The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

I was disappointed in this book. There were entirely too many coincidences that didn't ring true (and yes, I know in the beginning there was a passage that said “no coincidence, no story” but that's a cop-out. Maybe one coincidence, even two, but this book is filled with them. Parts of the plot don't hang together (never once in the courtship and marriage did the POV character figure out who her husband's father was - he never mentioned ever having been to her village when he'd been there many times as a child?). Most of the parts with Haley rang false and even a bit pedantic/preachy”, as though trying to convince us of a point of view instead of the reader getting to draw their own conclusions about the issues involved in adopting children from other countries. And it seems that the wealth came too easily - I mean both the main characters magically met the love of their lives and voila, both men were fabulously wealthy. Not realistic. Too much telling of emotions instead of letting us feel them along with the characters. I did think the ending was right. And I gave it three stars because Lisa See had obviously done much research and the background on the history of the tea trees, etc. was interesting. I actually thought her secondary characters had more depth and challenges and I felt they came across as more real than either of the two “leads”