The American Boyfriend by Ivy Ngeow - 2023 - 220 Pages

The American Boyfriend is the fourth work by the multitalented Ivy Ngeow which I have had the great pleasure of reading.  

I was at once drawn into the plot enthralling plot line. Ngeow has great skill at developing a sense of place in her works. Key West Fkorida, a city in which I have spent sometime, is so perfectly depicted it is almost a character in the story. When early in the novel a woman in describes Key West as "a place you go for a weekend and end up staying the rest of your life" I knew I was going to love American Boyfriend.

"Phoebe Wong would do anything to escape a British winter. But it may cost her more than her airfare.

Sunsets, tacos and margaritas all sound perfect to exhausted forty-three-year-old single mum Phoebe with a dead-end job in Southwark. When her long distance boyfriend in New York invites her to meet him in Florida, she couldn’t wait to jump on a plane with her toddler. Arriving with her teething child at her boyfriend’s Key West ‘vacay home’ before him, she is robbed on her first night. With no money, cards or passports, she is grateful for the support of friendly locals. At a BBQ, she meets an old expat British businessman. Her boyfriend arrives eventually, apologetic, and takes her out to a posh seafood dinner. But when the British expat is shot that night in the same restaurant’s car park, Phoebe is trapped in a put-up job, and her boyfriend’s delayed arrival is suspiciously timed. If this place has turned darker and chillier than London, she wants out.

Will she be able to pull herself and her daughter away from danger?" From the publisher, Penquin Books

I don't want to reveal much more of the plot so readers can experience the excitement and challenge of figuring out what will happen next, what the truth is behind masks,   Ngeow makes even minor characters come to life.

Ngeow conveys the impact of the lead character's Chinese heritage upon her outlook.  

I was hooked on The American Boyfriend from the start,  

Ivy Ngeow was born and raised in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. She holds an MA in Writing from Middlesex University, where she won the 2005 Middlesex University Literary Press Prize out of almost 1500 entrants worldwide. Her debut, Cry of the Flying Rhino (2017), was awarded the International Proverse Prize in Hong Kong. Her novels include Heart of Glass (2018), Overboard (2020) and White Crane Strikes (2022). She is commissioning editor of the Asian Anthology New Writing series. The American Boyfriend was longlisted for the Avon x Mushens Entertainment Prize for Commercial Fiction Writers of Colour 2022. She lives in London.

Mel Ulm