What a wonderful surprise to find a box at my doorstep when I got home the other day. And to make it even more wonderful, it contained a book (free) that I was not expecting! And to make it even more over the top wonderful, the box also contained a bag of Bliss white chocolate!!!! I had registered my book club on a publisher's website and then forgotten about it. Lo and behold, I won a book!! And chocolate to enjoy with it!
Shanghai Girls is a book on my TBR list so it is really nice now to have a copy in my house ready to read when I can.
ABOUT THIS BOOK
In 1937 Shanghai — the Paris of Asia — twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree — until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth. To repay his debts, he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from Los Angeles to find Chinese brides. As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, from the Chinese countryside to the shores of America. Though inseparable best friends, the sisters also harbor petty jealousies and rivalries. Along the way they make terrible sacrifices, face impossible choices, and confront a devastating, life-changing secret, but through it all the two heroines of this astounding new novel hold fast to who they are — Shanghai girls. -- Random House
http://www.lisasee.com/shanghaigirls/
When I started reading "Shanghai Girls," I was happy to find that it more resembles Lisa See's "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" than "Peony in Love." The story follows two sisters from Shanghai as they are forced into marriages that they try to escape. Once Japan invades China, the sisters are forced to leave everything behind and risk their lives to get to America and the husbands they barely know. Once they reach America, they face a very different life than they expected. The story is at times brutal, and at times beautiful. Set against the changing feelings toward Chinese Americans during WWII and then the rise of communism in China, "Shanghai Girls" follows the sister through family and political changes, tragedies and fortune. Very enjoyable.
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