The Butterfly's Daughter (utgåvan 2012)

I kind of slugged my way through this book, I couldn't pinpoint when I got restless with the plot but I really enjoyed the facts about the monarch butterflies. I'm glad I finished it for that reason. ( )

Book on CD read by the author
2.5**

Luz Avila’s mother abandoner her when she was a toddler, and she’s been raised by her grandmother. Now she sets out on a road trip to take her grandmother’s ashes back to her native village in Mexico, an area near the Monarch butterfly sanctuary.

I knew this was a chick-lit, road-trip, find-yourself kind of novel going in. I was intrigued by the link to the monarch butterfly migration, and by the main character’s journey from Milwaukee (where I currently live) to San Antonio (where I grew up) and on to Mexico.

There were parts of this story which I really liked. I liked that Luz was a young woman with some uncertainty in her past and uncertainty about her future, who decided to take on this trip without help or assistance. Of course, that’s a somewhat foolish goal, and she DOES need help along the way, but she manages to usually figure out a way to keep going without relying on her boyfriend to rescue her. Brava! I also liked the various people she picks up along the way: Ofelia, Margaret, even Stacie. These characters bring a new way of thinking to Luz, and help her to eventually find her own path.

I also liked that the ending, while hopeful, was NOT just wrapped up in a pretty little happy-ever-after bow.

I was not so keen on the way that Monroe basically dropped the additional characters along the way, however. And I really disliked Mariposa, Luz’s supposedly dead mother. I quickly got tired of her self-imposed guilt trip and how thoughtless she was about Luz and the ofrenda she had worked on to honor her Abuela, Mariposa’s own mother.

In general, I would probably give this 3 stars – an enjoyable, chick-lit read. Except…

Monroe reads the audiobook herself. She clearly has the emotional connection to the book and to these characters, and that comes through on the audio. Her pacing is good, as well. However, her pronunciation of Spanish was so bad that it completely distracted me from the book. I kept yelling at the CD whenever she mispronounced “la Virgen de Guadalupe” and other key Spanish phrases. So, she gets only 1 star for her audio performance, and that brings the entire rating down. ( )

Not my favorite MAM novel, but I did addd a little more about butterflies to my knowledge base. ( )

Sweet book. It was a book club choice. Bit too easy. ( )

A bit heavy-handed with the message at times, but overall a good fast read. ( )