Breakaway Books

Authored by Jesse Q. Sutanto; Published November 2025; Romance

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️

When I first started reading Next Time Will Be Our Turn, I expected a story along the lines of Crazy Rich Asians. While there is a certain amount of wealth thrown around in this novel, it is not a fun story about the lavish lifestyle of the elite. It’s a down-to-earth and heartbreaking romance.

In Next Time Will Be Our Turn, Izzy’s grandmother, Magnolia, shocks her Indonesian family by bringing her girlfriend to a family gala. But what can the family do? She is the matriarch who brought all the riches to their counseling empire. To encourage Izzy to come out of her shell and accept who she is, Magnolia regales her with her own love story, intertwined with the origin story of their family’s success. What follows is a beautifully nuanced and tragic story of how Magnolia learned to be who she is.

My favorite part of this novel, easily, is the voice with which Magnolia recounts her story. It’s humorous, humble, and insightful. She brings the wisdom of her many years to bear and is able to honestly admit where her younger self went wrong, was cruel, or simply missed the truth. Magnolia makes me laugh, and it is refreshing to hear an elder talking about romance. Her asides to Izzy about her prudishness insert levity when the story careens toward disaster, and she brings a surprising amount of compassion to her treatment of her oppressive parents and husband, molded in the patriarchy of the Indonesian culture. This magnanimity sets her apart from the average narrator, and I was impressed with her ability to remain resolute in her own beliefs while understanding why others pushed her down for so much of her life.

Indeed, at times, it was difficult for me to be quite as compassionate as Magnolia. Despite the fact that Magnolia’s sister Iris sometimes embodies the cruelty of a wicked step sister, Magnolia feels so much fondness toward her. Yes, there is some explanation eventually for why Iris acts out as she does, but I still found it difficult to understand Iris’s casual meanness, and I felt a strong sense of protectiveness for Magnolia. Fortunately, Magnolia is able to have compassion even for her past self as she struggles in confronting her own sexuality in a way that strikes me as highly realistic for a woman raised in a conservative Indonesian culture. Magnolia’s behavior oscillates between baffling and frustrating, but it feels so real, especially for a teenage girl. That Magnolia then shares this story with another teenage girl struggling with her identity somehow gives the narrative a sense of closure.

Next Time Will Be Our Turn isn’t exactly a fun romp of a rom-com, but it will certainly make you feel the passion. It is worth picking up!