Lucky Girl    by Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu Order:  USA  Can Dial, 2023 (2023) Softcover, e-Book      Reviewed by Barbara Lingens Meet Soila, a privileged Black African, daughter of a brutally strong mother and surrounded by aunts and sisters. Soila manages to escape her mom to study in the U.S.. There, through lots of determined effort and despite her mother's wishes, she manages to find her place in the working world and to discover what the difference is between romantic and real love. And while overcoming even more obstacles she manages to bring her family closer together. All this makes for a very warm and moving story. But for me this book needs to be celebrated for its honesty and openness in portraying the hazardous life that surrounds African Americans, particularly African American men here in the U.S.. This is such an eye-opener for Soila since her experience at home was vastly different. It takes many years and incidents and great conversations with her new-found Black friends to help her understand how different things are for Blacks in the U.S.. At the same time, Soila finds herself having to educate her American friends on social customs in Africa, which are pretty unknown in America unless you have family connections. There are tribal differences and just plain village differences. Her friends have almost as much trouble with this as she does with their lives. Kudos to the author for providing an education all of us need and for doing so as part of a very interesting story. 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