Marivi Soliven is a Filipina author based in America where she works as an interpreter. Her background as a writer includes having taught creative writing at the University of the Philippines, the Ayala Museum, and the University of California in San Diego. The Mango Bride has earned her a Hedgebrook writing residency last August 2012, and in 2011, garnered the Grand Prize for the Novel in English at the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. Soliven has authored other works, namely Suddenly Stateside and Spooky Mo.
I liked that it wasn't all "I'm proud to be Pinoy" throughout the book. I'm always grateful whenever I read a Filipino author that is capable of seeing our Filipino community in the US and in the Philippines they way it really is. I like how she criticized someone's wrong doing and didn't sugar coat the situation. I wasn't really that thrilled reading this book. It was a bit boring for some parts.