Search This Blog
December Reviews Link-Up
2024 Literary Escapes Challenge
- Alabama (1)
- Alaska (1)
- Arizona (1)
- Arkansas (1)
- California (11)
- Colorado (1)
- Connecticut (2)
- Delaware (1)
- Florida (3)
- Georgia (4)
- Hawaii (1)
- Idaho (2)
- Illinois (4)
- Indiana (4)
- Iowa (1)
- Kansas (1)
- Kentucky (1)
- Louisiana (1)
- Maine (1)
- Maryland (1)
- Massachusetts (4)
- Michigan (1)
- Minnesota (2)
- Mississippi (1)
- Missouri (1)
- Montana (1)
- Nebraska (1)
- Nevada (2)
- New Hampshire (1)
- New Jersey (1)
- New Mexico (1)
- New York (9)
- North Carolina (4)
- North Dakota (1)
- Ohio (3)
- Oklahoma (2)
- Oregon (2)
- Pennsylvania (2)
- Rhode Island (1)
- South Carolina (1)
- South Dakota (1)
- Tennessee (1)
- Texas (4)
- Utah (4)
- Vermont (2)
- Virginia (2)
- Washington (3)
- West Virginia (1)
- Wisconsin (1)
- Wyoming (2)
- Washington, D.C.* (2)
International:
- Argentina (1)
- Australia (5)
- Austria (1)
- Bolivia (1)
- Canada (3)
- China (2)
- England (25)
- France (1)
- Ghana (1)
- India (1)
- Indonesia (1)
- Ireland (4)
- Italy (1)
- Poland (2)
- Russia (2)
- Scotland (3)
- The Netherlands (1)
2024 Build Your Library Reading Challenge
Monday, December 05, 2016
San Francisco Earthquake Novel Engrossing, Enjoyable
7:13 AM
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
Mercy Wong wants more than the life of poverty and prejudice she's living in San Francisco's Chinatown. The 15-year-old longs to be a great businesswoman with enough money to elevate her family above its lowly station. She has the smarts for it as well as the ambition. But this is 1906 and Chinese people are not exactly welcome in California's hallowed halls of learning. It will take more than intelligence to get Mercy where she wants to be.
With a lot of pluck (and a little bribery), she lands herself a place at a posh boarding school for wealthy white girls. Pretending to be an exotic heiress, she tries desperately to keep her real identity a secret from her snooty classmates. When disaster strikes San Francisco, Mercy sees her bright future crumbling before her eyes. In a city now dominated by chaos and catastrophe, how will a penniless Chinese girl survive? As Mercy launches a desperate search for her missing family, she'll find the one person who is truly lost—herself.
Under a Painted Sky—Stacey Lee's debut novel—impressed me with its compelling mixture of history, adventure and romance as well as its engaging prose and appealing characters. Because I enjoyed her freshman endeavor so much, I eagerly picked up Lee's sophomore effort. And I was not disappointed. Not at all. Once again, Lee has created a plucky Chinese-American heroine whose courage and compassion make her both likable and admirable. The novel's plot moves forward at a fast clip, making it as engrossing as it is entertaining. Although the story focuses more on relationships between the characters than on the great earthquake, it's still an exciting tale that's also vivid, fun, and hopeful. Having thoroughly enjoyed both of Lee's novels, I'm eagerly awaiting her newest, The Secret of a Heart Note, which comes out in a few weeks.
(Readalikes: Reminds me of Dear America: A City Tossed and Broken by Judy Blundell; The Fire Horse Girl by Kay Honeyman; and a little of Nancy Herriman's Old San Francisco mystery novels [No Comfort for the Lost; No Pity for the Dead])
Grade:
If this were a movie, it would be rated:
for brief, mild language (no F-bombs), violence, and mild sexual innuendo
To the FTC, with love: Another library fine find
Subscribe to:
Posts
(Atom)
Reading
Listening
Followin' with Bloglovin'
-
Love's Thankful Heart2 hours ago
-
99. All the Beautiful Things3 hours ago
-
-
-
Reading Wrap-Up: November 20246 hours ago
-
A Perilous Premiere by Gail Meath7 hours ago
-
-
Happy December!11 hours ago
-
-
Christmas 2024 Bucket List14 hours ago
-
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich14 hours ago
-
What are your thoughts on eating meat?18 hours ago
-
The Boundaries We Cross by Brad Parks22 hours ago
-
-
-
-
-
State Of The ARC #451 day ago
-
-
-
Alias Emma: Ava Glass1 day ago
-
Monthly Round-Up: November 20242 days ago
-
Sunday Post 5583 days ago
-
-
-
-
Happy Thanksgiving to all!4 days ago
-
-
There There by Tommy Orange1 week ago
-
A Couple of short(ish) reviews1 week ago
-
-
I'm Still Reading - This Was My October2 weeks ago
-
-
Open for Murder by Mary Angela3 weeks ago
-
-
Reading Recap September 20241 month ago
-
Review: The Duke and I3 months ago
-
Girl Plus Books: On Hiatus4 months ago
-
-
-
-
What Happened to Summer?1 year ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
Are you looking for Pretty Books?2 years ago
-
-
-
-
-
Grab my Button!
Blog Archive
- ► 2021 (159)
- ► 2020 (205)
- ► 2019 (197)
- ► 2018 (223)
- ► 2017 (157)
- ▼ 2016 (157)