Next to DisneyLand in Anniheim California there sits row after row of little no-tell motels. That is exactly where Mia Tang finds herself after the family takes a job as manager. But things are not as glorious as they thought they would be. Mia and her family immigrated from China two years ago and everything is not as great as they thought it would be. America was not the “land of opportunity” they thought. It was hard and tough work. Managing this hotel is no easier. Especially when the owner is a crotchety old man, who keeps changing the deal and taking more and more from Mia’s family. Mia is ever the optimist. She is going to make this opportunity work. And she is going to be the best at running the front desk that anyone has ever seen.

This book shows the reader just how hard it is to be an immigrant, even if you are a legal immigrant. It’s not just the language barrier, but the ideal’s barrier to what you are, and what people think you are just because you choose to make a new life. The reader gets to understand Mia’s mother's frustrations, and her belief that they could never be as good at anything as everyone else because they are not “native”.

The only “off” thing, is you are never told what time period the book takes place. Knowing that this was loosely based on the author's childhood, and the price of a nights stay being $20, and my own memory of hotels like these from my childhood, I pegged the time around the mid-late 80’s. You are never really told, and it does not matter. But it can color the imaginary of the tale. As the saying goes, no two people ever read the same book.

Overall this was a lovely story, and it was recently announced that there will be a sequel.

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