I absolutely love books that focus on East-Asia, especially from a historical perspective, because the times are such an extreme and drastic difference! This one, however, was not all that original to me in a lot of areas.

You would never really see these kinds of themes (forced-marriage, teen-ish pregnancy, subservient females) in modern day books because people, mostly Western (America) think it no longer exists when that is far from the truth. This is what it was like in the early 1900s in America. That is BARELY 100 years ago, which is not a lot of time in the grand scale of time.

The execution of the story itself was supported in how thorough a lot of the details and historical aspects of the book were. I like Mei Ling as a female character, because most Asian cultures stereo-typically frown upon a female who has anything less than a submissive or demure demeanor and personality. But, again, the overall characters and how they came off weren't all that entrapping in relation to the plot. It was what the story was about, not really "who" that captured my interest and made me continue through the story.

The novel was shorter than I expected. I read it in about two days, which is a rarity for me with my crazy life. But the story, while well-researched and interesting, is also rather simplistic. There are a lot of places the author could have added more information. Mei Ling only receives two letters from home and she never contacts the local shelter for women (in spite of a rather frightening letter she came across about it early in the novel).

The biggest issue with the novel though is that Mei Ling has no actual conflict in her life. Every “problem” she is faced with, she either solves or it is solved for her within a few pages. The person with the problem is Siew. The novel would have been much more compelling if Siew had been the main character. The largest conflict for Mei Ling comes at the last 10% of the novel, and, again, it is solved quickly and easily – and not under Mei Ling’s own steam. The novel had a lot of potential, but simply wasn’t developed enough for me.

I really enjoyed this book. The main character was very likeable. The story moved soon well and not too predictable. Thank you Netgalley for the copy of the book in exchange for honest review.

I really enjoy this authors writing style, she brings the characters to light, in a way that makes you have a clear picture as to how you feel about each one.
In all of the stories I have read about China, I do not remember reading about, Paper wives or (son, daughters). A fascinating way for people to get into the country with fraudulent papers. This started in response to war and famine in China, the Chinese exclusion act and the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco.
The book starts off in China, in a small village where an eldest daughter is sought by an unknown suitor to be his wife, through a matchmaker. He is Chinese as well, with a son, but is a resident of California. To be able to get into the USA with him, she must take on the identity of his dead wife.(thus a paper wife)
With a few changes and a few white lies, she sets out to meet her husband and child to be, and set off on a long journey by sea to her new home. Men and women are separated and the conditions are not very good.
On this voyage, she meets some people who will be her friends at the end of the journey and very dear to her.
Wonderful characters, and I love seeing how each of them, evolved, given the very different circumstances, they have had to get used to.
I won't give a lot of details as I believe that is part of the fun you will have as you read it.
This author also wrote Yellow Crocus and it's sequel Mustard Seed which I loved.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC of this book.

I enjoyed this gently told historical fiction. A Chinese young woman, in the 1920's, replacing her sister's sudden marriage match, finds herself on her way to America with a husband and a son whom are strangers to her. Many trials and tribulations, (trying not to add any spoiler alerts) of immigrants, marriage relationships, as well as parental love, loyalty, and dedication. Thank you NetGalley for this e-reader edition for my review. All opinions are my own.

Laila Ibrahim always teaches her readers something along with her fictional stories. The plight of the Chinese to migrate to this country is riveting. The characters in this book are very strong compassionate people. This is definitely a must read,

I love how Laila spins this tale, because the moment I started reading this book I could not stop- mainly because I love Mei Ling's resilience. I was unaware of challenges faced by Chinese immigrants in the early nineties and this made quite an interesting read. Thank you Netgalley for the eARC.

I found this book intriguing and enlightening. I had no idea of the immigration challenges faced by the Chinese in the 1920s. The characters are given such unique personalities that makes the story so immersive. My heart ached for Siew when she realized she was being left behind in the camp. Imagining a young child, alone, having to go through this experience was chilling. It would be great if the story continued with the children, to learn if they also faced challenges because of their culture.

This book was just WOW!!! I was blown away with Laila's storytelling!! I could not put this book down! She's one of my new authors along side with Lisa See and Amy Tan!

what an amazing book. Loved it from beginning to end
I loved the authors style of writing and will be looking for other books by this author.
I would recommend this book to friends and family

In 1923, Mei Ling's older sister falls gravely ill a few days before her arranged marriage to a man she has never met.  Mei Ling is forced to take her's sister place.  Leaving her family in China, Mei Ling travels to America.  In order to enter the country, Mei Ling must assume the identity of the man's deceased wife, essentially using her immigration documents as her own (a "Paper Wife").

When Mei Ling befriends a young orphan girl on the ship to America, little did she know that she was creating a bond for life.  When it is Mei Ling's turn to leave Angel Island (the unfriendly place where immigrants were housed until their entry application was approved) she is forced to leave Siew behind.  Making good on her promise to see Siew again, Mei Ling searches for the child to ensure that she is safe, only to find that Siew's Uncle wasn't who he appeared to be, and that Siew herself was a paper child.  This dark revelation has a damaging impact on Mei Ling and her family, who must fight to overcome the reality of Siew's situation.

This heart warming book chronicles the struggles of a family, living in a foreign and sometimes hostile land, forced together by tradition, who, against all odds, forge a lasting love built on strong foundations of respect and honesty.  Although at the beginning, their paper selves were brought together by a match-maker's lies, against all odds their bond overcomes this deception and they find that their true selves are a perfect match after all.

This was a wonderful book. I really enjoy Laila Ibrahim's writing and I loved the first book I read by her, Yellow Crocus. This story has similar pacing.

I enjoyed getting to know the characters in this story. Some of them were more well-rounded than others, but I still enjoyed hearing all of their stories. A couple of questions were left open, so you don't know everything you want to about all of them, but you know them all well enough.

There were a couple of things towards the end that I didn't love, but these issues were minor to me and I would still recommend this story to fans of the genre.

With immigration currently being a hot button issue in the United States and many other countries around the world, the publication of this book could not be more timely.

Although this story begins ninety years ago in 1923, there are many alarming similarities between the discrimination faced by immigrants during that time period and the discrimination faced by those who have chosen to emigrate to the United States in modern times.

Mei Ling was happily living out her young life in China when the matchmaker arrived at the door of her parent's home. A suitable match had been found for Mei Ling's older sister and the wedding date was set. But, as fate would have it, her sister fell ill and her parents told Mei Ling that she would have to take her sister's place.

This deception early in the story is only one of many deceptions and 'white lies' that occur throughout the book.

It is obvious that author Laila Ibrahim did her research for this book as the facts and traditions written about in this tale match perfectly with historic accounts from those who actually did leave China in hopes of a better life in the United States.

Laila Ibrahim's writing style and subject matter reminds me of author Lisa See.

I enjoyed the story even though I found one event to be completely implausible. Despite that, the author has written a book that anyone who wonders what life might have been like for the huge wave of Asian immigrants who arrived en masse in the years following World War I will want to read.

I believe that by reading books such as PAPER WIFE, people will gain, at the very least, a small measure of empathy for people whose cultures and/or backgrounds are different from their own.

Reading stories like this one, prove to readers that people are more similar than they are different. We all want the same thing. We want a safe and comfortable place to sleep, a good education for our children, and a job that allows us to provide for our families.

In PAPER WIFE, Mei Ling was detained on Angel Island and interrogated by officials who used intimidation and threats to try to force her to change her story or to catch her in a lie. This is a true reflection of what immigrants were subjected to in 1925.

We need to learn from the past. If we do not learn from our mistakes, we are doomed to repeat them.

I rate PAPER WIFE as 4 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I would like to thank Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

This was not my first time reading about paper wives, sons, and daughters, but I think Paper Wife is definitely my favorite book about the subject so far, and I had a really hard time putting this book down. I read the whole book in just 2 days.

There is a slightly religious undertone to the story, and as I am not a religious person, I kept waiting for it to become annoying, but it really never did. That aspect was written very naturally into the story and did not become preachy or cloying at any point, to me at least. In fact, it was somewhat interesting to watch Mei Ling’s religion slowly come to mingle together with Christianity throughout the book.

The character growth was fantastic here, too, watching Mei Ling grow as she faces challenge after challenge in her new home. What would have broken many a person made her mature instead as she simply made it work because there was no other choice.

4 out of 5 stars.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I am never compensated monetarily for my reviews.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this inspiring story of family--the ones that we come from and the ones that we create.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fascinating and beautiful read about a small part of American history that I knew nothing about.

Meh Ling is a 'Paper Wife' forced into a marriage to a Gam San Haak - a Chinese man who lives in California. He needs a new wife to replace the one who died, leaving behind a small child. Meh Ling will lose her family, her country and her name to this new life but she has no choice, to refuse will bring shame to her family.

So she embarks on a sea voyage from Hong Kong to California, making friends along the way and becoming a surragote mother to a orphaned 6 year old girl who's Uncle is bringing her to America for a new life. This tiny band of women and children provide love, friendship and strength to each other during the boat trip and subsequent internment at Angel Island, waiting to find out if American immigration will learn of their deceptions and send them home or allow them to 'be landed' and start anew in America. Later on choices are made to overcome disappointment and hardship and the ultimate sacrifice is made to protect those Meh Ling loves.

I so enjoyed this novel. The rich history of Meh Ling's life in China and the life of immigrants in early twentieth century San Francisco was beautifully integrated into a tale of family dynamics and honor, love and friendship. Meh Ling was determined and resourceful and I found myself cheering for her all the way through. Ibrahim kept the pace moving in the novel, yet didn't skimp on the description of the area and the life they were living. The history was entwined with the plot so well, I got the sense she had almost lived there and experienced those things herself.

A wonderful read about a small portion of California history that I will certainly be delving into more.

It is difficult to review a book like Paper Wife because there is just so much there and any review would have to include spoilers and I am not that kind of review writer [typically]. So I am trying to think of a way to encourage you to read this lovely book without giving anything away. If you read the blurb on Goodreads, it does just that, so I encourage you to NOT do that. I was so glad that I didn't look at that until I was more than halfway in and already knew some of the stuff that they spoilery share there.

This is a book about Chinese culture in the early 1920's. This is a book about Chinese immigration, which was close to horrific. If this book doesn't make you think, you must be either heartless or dead [SEE the quote at the end of the review]. This is a book about what happens to orphan girls from China who have no families to protect them. It is about lies and how they grow even when you try to contain them. It is about trying to find and adapt and love a new life because it is the only one you have. And mostly, this is about a woman who has to become an instant mother and how that mother's love grows and grows and ends up protecting both her children and her husband.

The narrator for this was very good and I enjoyed how she told the story very much. And I really did like this story very much. I do think it could have been about 5 chapters shorter [I found that I was drifting towards the end in wanting the details to get all tied up], but still, overall, this was a very good read.

This was the quote at the beginning of the book - the next time you think that you might be having a rough day, think of these people in the past and all that they endured to have even a fraction of the life you currently have now.

"I am satisfied the present Chinese labor invasion [it is not in any proper sense immigration - women and children do not come] is pernicious and should be discouraged. Our experience in dealing with the weaker races - the Negroes and Indians, for example - is not encouraging."
US President Rutherford B. Hayes

As I started to read this book, I thought I might be giving it a 4 star. Although it wasn't a literary masterpiece, it had a good basis for a good storyline. However, as I continued to read, my analysis of the book went from a 4 to maybe somewhere between a 4 and a 3, then to a 3, and finally to a 2.

There are multiple problems. First is that the writing is way too simplistic. The author just doesn't have the gift of description, or, for that matter, of dialogue. But then, the story line also disintegrated. The end of the book was all too apparent and so we, the Reader, think that why am I going to have to slog through a very long book just to get to the point where I know it is going to end up?

Further, the book is very long and becomes very tedious with multiple repetitions of Mei Ling's thoughts and wishes and prayers. It just goes on and on with no new information. The book needs drastic cutting. If there is no new story line information, if there is no new character information, if there is no new insight, if there are no new (and unforseen) twists to the story, then why are these chapters written? Why do we spend time reading about, for example, Siew's first day at school? The story just plods along with no new interest.

And, the story begins to sound like a Mexican telenovela. Those are tv soap operas of the worst kind. If Suk Suk was a Mexican, he would have the sterotypical black mustache and sombrero.

The story becomes quite riduculous (and this is about where I definitely changed the stars to 2) when she kills Suk Suk and her husband applauds her for doing it. On the other hand, I thought we were going to have to read a million chapters, which plod from day to day, until we get to the end where everyone has a good life.

Finally, unexplicably, the Epilogue is written in the first person singular, while the rest of the story is written in the 3 rd person.

I discovered this book on NetGalley, an excellent source for upcoming books, and I was unable to put this book down. I reread it a couple of other times because I found it to be such a compelling tale about endurance.

Mei Ling, the novel’s protagonist, is ripped from her family forever and is forced to marry a stranger, Kai Li, who ends up being not who he says he is. After their wedding day, Kai Li informs Mei Ling that the reason for their sudden marriage is because he has papers to travel to America for him and his wife and child. However, his wife passed away, and now, Mei Ling is forced to lie to the authorities, saying she is his late wife.

She then leaves the life she knew to begin a new one with Kai Li and his estranged young son, Bo. While sailing across the Pacific from China to Angel Island, a piece of land where immigrants had to check in before arriving in San Francisco, Mei Ling discovers she is pregnant. Paper Wife‘s author, Laila Ibrahim, was inspired by a family friend, Dorothy Eng. “Dorothy mentioned to me that she was in her mother’s uterus on Angel Island. I knew immediately that she had an interesting immigration story. A few years later I went to the Angel Island Immigration Detention Center which was renovated and turned into a museum in 2009. I was struck by the powerful images and history that I knew so little about. When Lake Union gave me a two-book contract—for Mustard Seed, the companion to Yellow Crocus, and whatever else I wanted— I knew that I would dive into a book about an immigrant that traveled through Angel Island,” said Laila. “Both of my parents were immigrants; one for a short time and one permanently. My mother immigrated to Egypt after she married my father. Six years later my father immigrated to the United States where he lived the remainder of his days.”

When Mei Ling finally arrives at Angel Island, she is detained there for many days, waiting for her inspection to be approved. At first, her temporary living conditions on the boat were fairly horrible given the women and children had to live in the same living area, but when she arrived at Angel Island, reading about those conditions were gut-wrenching to read.

I loved the character development throughout the story. I found it enticing and so engrossed with the paths Mei Ling followed on her journey through her life as a Paper Wife. I teared up quite a bit during some of the heartwarming and heartbreaking scenes. It was an empowering book to read, one that I would recommend to all of my fellow readers.

I finished this novel about a week ago, and basically regretted finishing it because the next novel I read just couldn't compare. Paper Wife is a family saga that stretches between a Guangdong village and San Francisco.

The story begins in a tiny Chinese village, where Mei Ling's family has fallen on hard times. The family worries about paying the matchmaker's fees for Mei's older sister, JehJah, and when the matchmaker offers a prosperous widower, with a toddler son and papers for America, it's the best they could possibly have hoped for. All JehJah has to do is pretend to be Christian for her husband-to-be, and pretend to be his dead first wife for the immigration authorities.  When Jehjah catches a fever immediately before leaving, all Mei Ling has to do is pretend to be her sister... (I was briefly confused because the Chinese names and places weren't uniformly transliterated into pin yin or Wade-Giles, but I'm pretty sure that Jehjah is 姐姐. )

So Mei leaves for San Francisco... pretending to be her sister, who's supposed to be pretending to be Kai Li's dead wife, traveling with a new husband who's also pretending to be a very different person. On the ship, steerage is separated by gender, so separated from her new husband, and travels with her new stepson.  This reminded me of the Korean picture brides in Honolulu, with all the travel unpleasantness and the completely unknown husband.  But in this case, as soon as Mei arrives, she has to pass an immigration interview, pretending to be someone else.

In San Francisco, Mei and her new husband, plus her new stepson and Siew, a young orphan girl from the boat, have to build new lives. Her husband isn't as wealthy as he seems, and he's also keeping his own secrets. Siew's "uncle" doesn't seem quite upfront, either.  But hardworking Mei might be strong enough and clever enough to make a new and better life, for them all. There is one thing that Mei does that just seemed wildly out of character, but it's a major spoiler. (Seriously, don't click if you're going to read the book.)

Overall, I enjoyed the layers of secrets and overlapping identities. I also really enjoyed the descriptions of San Francisco life, especially things I didn't know much about, like the English schools or Mei's time on Angel Island.