition to Margot's present-day experience, there is the story of Mina's past. Margot never knew her father, and this backstory explores who that man was. In addition, the backstory is about when Mina first came to LA and what she left behind. The look into the past is really about who Mina was before she was Margot's mom. The reality is there were many secrets and stories Margot never knew.

With the past and the present alternating, the story creeps closer to what the truth about Mina's death is. But more than that, it creeps toward an understanding of who Mina truly was. What I really liked about this is how it showed how much Mina hadn't told Margot. It was really about how much of her identity and story she had kept hidden. It was an interesting reflection to think about how we often have a "before" of who we are. Before we were in a relationship or have a family or start a new job and/or move somewhere new, we had another version of ourselves. We choose how that previous iteration of self is part of our new identity/experience, and this was a spotlight on what that looks like.

Y'all, this is a story full of feels. It is a daughter navigating tragedy, but it's also about a mother trying to find where she and her daughter fit into the world. It was an emotional ride for sure.

One of the reasons we read fiction is to put ourselves in the shoes of other people, people who have different life experiences than ourselves. Nancy Jooyoun Kim does that beautifully in her novel, The Last Story of Mina Lee.

Margot is a 26 year-old Korean daughter of Mina Lee, who raised Margot on her own in Koreatown in Los Angeles. Margot lives in Seattle and hasn't seen her mother in awhile. She is driving to LA to bring a friend to his new home, and after being unable to get a hold of her mom by phone, she stops by her mom's apartment and finds her dead on the floor.

It appears that Mina fell and hit her head, but after the landlord tells Margot that he heard Mina arguing with a man, Margot becomes suspicious that perhaps her mother was killed.

Margot begins to dig into her mother's life, discovering things that she didn't know about Mina. They had a difficult relationship. Mina owned a clothing shop that burned down during the LA riots in 1992. She worked her way back to opening a small shop at a swap meet in Koreatown, but her business never recovered.

Growing up was difficult for Margot. She wanted to be like other kids, act American. She had to work at her mother's store after school and on school breaks, and her mother never learned English. Margot resisted learning Korean, so communication between the two was never good on several levels.

The story is told in two different timelines, so we see Margot working to learn what happened to her mother in 2014, while we see Mina's story in 1987, when she came to America. Mina became separated from her parents as a young child when they were fleeing the war in Korea, and ended up in an orphanage. She never knew what became of her parents.

She came to America as an undocumented immigrant, and found work at a Korean grocery store. She made one friend at the boardinghouse she lived in, and led a fairly lonely life. There was a deep sadness about Mina, something in her life in Korea that she wanted to put behind her.

I found Mina's story compelling. She came all alone to a country where she didn't speak the language. Imagine doing that; leaving your home to go to a place where you know no one, and starting over. We see how hard Mina worked to make a life for herself and later for her daughter, the sacrifices she made. Mina just broke my heart.

Foodies will find many references to Korean dishes here, and book clubs could create an entire evening's feast with them. The Last Story of Mina Lee would made an excellent book club choice, as the mother/daughter and immigrant themes would make for a rich discussion.

If you liked Jean Kwok's Searching for Sylvie Lee, this book would be a good read for you. Both feature a mystery about a person, and a family member who must discover what happened to their loved one, while dealing with the issue of living in a different culture. I highly recommend The Last Story of Mina Lee, I will not forget her.

Thanks to Harper Collins for putting me on Nancy Jooyoun Kim's book tour.

Margot lives in Seattle. Desperate to get away from her single mother Mina, and their bleak life, she left for college and rarely looks back. Infrequent visits home and brief phone calls define their relationship now. Until Mina doesn't answer her phone, and Margot is perplexed. She has agreed to drive her friend Miguel to Los Angeles, and then she can find out the reason for her mother's silence.
Margot is not prepared to find her mother's lifeless body in the apartment they once shared. As fractured as their relationship was, Mina was the only family Margot had. She never knew who her father was, and suddenly Margot realizes that she knows almost nothing about her mother's past. Determined to find out how Mina really died, Margot opens the door to a past that may help her understand her mother and ultimately herself.
Told from Mina and Margot's perspectives, we learn about the heartbreak that brought Mina to America. We already know how this ends for Mina, but all I can say is her life story was one tragedy after another. Except for a few brief moments of happiness, she lived through more than any person should have to survive, and yet, somehow she pushed on almost each and every day.
Although I could empathize with Margot realizing too late what her mother meant to her, I was much more invested in Mina's story. I loved Mina's chapters which were so real and heartbreaking. I was left wanting to know the answers to three questions that I felt were left hanging, and when this is published, I hope to join a discussion group to see what other people thought. I think I would have truly enjoyed this story if there was more Mina and less Margot. Still, a compelling tale that had me rushing through Margot's chapters to learn about Mina's life and death.

While in graduate school, I took a class called ‘the Immigrant Experience.’ In the years since then, I’ve read many novels that center around immigrant characters – usually immigrants to the United States, often set during the nineteenth or early twentieth centuries – but because of so many commonalities, after a while the stories themselves begin to blend together. That won’t be the case with Nancy Jooyoun Kim’s upcoming The Last Story of Mina Lee. Her novel breaks from so many of the usual patterns and tropes, helping it to stand out and better conveying the harsher realities of life in America for so many immigrants because of her approach.

While helping a friend move to LA, Margot Lee decides she should visit her mother, Mina. Their relationship has never been an easy one and lately she’s had trouble getting her mother to answer the phone. When she finds her mother’s body on the floor of the apartment where she grew up, Margot has so many questions. Dealing with her guilt by searching for answers, Margot begins to learn more about her mother than she ever felt she had a right to ask – questions about her father, about why her mother left Korea, about whether her mother’s death was really an accident. As she digs, Margot learns that there was so much more to her mother than she ever realized and she’s desperate to find a channel for her grief.

The novel alternates between Margot in the present (2014) dealing with the aftermath of her mother’s death and Mina’s experiences when she first arrived in LA in 1987. This structure leaves the reader with far more insight into Mina than Margot has, and perhaps that’s why I found the Mina sections to be the more compelling while I was reading. The circumstances of Mina’s life are heartbreaking and fascinating and Margot’s frustrations with her mother make more sense when you’re able to remember that so much of that information was kept from her… it’s just difficult to keep that in mind sometimes. There is so much about everyday life in America that I would have thought Margot as the child of an immigrant would have realized – things like the threat of deportation – that she didn’t seem to have absorbed. Maybe it’s just my own hyperawareness after the last few years having immigration issues popping up in the news cycle and the 2014 setting.

I also think that Margot’s side of the story was a little choppier. While grief is a powerful motivator and doesn’t always make sense, some of the leaps driving Margot’s pursuit of information were difficult to follow. There just didn’t seem to be enough evidence for Margot to think her mother’s death was anything but an accident. Stumbling across information while cleaning the apartment and having that lead to more questions that, in turn, made Mina’s death feel less like an accident would have worked better for me.

But ultimately, the weaker spots of Margot’s side of the story didn’t matter because I wasn’t reading for her or her revelations about her mother – I was reading for Mina’s half of the narrative. So often books with characters immigrating to America focus on the challenges of assimilation, the homesickness. It was far more interesting to see a character who found allies in immigrants from another culture, to see the ways that Mina is able to avoid or carefully choose when and how to interact with the American culture beyond Koreatown. It is her own daughter more than anyone she interacts with at work or in the neighborhood who pushes her to learn English and become more American. That may be another element of why I found Margot’s story was compelling – the second-generation child torn between cultures is more stereotypical.

From Mina’s relationships to the dilemmas she struggles with, there’s a brutal honesty that shines through when the narrative is focused on her. I would have been just as satisfied with this book if the Margot sections had been missing, though the final resolution proved unexpected in a delightful way (if also a bit ridiculous). I think I’d be more interested in Margot what Margot’s story looks like after the ending of this novel. But perhaps it’s a bit early to be looking for something that might be considered a sequel.

The Last Story of Mina Lee will be available on September 1, 2020.

Quality of Writing: 7/10
Pace: 5/10
Plot Development: 6/10
Characters: 5/10
Enjoyability: 6/10
Insightfulness: 5/10
Ease of Reading: 7/10
Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Is this book a murder mystery? Is it a story of family history discovery? Is it about reconnection? Is it about a journey between best friends?
I wish I could tell you. This book is a mess. Honestly, it’s all over the place. There are so many loose ends that aren’t dealt with. There are so many unsatisfying answers to all the questions raised at the beginning.
There was little to no point to certain characters, like Margot’s best friend Miguel or Mina’s old friend from Korea, Mrs. Shin. They didn’t make the story any richer.
The book was super slowly paced, and almost boring enough to not finish. I just kept hoping the plot would pick up. It had so much potential.
Overall, I think three stars might be slightly generous, but it wasn’t completely awful. There were some good moments here are there.

This is a riveting, highly enjoyable read centered on the experiences of a Korean American woman, Margot, and her mother, Mina, a first generation Korean immigrant.

Told through these two narrators, we flip between 2014 (Margot) and 1987-8 (Mina) as we piece together the story of Mina’s life in the aftermath of her sudden death. I connected most with Mina, which makes sense given that the book centres of piecing Mina’s life story together. However, I really liked the author’s use of multi-perspective narration and I liked the way we learned about Mina through the lens of two timelines: in life and in death.

The author has a very nice writing style, and I found myself highlighting several passages, especially those in which she made pointed and poignant remarks about: being an (illegal) immigrant in America, gun laws, the human impact of the Korean War, the social cleansing that happens in certain areas as city limits expand, and her characters’ experiences of womanhood.

While this is a very readable book, making it easy to read quickly; I consciously slowed my reading pace in order to appreciate these passages of text and the author’s skill at putting language to her character’s painful and difficult experiences.

The Last Story of Mina Lee is simultaneously a love story, a tale of a mother-daughter relationship, a book about immigration and a (slow burn) murder mystery.

Set in Los Angeles, I enjoyed learning about the Korean American and Latin American roots of this city through this story. The multi-lingual elements really enhanced the book for me and brought so much vitality in to the story.

I also loved the descriptions of food throughout and the way food was positioned in the centre of pivotal moments in the relationships of our characters (warning: this book may make you hungry).

To wrap up the book, the author took her time with each of the elements of the story. I was left with the feeling that she had carefully tied a beautiful bow, and the word that sprang to mind was “serendipity”.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Last Story of Mina Lee and would highly, highly recommend it.


Content warnings: death of a loved one, death of a child, depression, suicidal ideation, exploitation, deportation, gun violence, racism, weaponry, violence, sexual violence (alluded to) at around the 60% mark, stalking, cancer, child abuse,

The Last Story of Mina Lee had great potential. I really enjoyed reading about Minas life when she came to America and seeing America through a foreigners eyes. The mystery about how she died was intriguing at first but it felt like Margots detective work meandered. I would have liked more information about Mina raising Margot as an undocumented single mother. And how Margot could grow up with a mom who spoke a different language from her child. So many questions I feel we’re not answered.