DOMINICANA by Angie Cruz

✯✯✯✯                                                                                                    Review by Astrid Galactic

A story of love, family, pain, commitment, fear, obligations, hopes, dreams, suffering and, at last, survival. 

A young and innocent 15 year old Ana is pressured to marry an older man, whom she does not care for, from her hometown in the Dominican Republic to leave and live with him in New York City in the hopes of it leading to a better life for her entire family. Life turns out not to be what she was promised. Instead, she is coerced to stay within the confines of their small apartment while she slaves for this man that neither loves her nor cares that much for her needs. Ana's love of family is much stronger than her dislike for her husband so she struggles onward to make the best life she can for all involved. 

As time goes on and realizing her dismal plight, Ana finds strength, by way of her brother-in-law César, when her husband Juan must return to the Dominican Republic for family business dealings during a time of upheaval which keeps him away for a period of time. This is when Ana learns how to act, love, and to exert her independence in order to make life better for herself without the constraints of others' expectations which leads her to eventually blossoming into the full self-assured woman she needs to become. It's a very painful process but one that is necessary to strip the confining cocoon away that kept her from living her life to her fullest potential. 


Dominicana by Angie Cruz will tug on your heartstrings and have you rooting for Ana during her entire journey of trials and tribulations as she finally comes out on her own two feet.

(ARC)

Fiction
Contemporary
125020593x (ISBN13 9781250205933)
Hardcover 336 pages
Expected Publication: September 3rd, 2019 by Flatiron Books

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