I did not like this book at all. It’s a twisted tale of immoral secrets and deceit that I find offensive, and I am not easily offended.

This is one of the loveliest novels I have read this year. Such a good surprise and a reminder of why I love having the opportunity to read a book before it has been published.

Somehow Alice is living with her mother, after her father has died and her husband left her. Now, her mother is no longer the old fashioned Korean wife and mother, but an eager Internet dater, looking for excitement and a new beginning. It’s her mother’s zest for life that pushes Alice to step out of her own comfort zone.

Alice has also saved a notebook that her father had been using as a journal before his death. She finally asks a colleague to translate it and within the translation is an intriguing subplot. Every character is incredibly likable and so well developed that I pictured them vividly.

This is a very special book. I was totally engaged and I loved the characters. I noticed it had questions for book club discussions, so I was excited at the opportunity to share the book and subsequent discussion with my own book club.

Thank you Netgalley for this early holiday gift.

A father dies. A mother drastically changes. A woman’s life is up ended by both. This is an enthralling story of mysteries and of connectedness. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The relationship between the immigrant parent and child is… unique… to say the least. Often characterized by high standards and a seemingly ever-widening cultural chasm, there is a sense of pressure applied to both parties. The immigrant parent feels the pressure to provide, to give their child the opportunities that they never had. The child of an immigrant feels the pressure to fulfill parental expectations, to ensure that their parent’s sacrifices weren’t in vain. This pressure manifests itself in exacting standards that we all feel we must adhere to for our entire lives. What we all forcefully ignore is the reality that neither of us can adhere to such standards forever. No one can.

In Like Wind Against Rock, Kim explores what happens when those standards are broken. What happens when your immigrant mother is widowed? Is she expected to languish in loneliness until her death? What happens when you get divorced? Most importantly, what happens when you find yourself on a path entirely different than the one you expected yourself to follow your entire life? Kim’s method of addressing this inevitable question all immigrant families will face is characterized by a frankness unlike any other book about the immigrant experience that I have ever read. She doesn’t shy away from dealing with the uncomfortable realities of facing how who we truly are differs greatly from the standards we tried so desperately to adhere to.

In a mother and a daughter, the reader is able to find both empathy and a deep sense of being known. Their struggles, when it comes down to it, are universal. But messaging isn’t the only reason why this book is so effective. The reason Like Wind Against Rock is able to provoke a profound impact is because of vivid characters.

Alice and her mother truly feel like nothing less than real people to me. In fact, it’s hard to imagine that they don’t exist. Specifically, I need to address character development. A common misconception is that character development is linear, as if characters in books grow from ignorance at point A to enlightenment at point B. That’s simply not true. Humans don’t ever just grow and then stop. The process of growth isn’t as simple as evolving through a single course of time. We grow, we regress. We learn, we fail. Kim understands this cyclical nature of character development in real life humans and applies that to her characters.

I could go on for much longer, but here’s how I’ll sum things up: read this book. If you’re a person who is living the immigrant experience, read this book. If you’re a person who hasn’t lived the immigrant experience, still read this book. Read it to explore the part of the immigrant experience that is rarely given the attention it deserves, and certainly read it to meet two people who will never quite leave your life.

I really enjoyed this book. It isn't a genre that I am normally drawn towards however the premise seemed so interesting that I had to request and read it. The story follows Alice Chang and her life during her divorce and after the death of her father. I won't post any spoilers but I will say that this story was incredibly beautiful and well written with plot twists that felt natural yet still unpredictable rather than some elaborate "gotcha!" moment. All of the characters were written in a way that made them all likeable yet very obvious with their flaws and shortcomings - there wasn't a clear villain or good guy in this book because everyone just acted the way people act in real life.

Once you open this book and start reading that's you, hooked. It won't let you go until you've finished. This is how I found myself racing through it in a day. It's a short read with big themes. Nancy Kim's writing is deceptively simple and conversational in style. "Like Wind Against Rock" is a tale of love, marriage, familial duty, what it means to be a father, ageing and the difficulties that presents to women, enduring friendships, secrets, lies and a nod to the importance of libraries. Kim entices the reader through the whole gamut of emotions, delivering the occasional gut punch. I loved it.

The story was interesting and I enjoyed how it all twisted together and told a bigger story. I always love learning new things about different cultures: food, words, traditions, etc. I connected on a personal level as someone who does bookkeeping as a living. It was fun to read about a lesser talked about career and hope that maybe one day I will fall into a library to manage their books. The book was a quick easy read that had funny and sad moments. It made me step back and reflect on my relationships with friends and my parents, and myself. I really looked at what have I put on the back burner to take care of my family and maybe now is the time to step up and work at something that I’ve dreamed of and grow a little as individual.
Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC!

Alice Chung is 39 and living at home with her mother due to being evicted from her flat...oh and her divorce is going through any time soon.
Add this to the fact that her mother doesn't seem to be grieving for her recently deceased father at all. She tried to throw out all of his belongings without letting Alice know. Luckily, Alice manages to save her fathers notebook This is not what she planned for her life.
Having spent another drunken evening downing Margharitas with best friend Janine, she decides to join an online dating website setmeup.com
As the story unfolds, past secrets are discovered which may explain her mothers recent erratic behaviour but will they affect Alices future too?
Told from two different perspectives in addition to diary entries, I warmed to the characters in Like wind against rock and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them.

Like Wind Against Rock.

Alice is 39 and finds herself newly single, going through divorce and living with her Mother after the sudden passing of her Father and subsequent breakdown of her marriage. Whilst trying to keep up with her Mother's busy dating life and navigating her own dating and friendship trials, she discovers some of her late Fathers possessions ready for the trash. Within those items is a diary, written in Korean which Alice cannot translate herself, however her trusty employer Mr Park offers to his translation services but what will he uncover?

I really enjoyed the novel being told from the 2 points of view, Alice's and Mr Park's, as well as the diary entries. I definitely laughed at the chapters with Alice's Mother, her questionable and probably not age appropriate clothing choices, her (also questionable) taste in men but it bought a fun lightheartedness to the book.

Without giving away any spoilers, I really would love to know what happens next, I thoroughly enjoyed this read and would recommend.

Thank you for the ARC.

n this story we follow 39 year old Alice Chang undergoing life changes after divorcing her husband Louis. Starting with Alice moving in with her mother. Than Alice and her friend Janine decide to go online to this site called setmeup.com where Alice meets Rick that ends up changing her life forever at the age of 40.

Alice only has her mother, no siblings that she knows of until one day she comes across a notebook. It is her father's diary. Then she meets a gentleman that she needs help translating her father's diary for her. During this time she finds out her father had an affair when he was alive and she has a half brother whom she already met.

This is a very heart warming story. I really enjoyed it. I would love to rate it a 5 but will give it a high 4. The reason for this is because I did not like how the mother talked. I couldn't figure out why she talked the way that she did but it almost reminded me of the way a young child starts to learn to talk. There were parts of the story where I got a bit confused at times when there would be a new chapter. I couldn't tell whose story was being told right away. It would take me a few pages until I figured it out. Otherwise I highly recommend this book. Very cute story. It is a very easy read.

Thirty-nine years old, on the brink of divorce, and faced with eviction, Alice Chang is now living with her recently widowed mother. As the two women venture into the world of online dating, Alice flounders to find her footing in life while watching her mother thrive–both in her career and on dates. When she discovers her father's old diary, the secrets within threaten to upend everything she once thought she knew about her family. This is an engrossing, character-driven novel that kept me reading late into the night.

While the plot is relatively slow-paced, Nancy Kim has crafted multifaceted, well-developed characters that kept me reading. Although she is considerably older, I could relate to Alice's struggles with finding her path and self-perception. A highlight for me was the exploration of the mother-daughter dynamic and how cultural norms played into it, as well as how the bond between mother and adult daughter evolved as the novel progressed. While a handful of lines throughout the novel that didn't quite sit well with me (perhaps an issue of the wording), there were many more insightful ones that caused me to reflect on myself and my own life. I know this book will remain on my mind for days to come.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the advanced copy!

A truly lovely story a book that drew me right in This is a moving novel of a woman suddenly single entering the on line dating world .As she discovers her fathers diary family secrets are revealed there are shocking twists,A book I will be recommending,#netgalley#lakeunion

A great story with an incredible twist that brings everything together. I highly recommend this book.

When I read the blurb for this story I knew I had to read it. A beautiful, beautiful book that defies genre - and my words. There is love, there is history, there is a secret. This is truly an epic, meticulously and lovingly written, with such exquisite description and detail that I read the same lines over, many times.

There are thought-provoking observations, unforgettable characters, and heart-breaking decisions that set in motion catastrophic events. I really commiserated with Alice as she and I are similar in a lot of ways. Nancy Kim has a wonderfully poetic and descriptive way of writing that makes reading this book both gripping and insightful, I will not forget this book for a long time.

Alice is 39, separated from her husband, and newly entering the online dating world alongside her recently widowed mother. Alice comes across her father’s diary which has potential to expose long-held family secrets which would threaten to unravel her world.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were complex and fleshed out; the novel was well-written with many passages that made me pause, highlight, and reread. Character-driven and very much a slow burn, Like Wind Against Rock was well-paced and very readable.

There was one twist around 60% of the way in that had me questioning the plausibility of the plot, but I still enjoyed the way the novel tied together in the end.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for this advanced copy!

I really enjoyed this book and read it in one sitting! I requested in because the synopsis drew me in and I wasn't wrong.

I adore Alice, I sympathized with her throughout the entire book. She's 39, I'm 38 and she feels out of sorts in her own life having to move back in with her mother after a divorce, eviction and the death of her father.
However, she has to watch her mother thrive- dating younger men- who she should be dating, working a great job, even going to the gym.
Soon, Alice finds her fathers old journal and uncovers a family secret that forces her to question everything.

This is a stunning book about family secrets, love and finding your own self again after years of being who you thought you were.

Put this on your TBR for April 2021. Thanks to the publisher, Lake Union for my advanced ebook copy.