Audrey Zhou moved to New York City from a small village in the Midwest in pursuit of bigger goals. She is now returning with her photographic fiance, Ben, after an eight-year absence. She must confront the issues she has avoided and decide if she is New Audrey or Old Audrey.

This debut novel has left a lasting impression on me. The language was lovely, and the plot felt vulnerable throughout. The characters in this story were quite complicated. The main character was unlikeable at times, but this added to the realism of the plot. It also resulted in a lot of character development. The finale was fantastic! This is the book for you if you enjoy difficult mother-daughter relationships and unlikable characters.

But, all of a sudden, she has a change of heart, and she and her mother begin to communicate. Very improbable.
This change in pace in the last 50 pages is why I didn't give this book a lower grade, although I fought to get through it halfway through. There were a few contradictions and clichés in her anecdotes given throughout the book. I had high expectations for this book, but the tale failed me. The writing was lighthearted and not overly drawn out.

ARC was kindly provided via NetGalley and Random House Publishing.

I loved the debut novel from Delia Cai soooooo much. Unrequited high school crushes! Christmas vacation in your hometown! A questionable fiancé that seems perfect but maybe.... isn't? I had such a joyous time reading CENTRAL PLACES and fell in love with Cai's writing. Calling it now that this may very well be a blockbuster come early 2023.

I adored Audrey, the main character, who is both, at times, infuriating clueless and heartbreakingly emotionally intelligent. A newish New Yorker brings her fiancé home to her small-town in Illinois to meet her Chinese immigrant parents, and take a trip down memory lane. Seems straightforward! Instead, she encounters demons from her past that affect her in unexpected ways, and pretty sure her New York life seems like both a distant dream and a questionable existence. There is so much to love in this book, I can't wait for everyone to read it too.

Sometimes it feels like we’ve been bottling up a lot of feelings and concepts about our lives since we were kids and it comes to a point that everything needs to blow up in order for us to take a step back and realize we’re not really living. We’re holding tight to the “perfect life” concept we created as kids, pretending to live a life that would make anybody else happy and jealous, when, actually, we’re really empty and so lost within ourselves that the only reasonable thing to do is to keep swimming. Sometimes choosing to live like this, to run away from everything, makes it even harder for our wounds to heal and to see who we really wanna be. That’s something I’ve been thinking about for a few weeks, ever since I started reading Central Places.

Audrey’s life seems to be the closest to what she has dreamed since her childhood: she’s a successful woman, with a great job, great lifestyle, living in NYC and recently engaged. And, to add to the equation, it seems she feels quite proud she’s got all that even after a really hard upbringing as an immigrant's daughter. She hasn’t returned to her midwest hometown for 8 years now, but, since her fiancé wants to meet her parents and her father wants her to be there for him while he goes through a medical procedure, she feels obligated to face the ghosts that have been haunting her for 27 years. Returning to Peoria to introduce her white fiancé to her Chinese parents, with whom she doesn’t have a great relationship (or any relationship at all), feels overwhelming to Audrey, but it is the exact event she needed for her cathartic moment to happen.

I honestly don’t know how to write a review that does justice to how good and deep this book is. I feel that every tiny detail was important to the story, from the main character’s selfish and almost unlikable personality, to the house descriptions and the way Ben says “you know we’re good together” instead of “you know how much I love you”. The characterization is flawless, the dynamics are complex and it was so well written it feels real. Like this was the author’s life story. While you’re reading, you can sort of get where everything comes from and you are able to empathize with almost every character (not ben, though, he’s so the white ambitious dude who pretends to care about POC and different lifestyles, but he’s just such a snob. I almost felt bad for him, but I’ve met too many ‘Ben’s in my life). I loved the way things were developed, the pacing of the narrative and, mostly, Audrey’s insights of her own life and upbringing. I didn’t expect to relate so much to Audrey’s relationship with her mother, but it did surprise me the amount of times I got myself thinking about the problems of my relationship with my mother.

This is the kind of book I’ll never shut up about, I’ll be talking about it on my tiktok account (now, but more when the book comes out), I’ll be recommending to my friends (already did), I even want to pick this one as book of the month for my friends book club so we can all talk about it. ‘tis the damn season is my favorite taylor swift song, so…

I’ll post this review on goodreads. I intend to do so closer to the launch of the book, as the publisher requires, but if the author thinks it’s better to post now, I can do that. I’ll probably post a video on my tiktok account later this week or next week and I intend to talk about it more when the release is closer.

Thank you, Random House and Delia Cai, for sending me this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. I hope everyone loves it as much as I did.

Thank you so much Random House Publishing - Ballantine and NetGalley!

Audrey Zhou left her tiny midwest town for bigger dreams in New York City. Now after 8 years, she is returning with her photography fiance, Ben. She has to face the things she ran away from and decide if she is New Audrey or Old Audrey.

I really enjoyed reading about Audrey's journey into figuring out who she is. This book is definitely about the tiny town she came from, but it is also Audrey trying to figure out who she is and facing the things she left behind. There are aspects of being a 1st generation American in the story, as her parents came from China. Audrey's identity as a Chinese American in the Midwest is discussed, and I certainly appreciated that as she was a kid trying to fit in in a place where there weren't many that looked like her. I'm going to say it in this review, Ben isn't perfect and at times he seems pretty awful, but there were moments where Audrey came off pretty poorly too, mostly in how she treated other people in the book. It does highlight how none of us are perfect and we make mistakes, and how it is hopefully never too late to realize that.

Audrey is recently engaged and it’s time for her fiancé to meet her parents. Only problem is that she has almost no relationship with her Immigrant parents. Will they approve of her white fiancé? Will he still want to marry her after seeing her Midwest upbringing?

Audrey has a decent relationship with her father but her mother is a different story. Audrey feels like she can never do anything right in her mother’s eyes. Her dad immediately connects with Ben. How can he win over her mom when she has never been able to?

The book is a great insight to a POC in an area where you can count non white people on one hand. Audrey has lived her life doing what she felt was expected of her. What does she really want?

Books like Central Places are so relatable because most of us have strained family relationships. I think a lot of daughters will connect with Audrey and her weight of pressure from her mother. Also, who didn’t hate high school?

I would definitely read more books by this author and I encourage everyone to read Central Places to potentially get a new perspective on how others grew up. I’m


Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book. I have written this review voluntarily.

Well-written novel about a woman who has always felt like an outsider due to her upbringing by Chinese immigrant parents. Raised in a small midwestern town, Audrey pined for a different life and a more warm, forgiving mother. After building a new life on the East Coast, Audrey returns to her hometown and is forced to reevaluate her perspective on her upbringing. The characters are generally unlikeable and the plot somewhat unconvincing.

My first impression of this book was that it was similar to Chang’s Days of Distraction where a mid 20’s Chinese American travels cross country with her Caucasian boyfriend to discover that her Chinese roots shape more of her perspectives than she realized. This MC’s voice is more vivid and tangible, yet becomes increasingly unlikable as the story goes on.

Then I hit 35% in and realize that this is essentially a retelling of Sweet Home Alabama. There’s even a baby. In a bar.

I was so distracted by the similarities that I could not focus on much after that. With that said, I did see my late father in her father. (The part about the iPod was gutting.) Her continued selfish detachment and dismissive reactions to his attempts at connection sadden me. Her feelings were clearly ricocheted off of her mother’s actions, and although hard to admit, relatable for a lot of us children of immigrants. Given that the writing and storytelling were compelling throughout, I was optimistic that we would see growth in not only our main character but in the surrounding ones as well.

Despite knowing how this would end given Witherspoon’s movie (snare drum), I found this interesting throughout and enjoyed the ending.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ugh, really struggle to finish this book. Audrey is so unlikable and so whiny. Just get to the point. There were so many long and drawn out conversations. It just didn’t work for me. Lousy character development, the relationship with her mother was ridiculous.

Central Places by Delia Cai is about a young women named Aubrey who struggles with her past and present and what it means to grow and develop into a whole person and not be trapped by your past. There are a few up and down moments in the story. It also shows how Aubrey struggles with identity and her interracial relationship. Its a good read. It is well written and the story line is well developed.

Audrey left Hickory Grove, Illinois as soon she graduated High School and hasnt looked back. She moved to New York City where she found a great job and wonderful man named Ben who she is now her fiancé.
In order to build a life together she feels she can no longer hide the person she become and those she left behind.

She hasn't been back home in 8 year's. Now it's time!
But returning home is going to be a bit difficult. Her relationship with her parents is kind of strained. She is returning to old friends who now have their own lives and of course Kyle, her crush from high school and the only one who truly understood her growing up. But being around him again Audrey finds herself drawn to him again and the Old Audrey coming up to the surface.

Over the course of her dreadful week, Audrey has to come face to face with her past and take a look at where her roots started before she unravels everything she has worked so for. Is that really the one she wants?

When she bring her white fiancé home to meet her Chinese immigrant parents, halting her carefully constructed life.

This debut novel took me on such an amazing ride.
The writing was great and even though at times I didn't understand Audrey's points and sometimes I didn't feel connected to her.... Her story still very much intrigued me.
The characters are complex and well developed.
The story I was interested to see where this led me and I wasn't disappointed.
Delia, wrote very well written story with interesting characters and a story I didn't want to end. I enjoyed it!

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

Random House & Ballantine Books,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!
I will post my review to my platforms, blog, B&N and Waterstone closer to pub date.

I was very excited about this read, due to my personal background as a first-generation American and having an interest in reading about experiences from other cultures. Unfortunately, I was let down by this story and most importantly the main character Audrey.
She came off as incredibly unlikeable and very whinny. Along with how ungrateful she acted throughout the majority of the story toward her parents. It was not until the final 50 pages did her character develop, but in my opinion that development was not enough or even explained well enough to the reader. All of a sudden she has a change of heart and her and her mother start to understand one another. Very unrealistic.
The reason I did not give this book a lower rating was this change of pace in the last 50 pages, but I struggled to get through it halfway through. There were a few inconsistencies in her stories told throughout the book and some clichés. I had such high hopes for this book and was disappointed with the story. The writing was very easygoing and was not drawn out too much.

ARC was kindly provided via NetGalley and Random House Publishing.

This novel follows Audrey as she goes home for the first time in 8 years with her new fiancé. She's been in New York, and has put her childhood in Hickory Grove behind her, becoming a new person.

Once she's home, she has to contend with her difficult relationship with her immigrant mother, who she has never felt like she was good enough for, as well as running into old friends that she left behind.

Audrey is not always a likeable character, (as we watch her make some bad choices) but she is absolutely relatable. Who hasn't wanted to escape from their hometown, and if they have, find they don't know quite who they are when they return?

I really enjoyed this story. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC. Would definitely recommend!

Excellently written. Each character is carefully rendered and nuanced. There were times I disliked Audrey but I never stopped rooting for her. Cai creates a lovely atmosphere of nostalgia and remembrance threaded with familial tension and regret, the happy and the sad combining in a way that made me both laugh and cry.

I’m really impressed with this debut novel. The writing was beautiful and it felt vulnerable throughout the story. This had such complex characters. The main character was unlikeable at times, but it helped make the story so realistic. It also brought about such great character development. I loved the ending! If you love complicated mother/daughter relationships and unlikeable characters, this is the perfect book for you!

It's like if that Taylor Swift song "tis the damn season" were a novel. Really strong characterization, even with a slightly unlikeable narrator. Will make you think lots of things about your hometown whether you've moved on or, like me, planted roots there forever.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for this review.

This book follows Audrey, a young woman as she returns to her hometown with her Fiancé, Ben in order to finally introduce him to her parents. However that gets pushed to the side as Audrey faces her past, the people she’s left behind, and her complicated relationship with her mother.

It was an okay book. I felt like there was so many pages full of unnecessary dialogue and stories. It was incredibly slow and I just kept wanting the author to get to the point.

Audrey Zhou returns to her small midwestern town after 8 years in New York because her father is having surgery. She brings her wealthy fiance along with her. Back in Hickory Grove, she finds charm in her hometown despite the fact that she couldn't wait to get out of town and has stayed away for 8 years. She reconnects with her old crush and finds herself conflicted about her relationship with her fiance.

I liked this book more than I expected to. Audrey is likeable, as are her father, her fiance Ben, and her childhood crush Kyle. Her parents are immigrants and she has a fraught relationship with her mother. Her mother constantly questions her choices and expresses disappointment in her life.

Audrey makes some terrible choices and gets caught back up in the day-to-day life of her town, but she is so relatable. As she spends more time in Hickory Grove, she begins to appreciate the charms of the town. And she starts to understand her parents, their stories and how it has influenced their lives.

I really enjoyed this book and read it in a day. It combines the usual homecoming by the city mouse to the country story with unique AAPI point-of-view. And it eschews the more formulaic rom-com story in favor of developing in favor of a more nuanced story as Audrey grows to appreciate and better understand her parents.

A wonderful debut novel a story that drew me in kept me involved from beginning to end.Will be recommending looking forward to more from this very talented author.#netgalley #randomhouse

Very interesting read - huge fan of the ending.

Audrey and her new fiancé, Ben, return to her hometown for a Christmas visit and it provides a much needed dose of introspection for Audrey.

Caught between who she was and who she thinks she is, this story encompasses what it means to try to embrace your past.

ARC kindly provided via Net Galley.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Beautiful story, well written, amazingly done debut novel.