nene2517's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic relationship
Minor: Infertility
urbanlenny's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
besh's review
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.0
jgintrovertedreader's review
4.0
Daria just graduated with a degree in engineering, but in Odessa, Ukraine, jobs are almost impossible to find. She eventually starts work as a secretary for an Israeli import/export firm and as an interpreter for an email order bride company, Soviet Unions. Good men are hard to find in Odessa too, so Daria finds herself corresponding with a few men, even as some she already knows start to make advances.
Full disclosure: I won this in a GoodReads firstreads giveaway.
Really, this was 3.5 stars for me, but I'm rounding up because it's something I'm interested in.
I really liked Daria. She's a sharp-tongued, sharp-witted survivor. Throughout the book she changes in ways that follow a natural progression considering what she's going through. But I felt like the whole "a good man is hard to find and I'm so lonely" side of her got over-developed. That's all she thinks about. At one point, some friends of hers showed up at her house for a birthday party, and I was surprised that she had friends. All I'd seen up until that point was work, and all she'd thought about was work and love. Where did those ladies come from?
I really enjoyed reading about life in Ukraine. We have a surprisingly large community of Ukrainian immigrants where I live. They aren't mail order brides. Whole families come here to escape religious persecution, from what I understand. Anyway, I like listening to one of my co-workers, Sofiya, talk about her life in Ukraine. She never complains, she seems to love her native country, but in a roundabout way, she makes me realize again and again exactly how good I have it. She's only 21, so she never really knew life in the Soviet Union. But she still knows what it's like to be hungry, and her stories of selling old toys on the side of the road, trying to earn money for food, break my heart. I should add here that she comes from a family that seems to be hard-working and caring. But if there's no money, there's no money. She's very open about it all, but I don't even know enough to ask her intelligent questions. I feel like I have a bit more of a starting point after reading this. I feel like we've already had one good discussion because of this book.
The author did a great job of showing why some women feel like becoming a mail order bride is their only option. For various reasons, women outnumber men in Odessa. The men who are left, at least in the book, tend to be alcoholics, abusers, and/or criminals. There aren't any jobs available. Women must choose whether to stay in Odessa, a city they love but where they will never get any further ahead, or whether to take a chance on the unknown dream of America and an American husband. Through Daria's eyes, we see that it's not an easy choice. When former female clients call home with reports of abuse from their American husbands, we see that the dream can become a nightmare. Abuse is bad enough, but imagine being in a country where you don't speak the language, you don't know the system, and you don't know your rights. Terrifying.
Right after starting this book, I caught part of a documentary on TV about this very subject. Maybe I'm projecting my own feelings onto what I saw, but the combination of fear, hope, and uncertainty I saw on the women's faces made me feel for them. It got worse as I watched the soon-to-be husbands start to kiss, hug, and just generally hang all over these women whom they barely knew, and yet who would soon be their brides. The women looked very uncomfortable, but you could tell they were trying to hide it.
All of that came through here. I have to admit that I have the men who use these sites stereotyped as desperate, lonely men. I can't help but feel that they can't get a woman in their own country because there's something wrong with them. I'm sure I'm wrong--they can't all be like that--but this book didn't do anything to dispel that notion. They were all desperate lonely men who couldn't get women in their own country because something was wrong with them.
I've made this sound all serious, and it mostly was, but it had a few lighter moments. Daria's exchanges with Ukrainian men and her friend Olga could be pretty funny. And I'm ready to visit Odessa, based on the loving descriptions of the city found here. Apparently, they have the third-most beautiful opera house in the world. Their climate on the Black Sea sounds positively balmy. Well, compared to what I think of when I think of the former Soviet Union, anyway! They have beaches as we know them! And I want to make my husband carry me up all 192 steps of the Potemkin Staircase. I probably shouldn't say that, or he'll never want to go!
If you're interested in Ukraine or mail order brides, go ahead and pick this up. It was a solid story, I felt like I learned a lot, and it would be great for a group discussion. Look how long I've rambled on here, trying to discuss it by myself without giving anything away!
Full disclosure: I won this in a GoodReads firstreads giveaway.
Really, this was 3.5 stars for me, but I'm rounding up because it's something I'm interested in.
I really liked Daria. She's a sharp-tongued, sharp-witted survivor. Throughout the book she changes in ways that follow a natural progression considering what she's going through. But I felt like the whole "a good man is hard to find and I'm so lonely" side of her got over-developed. That's all she thinks about. At one point, some friends of hers showed up at her house for a birthday party, and I was surprised that she had friends. All I'd seen up until that point was work, and all she'd thought about was work and love. Where did those ladies come from?
I really enjoyed reading about life in Ukraine. We have a surprisingly large community of Ukrainian immigrants where I live. They aren't mail order brides. Whole families come here to escape religious persecution, from what I understand. Anyway, I like listening to one of my co-workers, Sofiya, talk about her life in Ukraine. She never complains, she seems to love her native country, but in a roundabout way, she makes me realize again and again exactly how good I have it. She's only 21, so she never really knew life in the Soviet Union. But she still knows what it's like to be hungry, and her stories of selling old toys on the side of the road, trying to earn money for food, break my heart. I should add here that she comes from a family that seems to be hard-working and caring. But if there's no money, there's no money. She's very open about it all, but I don't even know enough to ask her intelligent questions. I feel like I have a bit more of a starting point after reading this. I feel like we've already had one good discussion because of this book.
The author did a great job of showing why some women feel like becoming a mail order bride is their only option. For various reasons, women outnumber men in Odessa. The men who are left, at least in the book, tend to be alcoholics, abusers, and/or criminals. There aren't any jobs available. Women must choose whether to stay in Odessa, a city they love but where they will never get any further ahead, or whether to take a chance on the unknown dream of America and an American husband. Through Daria's eyes, we see that it's not an easy choice. When former female clients call home with reports of abuse from their American husbands, we see that the dream can become a nightmare. Abuse is bad enough, but imagine being in a country where you don't speak the language, you don't know the system, and you don't know your rights. Terrifying.
Right after starting this book, I caught part of a documentary on TV about this very subject. Maybe I'm projecting my own feelings onto what I saw, but the combination of fear, hope, and uncertainty I saw on the women's faces made me feel for them. It got worse as I watched the soon-to-be husbands start to kiss, hug, and just generally hang all over these women whom they barely knew, and yet who would soon be their brides. The women looked very uncomfortable, but you could tell they were trying to hide it.
All of that came through here. I have to admit that I have the men who use these sites stereotyped as desperate, lonely men. I can't help but feel that they can't get a woman in their own country because there's something wrong with them. I'm sure I'm wrong--they can't all be like that--but this book didn't do anything to dispel that notion. They were all desperate lonely men who couldn't get women in their own country because something was wrong with them.
I've made this sound all serious, and it mostly was, but it had a few lighter moments. Daria's exchanges with Ukrainian men and her friend Olga could be pretty funny. And I'm ready to visit Odessa, based on the loving descriptions of the city found here. Apparently, they have the third-most beautiful opera house in the world. Their climate on the Black Sea sounds positively balmy. Well, compared to what I think of when I think of the former Soviet Union, anyway! They have beaches as we know them! And I want to make my husband carry me up all 192 steps of the Potemkin Staircase. I probably shouldn't say that, or he'll never want to go!
If you're interested in Ukraine or mail order brides, go ahead and pick this up. It was a solid story, I felt like I learned a lot, and it would be great for a group discussion. Look how long I've rambled on here, trying to discuss it by myself without giving anything away!
rhodered's review
4.0
I vastly enjoyed it because it's such a marvelously insightful portrait of a woman from another culture - Eastern Europe. I've lived there and had enough friends from there that it resonated for me in details, culture and emotional truths.
In the first half, our heroine starts out kind of beat down and scared in Odessa, but then she finds her feet and flourishes. But then when she winds up as a mail order bride in America, the arc reverses itself. This time, her cultural background hurts instead of helps her. It's painful to watch; and, too many of the reasons behind the way she thinks about marriage and motherhood are not explained until too late in the story, so her passive behavior is inexplicable for too long. I suspect with a few edits to move cultural explanations earlier in, it would have been a less infuriating read.
That said, it's a brilliant portrait of how differently people from different cultures view things. As such it reminded me of how shallowly most American science fiction and fantasy writers do their world building, because few have cultural differences and nuances as this novel set in our very real world does.
It's also a brilliant antidote to most fictional romances. I love romance novels as much as the next woman. But I'm also aware they're not real life. This book is far closer to reality. It's a reality where there are no perfect men or women. Where people fool themselves, where women sell themselves for a green card, where the handsome, rich alpha male may not be your best choice, where HFN is more believable than HEA, etc.
It was a relief to read something that felt truer to life, with no easy romance recipes. No handsome stranger to save the day.
Trigger warnings for emotional abuse and some crappy sex. On the other hand, there is a fairly happy ending.
In the first half, our heroine starts out kind of beat down and scared in Odessa, but then she finds her feet and flourishes. But then when she winds up as a mail order bride in America, the arc reverses itself. This time, her cultural background hurts instead of helps her. It's painful to watch; and, too many of the reasons behind the way she thinks about marriage and motherhood are not explained until too late in the story, so her passive behavior is inexplicable for too long. I suspect with a few edits to move cultural explanations earlier in, it would have been a less infuriating read.
That said, it's a brilliant portrait of how differently people from different cultures view things. As such it reminded me of how shallowly most American science fiction and fantasy writers do their world building, because few have cultural differences and nuances as this novel set in our very real world does.
It's also a brilliant antidote to most fictional romances. I love romance novels as much as the next woman. But I'm also aware they're not real life. This book is far closer to reality. It's a reality where there are no perfect men or women. Where people fool themselves, where women sell themselves for a green card, where the handsome, rich alpha male may not be your best choice, where HFN is more believable than HEA, etc.
It was a relief to read something that felt truer to life, with no easy romance recipes. No handsome stranger to save the day.
Trigger warnings for emotional abuse and some crappy sex. On the other hand, there is a fairly happy ending.
kellyhager's review
4.0
It sounds like a cheesy romance novel, right? But it isn't, not at all.
It's set in Odessa (in Ukraine, not Texas) and the narrator, Daria, is probably one of the top five coolest fictional characters I've met this year.
Daria works for a shipping company as a secretary and moonlights (hence the title!) at a mail-order bride company. She works as a translator at the socials where the Russian women meet their prospective husbands.
Eventually she has to choose where her future lies--in America with a man named Tristan, or in Odessa with a semi-untrustworthy mobster named Vlad.
Believe me when I tell you that Daria is one of the smartest, funniest women ever. And I'd never had any desire to visit eastern Europe, but now I do. Odessa sounds beautiful.
As a further inducement to buy the book, here's the beginning:
"Mr. Harmon had been driving me mad for six months, three weeks, and two days. From Monday to Friday, nine to five. He actually timed me when I fetched our morning coffee. Best time: fifty-six seconds. It had just been made. Worst time: Seven minutes forty-eight seconds. I had to prepare the coffee myself, though he insisted that I'd wasted time flirting with a security guard. Perhaps, but I was also watching the coffee perk."
How can you not want to read this? :)
It's set in Odessa (in Ukraine, not Texas) and the narrator, Daria, is probably one of the top five coolest fictional characters I've met this year.
Daria works for a shipping company as a secretary and moonlights (hence the title!) at a mail-order bride company. She works as a translator at the socials where the Russian women meet their prospective husbands.
Eventually she has to choose where her future lies--in America with a man named Tristan, or in Odessa with a semi-untrustworthy mobster named Vlad.
Believe me when I tell you that Daria is one of the smartest, funniest women ever. And I'd never had any desire to visit eastern Europe, but now I do. Odessa sounds beautiful.
As a further inducement to buy the book, here's the beginning:
"Mr. Harmon had been driving me mad for six months, three weeks, and two days. From Monday to Friday, nine to five. He actually timed me when I fetched our morning coffee. Best time: fifty-six seconds. It had just been made. Worst time: Seven minutes forty-eight seconds. I had to prepare the coffee myself, though he insisted that I'd wasted time flirting with a security guard. Perhaps, but I was also watching the coffee perk."
How can you not want to read this? :)
leahmichelle_13's review
4.0
Twenty five year old Daria has finally managed to find a well-paid job in Odessa after months of searching. Prices in Odessa are rising whereas employment is falling so as soon as Daria hears about the job, working for a shipping company, she does whatever it takes to get herself the job. ‘Whatever it takes’ turns out to be sleeping with the boss, Mr Harmon. To distract him from pursuing her, Daria introduces him to her friend Olga which soon turns out to be a big mistake and Olga ends up making Daria’s life at Algonaut hell. Daria finds herself searching for a second job and ends up at Soviet Unions, a match-making/mail-order bride-type business and after matching up many Odessans with American men, Daria finds herself yearning after the American dream for herself...
Moonlight In Odessa was released in February 2010 but it never appeared on my radar at all. If I had to class it in any genre, it would have to be ‘chick lit’ because it doesn’t appear to fall anywhere else but when I was looking for new book releases, this one never appeared. In fact, the first I knew of Moonlight In Odessa was when it made the shortlist for the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance. Moonlight In Odessa won the title which is a fairly prestigious one in the world of chick lit/comedy romance and after we wrote a post congratulating Janet, she emailed us to say thank you and offered me the chance to read the book. I wasn’t totally sure it was my kind of thing but I couldn’t say no simply because my curiosity overtook me due to the fact it won the Melissa Nathan award!
Moonlight In Odessa is one of the most refreshing and unique books I have come across in a while. I’m not usually one for books set in places I’ve never heard of, and Odessa is one of those places, but despite the bleakness that appears to be rife in Odessa, the fictional version anyway, with money worries, job worries, the lack of telephone communications, it sounds like an absolutely wonderful city. Despite everything Daria experiences, she speaks of such love for where she comes from, constantly reminding us that Odessa has the “third most beautiful Opera House in the world”. So despite what Daria says about Odessans being a pessimistic bunch, I don’t believe that for one minute. If the troubles in Odessa were to happen, say, in England, they wouldn’t talk of an Opera House being the third most beautiful in the world and they wouldn’t see the positive side to Odessa and the good things that happen.
Daria is probably one of my favourite female characters I’ve ever come across. She’s very headstrong and fairly independent and after getting herself a job at the shipping company, ends up having to put up with her boss Mr Harmon’s advances for “six months, three weeks, and two days” and manages to deflect him beautifully by asking her friend Olga to help. It soon goes awry for Daria and she finds herself hunting out a second job, finding employment at Soviet Unions a mail-order bride company, and begins finding Odessan girls American husbands. That does help to highlight the fact Daria is still single – and considered over the hill – at twenty-five and she soon begins to yearn from a life away from Odessa, a life where she can be free and not have to worry about money or anything. I could totally identify with Daria’s plight; who doesn’t want to live the American dream? The American dream is painted in such a way that not only did I want Daria to be able to live it, but I wanted her to take me with her, too!
The book is split into two parts and the first part of the book is definitely faster-paced than the second. Daria goes through a big life change in the second part of the book and that becomes evident in her character and personality. She goes from being headstrong and confident to questioning everything she has ever known. A lot happens in the first part of the book, from Daria’s pesky boss, to her so-called friend Olga to Daria being wooed by a gangster called Vlad so the drop off of pace in the second half was unfortunate but it made sense because of how Daria’s life had changed. All of the characters that make up Moonlight In Odessa were fully fleshed out and became very real to me. I think the fact I loved Daria is evident, and I wish there were more characters like her floating around in books! A character who made a real impression on me though was Daria’s boss Mr Harmon (or David, if you prefer). He’s completely unpleasant for a long while to Daria but there was a bit of an about-turn when he realised what an idiot he had been a I felt myself changing toward my first impressions of him. Another character I absolutely adored was Daria’s grandmother Boba. She was so so lovely, and all she wanted was for her grand-daughter to have a better life. The final character I must mention is Vlad, and I don’t really know what I made of him, not really!
I learned a lot while reading Moonlight In Odessa, mainly what it’s like to live in Odessa, and to a certain extent, Ukraine. It’s easy to be blinkered when you live such a lovely life as I’m sure I do and compared to what Daria faces my life is a piece of cake. Because of my lack of knowledge about Odessa, I’m not completely sure if everything in the book is true but either way it certainly opened my eyes, particularly about mail-order brides. I’ve read stories in the news about mail-order brides but never anything so in depth and it’s hard to know who is playing who: the Odessan girls desperate to escape Odessa or the American men looking for a beautiful bride to Lord it over. Janet Skeslien Charles has written a fantastic novel, one that should appeal to many. It’s well-written, it has romantic and comedy moments and it has a really really great female lead character in Daria. Hopefully the winning of the Melissa Nathan Award will make more people pick up this fantastic book because it deserves every award it wins and I can’t wait for more books by Janet!
Moonlight In Odessa was released in February 2010 but it never appeared on my radar at all. If I had to class it in any genre, it would have to be ‘chick lit’ because it doesn’t appear to fall anywhere else but when I was looking for new book releases, this one never appeared. In fact, the first I knew of Moonlight In Odessa was when it made the shortlist for the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance. Moonlight In Odessa won the title which is a fairly prestigious one in the world of chick lit/comedy romance and after we wrote a post congratulating Janet, she emailed us to say thank you and offered me the chance to read the book. I wasn’t totally sure it was my kind of thing but I couldn’t say no simply because my curiosity overtook me due to the fact it won the Melissa Nathan award!
Moonlight In Odessa is one of the most refreshing and unique books I have come across in a while. I’m not usually one for books set in places I’ve never heard of, and Odessa is one of those places, but despite the bleakness that appears to be rife in Odessa, the fictional version anyway, with money worries, job worries, the lack of telephone communications, it sounds like an absolutely wonderful city. Despite everything Daria experiences, she speaks of such love for where she comes from, constantly reminding us that Odessa has the “third most beautiful Opera House in the world”. So despite what Daria says about Odessans being a pessimistic bunch, I don’t believe that for one minute. If the troubles in Odessa were to happen, say, in England, they wouldn’t talk of an Opera House being the third most beautiful in the world and they wouldn’t see the positive side to Odessa and the good things that happen.
Daria is probably one of my favourite female characters I’ve ever come across. She’s very headstrong and fairly independent and after getting herself a job at the shipping company, ends up having to put up with her boss Mr Harmon’s advances for “six months, three weeks, and two days” and manages to deflect him beautifully by asking her friend Olga to help. It soon goes awry for Daria and she finds herself hunting out a second job, finding employment at Soviet Unions a mail-order bride company, and begins finding Odessan girls American husbands. That does help to highlight the fact Daria is still single – and considered over the hill – at twenty-five and she soon begins to yearn from a life away from Odessa, a life where she can be free and not have to worry about money or anything. I could totally identify with Daria’s plight; who doesn’t want to live the American dream? The American dream is painted in such a way that not only did I want Daria to be able to live it, but I wanted her to take me with her, too!
The book is split into two parts and the first part of the book is definitely faster-paced than the second. Daria goes through a big life change in the second part of the book and that becomes evident in her character and personality. She goes from being headstrong and confident to questioning everything she has ever known. A lot happens in the first part of the book, from Daria’s pesky boss, to her so-called friend Olga to Daria being wooed by a gangster called Vlad so the drop off of pace in the second half was unfortunate but it made sense because of how Daria’s life had changed. All of the characters that make up Moonlight In Odessa were fully fleshed out and became very real to me. I think the fact I loved Daria is evident, and I wish there were more characters like her floating around in books! A character who made a real impression on me though was Daria’s boss Mr Harmon (or David, if you prefer). He’s completely unpleasant for a long while to Daria but there was a bit of an about-turn when he realised what an idiot he had been a I felt myself changing toward my first impressions of him. Another character I absolutely adored was Daria’s grandmother Boba. She was so so lovely, and all she wanted was for her grand-daughter to have a better life. The final character I must mention is Vlad, and I don’t really know what I made of him, not really!
I learned a lot while reading Moonlight In Odessa, mainly what it’s like to live in Odessa, and to a certain extent, Ukraine. It’s easy to be blinkered when you live such a lovely life as I’m sure I do and compared to what Daria faces my life is a piece of cake. Because of my lack of knowledge about Odessa, I’m not completely sure if everything in the book is true but either way it certainly opened my eyes, particularly about mail-order brides. I’ve read stories in the news about mail-order brides but never anything so in depth and it’s hard to know who is playing who: the Odessan girls desperate to escape Odessa or the American men looking for a beautiful bride to Lord it over. Janet Skeslien Charles has written a fantastic novel, one that should appeal to many. It’s well-written, it has romantic and comedy moments and it has a really really great female lead character in Daria. Hopefully the winning of the Melissa Nathan Award will make more people pick up this fantastic book because it deserves every award it wins and I can’t wait for more books by Janet!
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