"Holding Pattern is a novel about immigration and belonging, mother-daughter relationships, and the many ways we can learn to hold each other. At 28, Kathleen Cheng returns home to live with her single mother, Marissa, an immigrant from China. Her mother, to Katheen's surprise, is in love, and Kathleen helps her mother plan her wedding to a tech entrepreneur. Kathleen takes a job working for an unusual start-up, and as mother and daughter peel back the layers of their history, they come to a new understanding of how they can propel each other forward, and what they've done to hold each other back"-- Provided by publisher.

Kathleen Cheng has gone through a humiliating breakup, dropped out of her graduate program, and left everything behind. Now she's back in her childhood home in Oakland, wondering what's next. She finds her mother has been transformed by love: the new Marissa Cheng is sporty, perky, and planning a wedding to a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur. Kathleen takes a job at a start-up that specializes in an unconventional form of therapy based on touch. An unforeseen attachment to someone at work pushes her to rethink her relationships-- especially the one with Marissa. Will they succeed in seeing each other anew, adult to adult, despite old wounds and cultural barriers? -- adapted from jacket