Maggie Osbourne - American Pie

Spirited Polish immigrant Lucie Kolska and Dublin native Jamie Kelly arrive on Ellis Island the same day. Lucie is instantly drawn to Jamie and his daring dreams of success. Lucie, too, has hopes of her own...tucked away in the corner of her suitcase. The family formula for beauty cream.
Work is scarce, the tenements teeming—and bitter family rivalries keep Lucie and Jamie apart...until Lucie's menial job in a Madison Avenue mansion connects her with New York's elite—and an opportunity to build a beauty empire. Now, more than ever, she needs Jamie's love—his passion—to make their American Dream come true.

Comment: This is a book that had been in the pile for a long time. Since it's not very big, I picked it to carry with me while in an outing so that it wouldn't take me too long had I the chance to dedicate to reading.

In this book we have the story of Lucie Kolska, a recently arrived emigrant from Poland who, like many others, sees in America the land of opportunities. The same day she arrives, while waiting for her brother to find her, she meets Jaime Kelly, also a brand new arrival from Ireland. They seem to connect briefly while waiting for her brother but soon lose track of one another.

While looking for work and dealing with the failed expectations of being in the country many have dreamed about, both Lucie and Jamie face their own problems and obstacles. However, it seems fate ha made it necessary for them to be together and they meet again but will the apparent connection between them enough to make them succeed?

This is an Harlequin publication, so the more obvious detail about it, when compared to other books by the author, is the smaller page count, which means more had to be inserted in a smaller story.

In a way this is very evident and made some things too repetitive and not as fluid. On the other hand, perhaps that wouldn't have mattered anyway since I think the story focused on the wrong elements.

This was not the first book by this author I've tried and I imagined a certain writing style, a certain "flavor" to this, as I found in the past in mrs Osbourne's work.

However, it's clear this is part of a set or a theme or something and, unlike most of the author's work, this is not a western. The story is pretty much focused on the way emigrants would arrive in America, thinking about the dream of finding things they couldn't in their countries. The hope and dreams is always there and the author managed to convey that but this means that for me the story is short for publishing demands and unfulfilled for plot reasons.

Lucie and Jamie are interesting enough characters for the time they lived in but, again unlike other books by the author where the characters would face adversity in a specific setting but their uniqueness or personality would make them special to try and overcome whatever challenge they faced, in this one I didn't feel that.

Lucie and Jamie are, individually speaking, too close to the accurate descriptions of people of those times: she is too focused on marriage and the place of a woman, even on the price of her dreams, and he is too worried about being a provider and a man who supports his family even if that means he wants a wife to stand by him and not support him instead.

In a way, this is the reason why I disliked this book. It's not a bad book and it does offer a realistic portrait of what life used to be like (and still is in a way for those who still go to another country) for those people, always poor and working to only pay rent in miserable places or not have work at all.

I did like the raw descriptions of difficulties and worries.

However, the whole book was focused on this. There's too much negativity, complications, disease, unfairness, tragedy and even a bit of chauvinistic behavior that bring the mood down. The book is too negative, overall. Yes, this was probably more realistic and often that the stories of success but this being a romance, I did expect more of it and a bit more positivity too.

In the end, something good happens and the characters seem to find hope. Not before more tragedy and loss, though. I think the good details didn't have to be exaggerated for the story to be realistic and interesting. In such few pages maybe less descriptions of all the difficulties and bit more "after success" would have made it a more balanced plot.

The way it is, between the depressing situations and the way women were treated by some and their own limited expectations that no matter how well done were still irritating, there wasn't a lot I liked in this. In the end, it was not a pleasant read nor a good experience to read this one as it was to read other things by her.

Grade: 4/10