Lucky Boy    by Shanthi Sekaran Order:  USA  Can Putnam, 2017 (2017) Hardcover, CD, e-Book     Reviewed by Barbara Lingens Motherhood: what does it mean? To Kavya, who desperately wants and has tried for years to have children, her foster son means everything to her. Ignacio is the light of her days and the completion of her marriage to Rishi. To illegal immigrant Soli, her son Nacho is the reason for being, it's what holds her together and enables her to get on with her life despite all the very disappointing and difficult things that happen to her. Lucky Boy is the story of how these two women come to grips with the fact that their son is one and the same boy. Author Sekaran takes a leisurely pace in letting us get to know Soli and Kavya. Some of the additional characters are more defined than others. However, there may be too many, resulting in pieces of plot that really don't add to the main theme and causing things to kind of meander along. The topic is timely and would probably make for a good book group discussion. The writing is very smooth, and it is easy to picture the dusty desert village which Soli has escaped as well as the urban bustle of the Berkeley neighborhood which is home to Kavya. There are tantalizing bits of humor also, yet I was underwhelmed by this novel. In the last chapter the author writes, 'If this is a story, it's one with no right ending.' Perhaps the author has been too kind to her characters? Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Contemporary books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews