This was a decent piece of commercial fiction. I have got slightly tired of the trend for dual time streams in historical fiction. I'm not totally sure why it has become so ubiquitous. The story here was sad and there was very little relief from it. However, I felt that I had read similar more emotionally-affecting novels from Amy Tan. This one always felt like it had the hand of the author behind it trying to manipulate my reactions. Jones has clearly done her research and is eager to show this off and unfortunately this does not make the novel more engaging. The Concubine's Child was fine as a novel but for some reason I just did not quite engage.

The Concubine's Child is a beautifully written tale of the old Orient when money is power. This is a time period/place that I've never read about and thoroughly enjoyed!

I quite liked reading this book. It was hard at times but I continued and really enjoyed the ending.
I would recommend this book to anyone who loves historical books.
Not sure if I would read again

Yu Lan’s life was set to change in a way she had never envisioned. It was the 1930s in Kuala Lumpur and sixteen-year-old Yu Lan was learning at school while thinking of a future with her best friend and the one she cared for, Ming. But when Yu Lan’s father sold her to Towkay Chan, the old but wealthy tin mine owner as his concubine, her life was no longer her own. Towkay’s first wife couldn’t bear him sons, so Yu Lan was second wife who would give him the sons he wanted, while Yu Lan’s only kindness came from the amah who took care of the family. Her sadness and desolation was complete.

2016 and Nick Chan and his wife Sarah lived in London, having been married for some time. But when Nick was sent to Kuala Lumpur for work, the distance between husband and wife was great. Only two years Nick said, but Sarah was always too busy to head to KL to visit. In the meantime, Nick had found his grandfather – estranged from his mother for forty years. When Sarah received the shocking phone call that sent her to the country which had captured her husband, she wasn’t prepared for what happened next…

The Concubine’s Child is a fascinating historical novel by Aussie author Carol Jones; I was in equal parts horrified and enthralled at what went on back in the days of concubines and pretty much, slavery! Set in two time frames over four generations, the impact of betrayal was felt right into the current day. Breathtaking, filled with superstitions and vulnerability, spirituality and secrets, The Concubine’s Child is well worth the read. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC to read in exchange for my honest review.

I selected this to read having recently visited Kuala Lumpar and Malaysia for a holiday. From that point of view I found it interesting and authentic in its descriptions. What I most enjoyed were the fascinating insights into Chinese beliefs, the afterlife and culture. The story is double timeframe, past and present and is based on the life of Yu Lan, concubine to Chan, a wealthy much older man, chosen by his cruel and powerful wife to bear a much wanted child for the family. It is a sad tale and depicts a young, inexperienced girl sold by her father into what was basically slavery. The link to modern day is through her offspring and their future generation. Everything is drawn full circle by the death of Chan which brings his grandson Nick to KL. What befalls Nick once there is sad and leavesboth a story and ancestral history to be puzzled out by his wife Sarah.

This novel is a bit strange. It definitely has some weird parts to it and some things that just weren't understandable. I didn't really enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

Loved the parts written in the past but didn't enjoy the present day bits. For me they just didn't fit well together.

I downloaded this book months ago. It sounded like an interesting read. However, I was left disappointed. I actually took several breaks while reading this book to read others I was more interested in. The story itself is fine, all be it predictable. I also felt as if the author conducted so much research on Chinese culture that she felt she had to put it all in the book to prove she knew what she was talking about. I honestly don't really have an opinion on this either way, fine is the best word I can come up with to describe it.

This is a heartbreaking true story of Chinese immigrants in B.C.'s Chinatowns in the mid-1900s. An incredible history lesson about Vancouver and Nanaimo's Chinatowns,
It stuck with me long after I finished it.

I really enjoy books that takes you through different generations. The Concubine's Child takes you to different times, in the 1930s Malaysia and in 2016. Its full of secrets, sorrow and love I thoroughly enjoyed it.

An evocative, well researched historical fiction with two timelines. I loved both stories and the wonderful description of 1930s Malaysia. A sad tale of a young girl forced into marriage and bullied and a great grandson searching for hidden secrets. A truly compelling read.

I was drawn to The Concubine’s Child by the unique premise and even more unique location. Set primarily in 1930s Malaya (known today as Malaysia) it is the story of a group of women and how they handle the limited choices life gives them.

Madame Chan is praying to – although it’s more like berating – the ancestors for not giving her children, when her joss sticks blaze to life and the girl comes into view. Her tall form, healthy glow, wide hips and strong physique make her ideal for bearing children. If Madame Chan were to introduce this young woman into her household as her husband’s concubine, it would be advantageous for all. Her husband will get the sons he desires, her mother-in-law will stop penning letters dripping with disrespect and chastisement for Madame Chan’s barrenness and best of all, Madame Chan will have chosen the young woman herself. She won’t be replaced in her marriage bed by someone her husband already desires but instead will have found him a simple, not so attractive vessel for his seed. If she plays her cards right she will have a son – and all the credit for the getting of that son – within a year.

Yu Lan had not noticed the strange older woman staring at her in the square. Her focus had all been for Ming. The handsome neighbor often meets her in the byways of their small community, surreptitiously holding her hand behind the folds of his samfu as they walk home together after completing their errands. Ming has promised to speak to his father, when the time is right, about marrying Yu Lan but she knows it will not be an easy thing as her family has neither the wealth nor the prospects the Wang family does.

When Madame Chan makes an offer for Yu Lan and it is accepted by her father, Yu Lan doesn’t panic. She runs to Ming, believing he will either force his father to accept their marriage or agree to flee with her to another city. He, of course, does neither, as it turns out he has long been engaged to someone else. Many of the people in his father’s kopi shop witness Ming’s rejection and Yu Lan pleading for help, but she doesn’t care. Her teenage heart is broken. Unable to figure another way out of her dilemma, she dresses herself in mourning clothes and allows herself to be taken to the Chan household.

Mr. Chan likes his new concubine very much and quickly gets her with child. Yu Lan does not return the affection of the elderly man and despises Madame Chan, who rapidly becomes jealous of Yu Lan’s youth and fertility. Bitterness and anger strain the relationship between the two women, causing dangerous undercurrents in the household, and the birth of Yu Lan’s son seems to push the situation to breaking point. It won’t be long till both women begin plotting how to best destroy their rival. Ultimately, only one of them will be victorious.

Imperialist Western societies are still struggling to know how to best handle their interest in foreign cultures. This is often made more difficult when they spend time in those areas and grow to believe they have a certain kinship, understanding and ownership of the society. Most well-meaning people aren’t aware when they force Western standards on a non-western community and make it clear that it is the community that is lacking. I felt that is what happens here.

For most of history, it was not unusual for women to be married young because fertility was a fickle thing, and the window of opportunity for child bearing could close quickly. In much of the world it wasn’t unusual for men to have more than one wife. Even Western societies, with our emphasis on monogamy, included, for many hundreds of years, the idea of wealthy men having mistresses. Arranged marriages were also the norm in both the East and the West, with parents often making the decision as to whom their children should marry. So I was just a bit uncomfortable with the idea that Ms. Jones, an Australian, would choose to tell the tale of a young woman unhappy with the options available to her in 1930s Malaya when the fact is, she could probably have found an interesting tale about a young woman marrying an older man for financial reasons far closer to home.

It would have been more understandable if we had received an in-depth look at the culture of the country and seen the positive along with the negative, but we do not. The emphasis seems to be on how horrible the Asian system of marriage was and how misogynistic their society was with no thought to telling us what makes it special or great.

The characters are pretty much unlikeable and I found it especially hard to like Yu Lan, who isn’t particularly adaptable or intelligent. One of the household servants tries to help her understand how to work the system to her advantage but Yu Lan seemed incapable of grasping even simple instructions in that regard. Her age – sixteen – didn’t make me sympathetic to her plight. Women up through the 1960s married when they were sixteen to eighteen years of age in Western society, as well as in Eastern society. She should have been expecting her father to marry her off at the time he did and given what her father was like, should have expected her situation to be even worse than what actually occurrs. It’s not that I feel she wasn’t entitled to feel angry, used and unloved. It’s that it’s anachronistic for any of what occurred to have been a surprise to her.

The modern-day portion of the tale isn’t any better. I was confused by the characters’ actions, their acceptance of what most would dismiss as superstition, and especially the willingness to involve themselves in a ridiculous situation due to guilt at the end

The book does have one strong positive. The suspense portion of the story, wondering who would win the battle between Yu Lan and Madame Chan and how that victory would occur, kept me turning the pages. While they aren’t equal adversaries, since Madame Chan held most of the power and almost all the intelligence, Yu Lan’s willingness to play the game for all or nothing stakes makes her a ruthless opponent.

I understand that many readers today expect their historical novels to embrace and reinforce their twenty-first Century values. However, using another country’s history to make us feel good about our own ideals regarding feminism seems bigoted to me. I’m sure Ms. Jones, who has ties to Malaya, loves it deeply and is aware of the wonder and beauty of its culture. Had The Concubine’s Child highlighted that love and shown some of the wonders and goodness of that other time and place, its grade would have been higher. It didn’t, which left the story feeling judgmental of the Asian system of concubines and marriage, an unfortunate and I am sure unintended consequence.

So many thanks to Carol Jones, an Imprint of Head of Zeus and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a honest review.

The Concubine's Child will takes you for two different time, in 1930s Malaysia and in 2016. There will be two different generations which is one of the best thing in this book. This book tells so interesting way, how the money will be the power, if you are rich. Book was sad and full of sorrow but there was also hope, which makes this book so good. To me it was like a nice trip to old Kuala Lumper and Malaysia.

If you like to read historical romance and drama, you will love this book. There will be happy moments but also some which can make you cry, because you can feel the same sorrow what the characters feels. If you are fan of Kate Morton, Sarah Lark or Kate Furnivall, you will like this book also. But beware that you can't finish before end of the book, not even thought you need go to sleep or go to work.

When Yu Lan’s father, an apothecary, contracts her to be the ‘second wife’ or concubine of rich mine owner, Chan Boon Siew, she has no idea what lies in store for her. As well as the unwelcome attentions of her new husband eager to beget the sons that his first wife has been unable to provide, Yu Lan has to cope with life as a virtual prisoner in their home and the jealousy of Chan’s first wife. It turns out that the role of ‘second wife’ amounts to that of a second-class citizen with none of the ‘rights’ or position of respect granted to a first wife. ‘But as a concubine, a chieh, her husband would decide when and if she might visit her birth family. As a concubine, she would receive no dowry of gold and jewellery, own no property. She wouldn’t return to her parents’ home on the third day after the wedding with gifts of roast pig and other delicacies….There would be no red posters outside the apothecary’s shop announcing to all that her father was receiving a gifted son-in-law into their family.’

Furthermore, as events unfold, Yu Lan is forced to see Mrs. Chan usurp the role of mother to the son to whom she gives birth. Initially cowed into submission, Yu Lan eventually finds help and friendship in the person of Ho Jie, amah to the Chan household and a so-called ‘self-combed woman’. In due course, Yu Lan finds the courage to fight back in a way that will have repercussions down the years.

I’ve previously confessed that I sometimes have problems with books that have a dual timeline structure; often I find the story set in the past much more compelling than that set in the present day. I’m pleased to report that, in the case of The Concubine’s Child, although I did find Yu Lan’s story the most absorbing, the modern day story also held my attention – not least because of the curved ball the author delivers part way through the book.

The modern day story, as well as being a search for answers about Nick’s family history, is also an insightful portrait of a marriage under strain. It’s a marriage where the intense flames of first love have died down, not helped by Nick’s decision to accept an academic posting in Kuala Lumpur that will mean him and his wife, Sarah, spending months apart. Eventually, Sarah will face heartbreaking choices about their life together.

Although set in Kuala Lumpur, the book is full of fascinating detail about Chinese customs, festivals, clothing and food. And there are some evocative descriptions of the landscape and wildlife of Malaysia. ‘A chorus of cicadas greeted them as they stepped onto a path that wound through thick forest. It followed the course of a river that cascaded over boulders in a gradual descent down the mountain. Small lizards poked their heads out from under decaying leaves that carpeted the jungle floor, while the occasional centipede scurried underfoot. Above them the trees echoed with the chatter of monkeys and unfamiliar birdcalls.’

The Concubine’s Child is a powerful story of love, loss and of history repeating itself. Oh, and that revenge is a dish best served cold…and perhaps stinky?

Yu Lan is sold as a teenager by her father, to become the concubine of Chan and hopefully deliver him a son. This she does, but the relationship between her and Chan's first wife is fraught with danger. Tragedy lies ahead; is it this tragedy which haunts future generations of the concubine's child? - Sarah, the wife of Chan's great-grandson must travel to Malaysia to encounter the past. An intriguing read, I'd recommend it.

An evocative read.......Steeped in tradition of Old-World Orient beliefs, this book will pull you into a secret world you may not know much about or are even ready to learn about. But you will. Historically, in 1930s Malaysia, it was a time of "do what you must" no matter the outcome. Imagine, your freedoms are taken away without question as is with our main character, 16 yr. old Yu Lan. Her life has been planned, manipulated, ingrained, and she has no idea what's in store for her at such a tender age.....
The characters are well-rounded and intense. The story is exotic, haunting, cursed, eventful and at the same time, full of soul and spirit. A sad and sorrowful multi-generational look into the lives of these characters will have you on edge as it twists and turns between good,, bad and downright evil. It will pursue you in a way you feel you need to step in and set things straight before the unimaginable happens.
I found this to be educating, and well written, however the transition between past and present was a bit confusing in spots early on. This was an ARC e-reader copy (found a few mix-ups on the transition dates used and I believe due to that I felt I was reading an entirely different novel at one point).
That being said, the story was one I would recommend especially if you are a fan of Historical Fiction; my genre of choice. Thank you Carol Jones and NetGalley for this opportunity. I enjoyed this novel and it's significance.
Denise Birt
Novels & Latte Book Club
NovelsNLatte Book Blog
ARC

Oh my this is beautiful and lyrical book, it is also indescribably sad and there is little relief from the sadness. The characters are well described and easy to imagine, the setting is clear and feels totally authentic, its fascinating to read the cultural situations which are so new to me, but it is a slow burn - so you have to be patient. There is a chink of light at the very end...

A richly layered saga of secrets, deception and passion which will go down a treat with fans of Dinah Jeffries and Kate Morton, The Concubine’s Child is an outstanding novel I couldn’t bear to put down!

In 1930s Malaya, sixteen year old girl Yu Lan, like other girls her age, fantasized about marrying her sweetheart and living a life of marital bliss, but sadly reality proved to be far different. When she was sold to a rich old man as his concubine, Yu Lan’s childhood had not only been brutally concluded forever, but all of her hopes and dreams for the future were shattered to smithereens. Forced to provide her captor with a much needed heir, Yu Lan was trapped, vulnerable and constantly bullied by his vicious and spiteful wife. Realizing that she could no longer continue living a life as a prisoner, Yu Lan decided to defy all the odds and escape from her prison. Even though she knew that her captors would pursue her to the ends of the earth, Yu Lan was absolutely desperate to escape…

Four generations later, Yu Lan’s grandson Nick has returned to Malaysia desperate to get to the bottom of a startling mystery that has haunted and persecuted him for his entire life. Nick wants to find the truth behind the mysterious facade of a house that had been cursed with dangerous falsehoods and cruel lies. But is he prepared for what he will find? Or are some secrets better off left dead and buried in the past?

Did Yu Lan ever find the happiness which she had been so desperate for? Will old ghosts ever be vanquished and laid to rest? Or will the past continue to exert its malevolent hold on Yu Lan and all her descendants?

The Concubine’s Child is a heart-wrenching tale which I found absolutely impossible to stop reading. Carol Jones is a wonderful storyteller who tells her story with plenty of heart, compassion and sensitivity and will keep readers on the edge of their seats desperate to find out what will happen next.

The Concubine’s Child is a story of hope, redemption and survival that is packed with wonderfully drawn characters, searing emotion, powerful intensity and nail-biting drama which will hold readers in thrall from start to finish. Uplifting, engrossing and wonderfully compelling, The Concubine’s Child is a book that is sure to stay with readers long after the last page is turned.

If you like reading about past cultures and the Chinese and Malaysian way of life, this book will appeal. It slips from the past to the present and the author gives colourful descriptions of life in Malaysia. It was slow in parts and I struggled to pick it up at times. I have enjoyed other novels about oriental culture more than this one.

This is a very well written and well researched historical fiction book starting in Kuala Lumpar in 1930 when we meet Yu Lan, a 16 year old girl who is sold by her mahjong addicted father to become a concubine to a rich tin mine owner whose first wife is barren.
Traditions, superstitions, and a well crafted cast of characters make for a wonderful and compelling read.