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Two days before Tam and Tony Kwan receive their letter of acceptance for the son they are adopting from China, Tony and his estranged cousin Mia are killed unexpectedly in an accident. A shell-shocked Tam learns she is named the guardian to Mia’s five-year-old daughter, Angela. With no other family around, Tam has no choice but to agree to take in the girl she hasn’t seen since the child was an infant.
Overwhelmed by her life suddenly being upended, Tam must also decide if she will complete the adoption on her own and bring home the son waiting for her in a Chinese orphanage. But when a long-concealed secret comes to light just as she and Angela start to bond, their fragile family is threatened. As Tam begins to unravel the events of Tony and Mia’s past in China, she discovers the true meaning of love and the threads that bind her to the family she is fated to have.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
February 8, 2022 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593558270
- File size: 267889 KB
- Duration: 09:18:06
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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December 13, 2021
Butler (The Tiger Mom’s Tale) captivates with a well-crafted tale of disaster and revelations. Tam Kwan and her husband, Tony, discuss over the phone their pending adoption of an orphaned boy in China, while he is walking with his cousin Mia. During the call, Tony and Mia are run over and killed by a truck. What follows is a series of heart-wrenching discoveries. First, Tam is persuaded by Mia’s boss to take in Mia’s five-year-old daughter, Angela. Tam had been estranged from Mia since Angela was born, after learning she and Tony were having an affair (he never specified how closely related they were, but Mia had the sense they were second cousins). Now, Tam finds out Tony and Mia were not cousins at all. She also learns her adoptive son’s background was misrepresented. Butler keeps the twists coming, plowing through the story at breakneck speed. She perfectly portrays Tam’s growing sense of ambivalence about the loss of her husband, her responsibility to Angela, and her desire to adopt, and skillfully adds depth to complicated characters such as Mia. Readers will devour this engaging family saga. Agent: Rachel Brooks, Bookends Literary. -
June 1, 2022
In Chinese mythology, two people fated to be together are joined by an invisible red thread from their very beginnings. The two are destined to be lovers. In her second novel, Butler (The Tiger Mom's Tale) expands this to include adopted children and families formed by circumstance, not by blood. The book opens with the deaths of two main characters and draws listeners in immediately. Listeners might wish for more depth to the characters and a little more plausibility in some of the plot twists, but it's an enjoyable listen overall. Told in the third person, most of the novel is presented from the perspective of the main character, Tam. Natalie Naudus does an excellent job bringing Tam to life as she narrates with pleasant and soothing tones. Naudus differentiates between women and men, adults and children, and native and non-native English speakers. VERDICT Listeners will follow the story easily and enjoy the experience, but they may wish for a little more range of emotions conveyed in the reading.--Laura Trombley
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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