Loved this story which relates the story of Mona a teenager in Ceacescu's Romania, falling in love and escaping to the West, rebuilind a new life in the US. The story is full of twists and turns as we follow Mona moving to her new life in the West. Even though she quickly integrates herself into the American way of life, she remains true to herself and cant forget her native country. I love Dominic Radulescu writing, the way she narrates Mona's story is light,colourful and picturesque. Your heart is bouncing reading through the pages, as you follow Mona's tale, I could hardly let got of it.

The beginning and the end were the weakest parts of this book. I wasn’t captured by the young romance of the beginning nor the final explanation of all the events summarized at the end. Still, I really enjoyed my time spend with this book. Life in Romania under Nicolae Ceausescu in the 1980s, the perils of emigration and life as a Romanian emigrant, all are perceptively described, emotionally and intellectually. I felt I was there experiencing the main character’s confusion, weariness, worries, anger and joys. I truly felt the author captured real life experiences. This is a book about how life really is, and it is not often that a book of fiction captures this so genuinely. The characters are real; they do what people really do. This does not feel like a book of fiction! And there are many wonderful lines.

After reading this book I feel I understand life under Ceausescu. Do you want to understand this Romanian experience, then read this book. The audiobook narration by Yelena Shmulenson was excellent.

One feels that there is a LOT of the author in this book. She brings out both the beauty and the ugliness of Romania. During the years leading up to the 1989 revolution, there was a justifiable culture of distrust amongst friends combined with a strengthening of family bonds. This is brought out so well by the writing of Domnica Radulescu. Eventually, the contrasts with American society, and its very different values, are brought to the fore, and you'll come to truly understand the meaning of the Romanian word, "dor."

Having many Romanian friends, but having only been to Bucharest on my numerous business visits to that vast country, the descriptions in this book serve to reinforce the message of those friends: I must travel to the Carpathian Mountains, or down to the Black Sea coast, if I am ever to fully appreciate their land.

This is an absorbing story which is brilliantly narrated.