Brooklyn Love

Brooklyn Love tells the story of three young Orthodox Jewish women struggling with the rules they must follow as each falls in love. Rachel’s parents aren’t fond of her choosing a Rabbi over a rich, Columbia University educated lawyer. Hindy is very pious and only wants to marry a Talmud scholar – but she’s in love with an Orthodox Jewish man at work. Leah wants to be a doctor, but her immigrant mother has her own fixed ideas about the course to success and marriage her daughter must take. The three women caught between the crushing guilt of defying their mothers and their desire to be normal are there for each other as they try to figure out who they are – and what they truly want.                        

With wide crossover appeal to teens and their mothers, fans of Pride and Prejudice will find a new story in Brooklyn Love about young women trying to find love in a highly regulated culture where family status determines a woman’s choices.

My Thoughts: I always enjoy clean romances which is why I read lots of Amish fiction so I thought Orthodox Jewish fiction would be a nice change of pace. Overall, I enjoyed the stories. At times I got characters confused because there were so many but a quick look at the back cover and I was good. The hardest part for me were all the Jewish words (not sure if they are Yiddish or Hebrew). I was familiar with some having grown up in CT with lots of family in NY but lost on many; a list of terms with translations in the front or back of the book would help us Gentiles.

About the author: A freelance illustrator and journalist, Yael Levy has been published in numerous venues, including The Jerusalem Post during her three-year stay in Israel just east of the bustling capital city of Tel Aviv. 
She holds a degree in Illustration from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. But it’s the questioning journalist inside her that has launched a new career in writing literature. Her debut novel Brooklyn Love hones in on Levy’s interest in the underlying thoughts and expressions of the Orthodox Jewish culture. 
A native New Yorker, Levy currently writes for The Times of Israel about her experiences as a Jewish mother now living in Atlanta. She is also studying for a Masters in Law at Emory University.

This book was provided to me through Bostick Communications; I received no monetary compensation for my review.