Book Review: Dreaming in English

'Dreaming in English'
Author: Laura Fitzgerald


Format: Paperback
Published: NAL Trade; Feb. 2011
Pages: 432
Genre: Chick-lit
Grade: A
Source: LibraryThing EarlyReviewers


Synopsis: In this sequel to the successful Veil of Roses, Fitzgerald uses her previous fairy tale ending as the jumping-off point for an easy, mildly dramatic continuation. Tamila Soroush, a 27-year-old Iranian woman whose last-minute Vegas wedding to American darling Ike Hanson saved her from a life in Iran, returns to Tucson, Ariz., to a mother-in-law villain who so disapproves of the union that she threatens deportation. As Tami struggles with the lingering effects of growing up in Iran, she learns to fight for her dreams in an immigrant's pleasantly idealized America (the U.S. government, another villain, being the exception). While the book is predictable, somewhat clichéd, and occasionally unfocused, Fitzgerald's immensely likable narrator deflects criticism. Her story is nice to the core, despite all the conflict, and the uneasy suspicion that something patronizing lies behind the cheerful naïveté eventually dissolves like cotton candy. While Ike is cast as an American ideal, he's too entitled to garner much sympathy; instead, Tami carries that torch, acting as a touching embodiment of hope and a timely reminder that the American dream is still relevant. 


My Take: Even though I really, really liked this book I am going to start this review with a complaint. I can't help it. Minor rant here and then we can move on to happy things. This has nothing to do with the book and more to do with the route in which it came to be in my hands. I participate in the LibraryThing EarlyReviewers program. I have almost since I started blogging. I thoroughly enjoy it. If they had included the synopsis above I wouldn't have requested the book and that would have been fine because it is a SEQUEL and I deserve to know this. However, no where in the copy in which I was given to choose this book did that come into play. I feel like it's false advertising. I deserve to know when I am reading a sequel out of order because then I would like to read the first one ahead of it if I can. Ok rant over!

I went into Dreaming in English with some misgivings, afraid I wouldn't know the characters or what the heck was going on. I shouldn't have worried! I quickly picked up the story and became enamored with Tamila and her plight in America. Tamila finds herself swept off her feet in Tucson, AZ by the American boy of her dreams, Ike. However all is not to be so easily blessed. Tami was here on a tourist visa from Iran. Even though her family had high hopes that she would perhaps marry one of the Iranian men they had arranged for her, she did not, and instead, at the last minute, married Ike and now she needs to apply for the proper paperwork to keep her in the country.

There is also the minor detail of telling Ike's family. See, Ike and Tami knew each other and fell in love before they got married but it was kind of a 'love at first site' situation, not a traditional date for a while, meet everyone's friends and family and then get married situation so Ike's parents might be a little blindsided by their new daughter-in-law. And yes, they are not happy, particular Tami's new mother-in-law.

What follows is a story of how a new couple fights not only to stay together but to stay in America. Yes, it's a sweet story but you can't help but root for the good guys and jeer the bad ones. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am so glad, in the end, I read it. Even if it was out of order!

Cover Lust: May I be frank here? Ok, good. I hate this cover. It's just a collage. I like a little more creativity.