"The Yellow Suitcase" by L.W. Clark offers a glimpse into the life of Alyssa Florescu, a young woman from Eastern Europe who decides to leave her home country for America in pursuit of a better life. Unfortunately, despite the promising premise, the execution of the story falls short, resulting in a two-star review.

The narrative follows Alyssa's journey, detailing her struggles, triumphs, and relationships as she adapts to a new culture and strives for success in America. While the author attempts to convey the challenges faced by immigrants and the pursuit of love, courage, and freedom, the story lacks depth and fails to engage the reader on an emotional level.

One major drawback is the lack of character development, particularly in the protagonist, Alyssa. Despite the first-person perspective and internal dialogues, Alyssa's character remains superficial, and her motivations and emotions are not adequately explored. This makes it challenging for readers to connect with her on a personal level, diminishing the impact of the story.

The pacing of the narrative also poses an issue, as events unfold without sufficient buildup or exploration of the characters' inner lives. Important moments in Alyssa's journey feel rushed, and significant relationships lack the necessary development to resonate with the reader. As a result, the story lacks the emotional weight needed to convey the depth of Alyssa's experiences.

Additionally, the storytelling style, which includes drama, comedy, and self-reliance, fails to create a cohesive and compelling narrative. The shifts between genres feel abrupt and disjointed, making it challenging for the reader to fully immerse themselves in the story.

While "The Yellow Suitcase" is based on real events and aims to tell an immigrant's story, the execution falls short of delivering a captivating and emotionally resonant narrative. The lack of character depth, pacing issues, and disjointed storytelling contribute to a less-than-satisfactory reading experience, resulting in a two-star rating.

Not the worst but some problematic material.

I didn't mind the writing style per se but didn't enjoy this book. Whether it was an intentional character decision or just the writer, the misogyny was too much to handle. This read extremely immature and tiresome. I'm so over the insanely beautiful heroine, the Mary Sue is over! I don't want to read about a perfect person. I want to read about someone real. Alyssa's character didn't make sense either, she's either very naive or insanely clever able to pick up languages quickly. It was difficult to relate or sympathize with her character.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand it’s easy to be pulled into the story, it’s an easygoing read and the main theme is the struggles of an Eastern European woman emigrating to the United States, specifically New York. Alyssa meets quite some interesting people along the way and she has a special way of seeing the world. For her everything goes well, despite a few struggles she always achieves anything and is described as a beautiful and smart woman.
The book is written in first person which I am personally not a fan of. There’s lots of internal dialogue and we get to see Alyssa’s thoughts. The conversations with other people lack in depth though, they’re hurried and especially at the beginning there’s very few actual scenes between people. The writing style is not for me.
Alyssa constantly makes excuses for people in her life even though they take advantage of her (a good example for this would be Zachary, but also her employers, Gilles, etc.). She comes across as quite naive - is it because she doesn’t understand the language or is it her personality? I’m honestly not sure.
It’s a story told over the course of several years, it feels like a recap of important events the narrator is telling us. Different from my usual books, but still an interesting read about immigrating to America in the 1990s.

I received a free copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The fact that this is based on real events makes this book so much better. I loved how Alyssa was not someone that had the perfect time getting to America. I think that it is super important that the author showed her emotions and how her depression would take over sometimes. It added a realistic quality to the book that helped me relate to the main character. Watching her learn English was also interesting as it is a point of view that I would not have thought of as someone that is a native English speaker. Going through her time as an immigrant trying to make a better life for herself and her family had me rooting for her and wanting to see her get into a better situation than she was when she worked on Long Island. Gilles was the perfect man for her and was there for her when she needed him. I loved that there was also a focus on LGBTQ talk during the early 2000s and how even though no one else would have accepted Gilles and Mark, Alyssa only focused on her love for Gilles as a bisexual man. Alyssa as a character was a tad naive, but that also added to the amount that she was able to learn throughout her journey.

Twenty-one-year-old Alyssa Florescu decides to move from her home in Eastern Europe to America on New Years Day in 1995, She realises how much of a struggle it will be when she starts her job as a housekeeper with demanding hours and little pay but feels free when she's out in the city on her own. Without spoiling it I was a little disappointed with the ending as I feel like it goes against who she was as a character, but apart from that, I loved it.

⭐️2.5/5

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book!

I didn't like it, but I didn't dislike it either. The vibes of the book are awesome, which is probably what brings the star rating higher.

This is an extremely slow read, or at least it was for me, which I hated. The main character is often misogynistic and the male characters are mostly miscreant pricks. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, unless you are looking to waste time, which in that case, The Yellow Suitcase was a very tedious waste of time.

The characters very much sound like men written by men, and women written by men, which is rarely a compliment. I hated how sexual abuse was minimized and pushed away. The end was also quite sudden and strange -- it felt out of place,

I liked the fact that this book presents that life is never a fairytale, though that is pretty common. Mostly I appreciated the recognition of the struggles most people face in a foreign country.

The writing style is simple, and I don't have much to comment on it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm giving this 2.5 stars. I didn't hate it but I didn't like it much either.
The writing style is like that of a memoir and, reading up on the author, I take it that some of the story is based on the author's own experience of emigrating from Eastern Europe to the United States.
Too much detail is given for situations that contribute nothing to an understanding of the narrator or the story arc - do we really need to know that she set off the house alarm twice in one day?
The narrator is guileless, flawless and, ultimately, pointless. She is attractive to every man that she meets and, in no time at all, is able to gain such a command for English that she can express herself not just perfectly but with charm and wit. Even when she should be upset with how others treat her, she - within a sentence or two - sees the world from their perspective and moves on. It's not believable and it's not interesting either.

This is a really slow read, which I liked; it felt very 1995 to me (caveat that I do not remember that era of time). I’m not sure if it is because it’s a period piece, but the main character is kind of misogynistic and the male characters are mostly assholes. I wasn’t super impressed by it. Two stars.

I enjoyed this book I’ve not read any books about immigrants sent in the 20th or 21st century most of what I’ve read follows under historical fiction and I need to change that. And The Yellow Suitcase is start.

It was an enjoyable story with a touch of whimsy. I definitely wasn’t ready for it to end.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

A book I can't rave about as even though it was pretty easy to read it just didn't have the Oomph I like when read a book. And by that I mean it didn't grab my attention and draw me in as I would have expected.

I didn't like the story much, it was a bit 'One Person' and it was rather boring to say the least. I stuck it out but can't say I am happy about it.

Not my kind of book.

Thank you NetGalley for sending this arc for an honest review!

If your looking for an lgbtq romance set in 1995, with the aesthetic vibes that remind you somewhat of evlyn Hugo, than this might peak ur interest. Typically I enjoy these kind of stories especially with the diversity of lgbtq romance in media today. Yet for some reason this book did not captivate me as much as I wanted it to and I was unable to feel that emotion I felt I was promised to be given.

An ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was not my kind of book. Maybe my expectations were a bit high because it seemed like an interesting read, but I simply cannot enjoy a woman with internalized misogyny and men who get excused for abusive behaviour. Also the focus on physical appearance is not something I enjoy.

Some people might enjoy this book, but it just wasn't for me.

The Yellow Suitcase was a cute romance with LGBTQ+ representation. I wish it gave more detail about where Alyssa came from, and the beginning took a while to get going. By the end of the book, I was invested in the story, but I was more concerned with the main character's husband and not the main character.

I really tried to get into this book but couldn't.
The main character was not likeable.
I found it very insulting towards women.

I really wanted to love The Yellow Suitcase. I was hopeful and intrigued by the description, but it just was not the book for me. I did not enjoy the writing style. I often felt like I was reading a young person's diary with the dramatic and immature narration, complete switches in verb tenses, and seemingly endless number of sentences beginning with "I."

The narrator's desire to create a successful life for herself was admirable, especially considering the journey she would take to do so, but the way she talked about and viewed other women screamed misogyny to a point I could not ignore. I would be absolutely SHOCKED to learn that this book was not written by a man. By chapter two, I was already extremely bothered by the obvious prejudice against women. I truly hope that any readers of this book recognize how inaccurate and insulting the portrayal of a woman's thoughts are, especially regarding other women. For this reason, I will not be recommending this book to anyone.

If you are someone that is not bothered by intense first person narration, and can overlook the main character's internalized misogyny, you might enjoy this book.

Thank you so much netgalley and the publisher for providing an arc!
I devoured this book and loved every second of it. Also, really like the worldbuilding, and how the author can create a world that has the capability of making us vicariously live through it. I feel like the introduction was a bit too slow-paced for me. The characters are fairly interesting.
Henceforth, it was quite a good read.

Beautiful. I believe this book was an easy,, smooth read and beautifully written.
I adore the fact that the author based the story on realism and showed that life isn't always perfect and doesn't always work out as planned..

In The Yellow Suitcase, Clark portrayed the life of the main character, Alyssa. Alyssa moves to another country and her journey shows us how she difficulties that people in foreign countries often face as well as the challenges of moving to a new setting whilst not knowing anyone around you.
I came to admire Alyssa's determination throughout the book and strive to be more like her in my everyday life. Alyssa leads with confidence even in her times of confusion or misunderstandings.


The only thing that I was personally not fond of was the over-kill of detail given throughout the book. I love stories that are written efficiently and that are forthcoming and to the point with information.

Overall, 4 out if 5 stars.

An ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm gonna start with saying that I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone 'cause it was a not so entertaining waste of time. Just read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

I'mma try to point the mistakes I found in order

Eastern European/Romanian Debacle
First I picked this book up specifically because the main character was Romanian. The book doesn't mention it but her last name is 100% Romanian. I would never, even in a foreign, country refer to myself as an Eastern European when asked where I'm from. Europe is not a country. Also, it seemed like she was from Mars. How can you say you don't know the concept of a walk-in closet? Along with any other difficulty she encountered. Oh in my country we don't have/do this. I only have 3 channels at home. It's in the '90s after the revolution so no. It's not accurate. Ordering food is such an unfamiliar term? Her saying the US is safer and then immediately finding a stashed gun was the highlight of this entire thing. What did you think dumbass? Somehow she is unaware of racism??? Not knowing the language what's she gonna do? 'Super Easy Barely and inconvenience" When we're still on the Romanian rant. The name of the Romanian people Zachary? Tobi? No way. Maximilian and Silvia fit. Except for the parts where her name is inexplicably spelled Sylvia.

.r/MenWritingWomen
"Hearing in a mental monologue that's like "I love standing right in front of the mirror and spending quality time there" must be the lamest excuse to accentuate the character's body mainly her breasts. Who just wakes up and goes to the mirror to look at the titties? Happens constantly in this book.
Also, the narrator brings up a friend who told her "She lost weight because she became as obsessive as her". *confusion*
"I guess girls need attention from boys all the time. They can't be without it's like a fish can't be without water. I think it's in the female DNA" o_o
Still on that page while she looks in the mirror she has this brilliant thought "Here is this girly girl, and I'm torturing her. I'm asking her feminine mind and body to be a fearless, brave man. My body and real personality were feminine, fragile delicate, with a quiet, good-tempered manner. But I could also force myself to be masculine-fearless, brave and tough". Word for word what it says in the book.
This goes on for about 2 pages and is a constant thing in the book along with her breasts.
Every woman in this book is somehow related to a man (except Silvia), she did this but it's scared her husband will see, she fought with the husband ran with the kids, can't hire you husband will be mad. These are just from the background characters. Also, the sexual assault was excused 'cause he was drunk...

The book is well written and easy to read. I was hooked from the very first line. What i enjoyed the most was how the author showed that life is never a fairytale. It showed the struggles most people face in a foreign country. I liked reading Alyssa's journey, it accurately portrayed how difficult it is to move to a different country where you don not know anyone. She was so determined and did not give up in the face of hardships. Another thing that I really admired was how she always put her 'goal' first and was actually determined to reach it. The writing style is simple which I think is because the book is from Alyssa's point of view, who is not well spoken in English. One critic I have is how sexual abuse was downplayed and the controlling behaviour of a specific character was never acknowledged. The characters that we meet through Alyssa's journey were interesting and different, they all had flaws but it was never their whole personality. The author describes everything in a lot of detail which I liked. But i felt the ending was rushed and wrapped up too quickly. Despite that I was satisfied by how it ends.