In Mingmei Yip's Petals from the Sky, Du Meng Ning, a young women from Hong Kong is finishing her Ph.D. and debating whether to pursue the professional track in art history or to enter a Buddhist nunnery when she meets Michael, a young American doctor. This adds a new dimension to her internal struggle as he shows her the appeal of love and takes her to America for the first time.

While we spend most of the book in Meng Ning's head (the narrative is in the first-person), we never seem to learn what motivates her inner turmoil. While her pull to be a nun is portrayed realistically, her attraction to Michael (and later two of his American friends) is almost completely incomprehensible. We are asked to believe that spending time with someone equates to falling in love. The only emotion I ended up experiencing was disgust with Meng Ning's progression from strong and independent-minded to blindly following the will of Michael and anyone else whose personality captures her suddenly all-to-gullible fancies. The fact that Michael's affections are overbearing at best and often border on emotional abuse is never addressed. All this led to a profound disconnect from the story and a complete lack of caring as to the outcome of the tale. The sole saving grace is the in-depth and sometimes captivating descriptions of the lives of Buddhist nuns. Unfortunately, too much of the story is spent away from this world to make reading it worth the investment.

I received Petals from the Sky through LibraryThing's Member Giveaway program.

I've seen some positive reviews for this, hence why I had requested it.

The more I read, the more I had an issue with where the author was taking her character. Of course, this is all about a journey, filled with uncertainty and confusion as the main character struggles to find her spiritual and sexual identity.

It is not a terrible read. But I expected more and after finishing the book, I am still left feeling a little disappointed. But keep in mind, I had expectations that are my own. I would encourage any reader of this short review to seek out others in order to develop a more informed opinion. ( )

Meng Ning is finally going to see if her vocation is to become a Buddhist nun like her mentor, the lovely nun who saved her life so many years ago. Finally all but finished with her doctorate, Meng Ning signs up for a retreat to test her desire to enter the Empty Gate, forsaking love and marriage. But a fire breaks out in the convent and she is fortuitously rescued by a handsome American doctor, igniting in her a seed of doubt about her own path. More than a traditional love story, this is the tale of a woman discovering herself and her own desires.

As Meng Ning and Michael come to know each other better, their characters change fairly significantly and in ways that make them seem to be completely removed from who they were at the beginning of the book. Although Meng Ning's decision whether to marry Michael or to turn her back on family and the material world is a serious one, her constant waffling makes for tough reading. And the plot is completely anachronistic when she travels to New York and meets Michael's "friends." Certainly, Yip has done a reasonable job portraying a woman who has been hovering without making a decision for more than 10 years but there was just something a little off-putting here. The descriptions of the Buddhist life, its necessary intersections with the outside, material world, and the culture clash that is inevitable in a cross-cultural relationship are all interesting but they just can't quite carry the novel. ( )

I did not enjoy this book, unfortunately. I skimmed through it and felt dissatisfied. ( )

Petals From The Sky is the seond book from Yip and unfortunately, it was a disappointing follow-up. The main girl chooses at 20 to be a nun but the story starts when she's 30 and still finishing college. She's naive and confused throughout the book and very emotionally closed. It is a bit shallow at times. The only things I like abot the book are the different folk tales that Yip weaves into the main story. ( )