Thank you Inkyard Press and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I absolutely adore this book. I never planned to finish it as quick as I did but I devoured it in a day. I just couldn’t put it down!

I really enjoyed the writing style. I was very apprehensive when it comes to YA because I can be quite particular. And when I found out that this was written in first person POV, I was even more nervous that I wouldn’t like it. Most of the time, I find first person POV to be a bit cringey. Especially if there’s a lot of internal dialogue and the MC is young. So, I have a hard time appreciating stories written in this POV. But I had a great time the whole way through. The main character is so well-written and dynamic that her ability to turn invisible is almost an afterthought.

Loved the pacing. I’m in a bit of a reading slump. So, slow build up and scene setting has made enjoying a book difficult. But, damn, this book really just lay out the stakes right at the beginning.

Henry Li. Oh, Henry. Through Alice’s eyes, he rich, handsome, prententious, and effortlessly overachieving. He’s introduced as an asshole but, as Alice gets to know him, we learn that he is much more than that. He’s so soft and so caring! Just the way he is around Alice has got me squealing and kicking my feet. I adore stories where the love interest falls first.

Overall, it was a beautifully written story that interweaves the Chinese culture, diaspora experience and socioeconomic commentary into a story of academia and magical realism (and a hint of espionage).

Alice is one of the top two students at the elite boarding school she attends in Beijing. She concentrates on school and trying to get ahead of her rival, Henry. Unfortunately, her parents are going to be unable to continue sending her to the school due to financial issues so Alice has to find a way to stay before it's too late. Suddenly, strange things start happening and she starts turning invisible. Alice realizes that this sudden, strange occurrence, may be the answer to her prayers. and confiding with her once sworn enemy may be the start of something she hadn't expected. But is her new plan to stay at her school ethical? Will she be able to pull it off? This is a quick read that will entertain everyone. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a dark academia story that is hard to put down! Forewarning there are several problematic moral issues that the main character herself is even upfront about. You might not approve of the choices (or you may be given the circumstances) but you can undoubtedly recognize the struggles behind them. None of us are "perfect" or "completely bad" and this title does an excellent job with showing that struggle. It also deals with heavier issues like the right to education and social class differences. As someone who came from a lower middle class family and received private education surrounded by other families who afforded it easier than us, I related a lot to the conflicts the main character has. Also included are classic enemies to lovers who are also academic rivals, which is done in a fun way. If dark academia is your thing, pick this one up!

Sometimes a book hits you at just the right time, and this was one of those for me! After having read several horror and suspense novels, If You Could See the Sun was a fun story that kept me engaged the entire way through.

Some things I enjoyed:

🖊️ Academic rivals! This one of my favorite tropes of all time, and I loved how the author put this one down on the page. The rivalry and trash talk and banter were so much fun!

✏️ The deeper look into socioeconomic discrepancies when it comes to quality of education and connections that go a long way in determining financial success.

🖊️ Magical realism. I love magical realism as a genre! I don’t want to give anything away about the end, so I’ll just say that I enjoyed how the author handled the magical ability from beginning to end. I can see why some may not like the conclusion, but I was very pleased that the author went the way she did.

✏️ The social life of the protagonist. I enjoyed her social journey as she calls out others for their privileged behaviors but also realizes that many of the assumptions she has had about some of her peers were not completely accurate.



Things I wished:

🖊️ I did wish there was a bit more in the wrap-up. It felt very quick compared to the rest of the book, and I would have loved a bit more to the ending.


Overall I quite enjoyed this book. It was light and fun for the most part, with some great depth I wasn’t necessarily expecting. I’ve been feeling a bit “over” YA lately, but I had a fun time with this debut and would gladly read the author’s next book!

If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang turned out to be a fun book to read and one that will stick with me for some time. Although the female protagonist was often irritating and harsh, by the end of the book she had gone through enough changes to make her a really likeable character. The male protagonist was my favorite as he won my heart right away. I do think my students would enjoy this book and welcome it in their libraries and I will recommend highly to those wanting a fun and entertaining read.

📖Book Review📖 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
✍️🏽Rivals to lover: Alice and Henry will have you screaming at the book KISS as if you're watching the best Korea Drama. Don't let their names fool you though. This is a diverse cast set at a multi million dollar school. And they're both extremely cool even as they contemplate hard core crimes like kidnapping

✍️🏽Laughs: there are books that have made me chuckle but I truly laughed at Alice's quick wit or her aunt trying to kill her with embarrassment

✍️🏽Deep messages: for all the fun I had, this book had several messages to deliever that will resonate hard with the audience.

-The grind of hustle culture so yiu can claw your way from the bottom or to make your parent's sacrifice worth it vs. Being a child and living! Not just surviving
-coming out of your shell and seeing the world (and the people) around you
-the idea of fitting in rather it be with the rich kids or the culture you're part of.

All on all this is a perfect book and would pair well with a beach or [insert academic setting].
Thank you @netgalley for the arc and @inkyardpress and @annliangwrites

This is a really unique book. I love the way the magical realism elements play into the story and Liang’s commentary on class, elitism and poverty within a very expensive Chinese boarding school. I really appreciated the care she used when detailing the hardships Alice and her family have experienced, something her rich classmates could never imagine. Maybe it's because I’ve grown up poor but her justifications made sense to me. A lot of reviews say she's unlikeable but I really liked her because at least she was honest with herself. The pain her family felt when they finally realized the American dream is a nightmare and they would need to return home just for Alice to not feel like she belongs anywhere was so realistic and heartbreaking. It annoyed me that no one could figure out just how poor Alice was despite her not saying anything like rich people are so dense and self centered. Her and her roommates friendship was cute overall but homegirl really stopped talking to her for YEARS because she said no to shopping and her thought process was wow Alice must really not like me and not she probably cannot afford new things all the time?!

Overall it was a really fantastic debut. I loved listening to Natalie Naudus read Liang’s humor. They are a really fantastic pair.

I really enjoyed this YA fantasy/romance book about an American born Chinese student, Alice Sun who decides to capitalize on her mysterious new ability to become invisible in order to help her parents pay for her expensive private education.

A type-A personality, Alice is always striving to be number one, forever competing against rival Henry. But when she turns to him for help with her 'Ghost' app, the two become close, leading to romantic feelings and morally ethical quandaries.

Great on audio narrated by Natalie Naudus and recommended for fans of Not my problem by Ciara Smith. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

“All this time, I’d thought the nickname Study Machine was a compliment of sorts. That it meant productivity, above-human levels of discipline, that I was programmed for success.
Now I wonder if it describes someone devoted to doing at the expense of feeling. Something barely alive.”

There is so much to love here: the unique take on invisibility powers, the enemies-to-lovers romance, the school setting and nuanced characters with their secrets, the wonderful cultural specificity in setting and characterization...I binged this book an had a blast! There's a wonderful examination of our workaholic world and competitive school settings, especially in the Chinese cultural context of post-one-child act, as well as the fear of failure that paralyzes so many millenials and gen Z-ers. I just wish this examination would've gone a bit further, and that we would've seen her inability to sustain the relentless pace she somehow magically keeps up throughout the whole book.

I love this concept of monetizing invisibility, “capitalizing on vulnerability”… and all the possibilities of this power. It really gives a new spin on the idea of invisibility, and what it means to have power. I love that it’s outside of her control, making her use of it challenging. As a neurodivergent person, it made me think of how my autism can be a power but also feel like a curse, especially in how difficult it is to control when our strengths and weaknesses are activated.

I appreciated that her real problems were called out, though not sure they are fully addressed in act 3. The narrative gets at her problem of wanting to be seen, how that’s not the solution, but the pride, the fear of failure, the craving to be rich—those felt like the deeper problems that were acknowledged but not fully addressed, the real reasons she didn't want to be invisible. She takes responsibility in her act 3 choice but it doesn't feel satisfying, or even completely ethical--how they deal with the app. Changing the app after the fact to focus the blame on Andrew was kind of deceptive and not completely true. It didn't feel like the "solving the problem the right way" that act 3 should have. I think the narrative could've shown there were better options. I wanted to see in her lowest of low reconciling more with her perfect image ruined, of everyone knowing she was poor. It seems like this drops away in the end which was disappointing, as I feel that her pride and poor background were the real heartbeat of the story.

Though I'm not sure what to make of the ending and the ultimate message it leaves readers with, I really, really loved this read, A great read for discussion and conversation.

This was a really fun novel. I love how it inserted fantasy elements into an elite private school setting. I found all the characters to be very flawed and intriguing. I like how it has a diverse cast of Asian characters. I also like that it had Beijing as the setting which I found to be unusual in contemporary young adult novels. This novel is perfect for fans of Tiny Pretty Things, Pretty Little Liars, and Gossip Girl!

If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang

Alice Sun has always felt out of place at her high class boarding school in Beijing. She is the only scholarship student amongst her super rich peers and she spends all of her time making sure that she is at the top of her class. One day after her parents break the news to her that they can know longer pay for the remaining tuition at her school and that she would need to switch schools the next semester. Distraught, Alice finds herself turning invisible, literally invisible. Despite not being able to control her new powers, she teams up with her academic rival to create an anonymous service where she does tasks for her classmates that she could only do while invisible and they pay her. Using this, she hopes to make enough money to cover tuition so that she can stay at her school, but things very quickly go wrong.

This was such an amazingly well written book! I loved the characters, I loved the adventures, I loved everything about it! The enemies to lover's romance aspect had me wanting to bang my head against the wall because Alice is just so thick headed to not realize that Henry liked her. Alice's character in general is flawed in such a brilliant way that she's so intriguing to read about. Just overall a fantastic book!

Thank you to Netgalley and Inkyard Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I received an e-galley of If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang from Inkyard Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

There's been so many great Asian narratives out in the past few years and I think that If You Could See the Sun will be joining their ranks as a thought-provoking and special fantasy contemporary novel. While dealing with important themes of class and morality, Ann Liang takes a creative take with her story, giving her main character the powers of invisibility. Despite the stories of superheroes commonly seen in the theatres, these powers manifest in a world similar to our own - and as such, Alice Sun is completely unprepared and completely freaked out by the onset of this phenomenon. As it turns out that the power is not a one-time occurence, Alice finds herself utilizing the powers for her own needs and desires. As her morality and conscience begins to face difficult choices, Alice must decide what price she is willing to pay to use her powers - for good or for evil.

I thought that this was such an unique story - with the invisibility powers giving this contemporary novel an edge that stands out from the other releases this year. I look forward to reading what other stories that Ann Liang will be sharing with the world.

If you like academic rivals-to-lovers, read this book. If you like fantasy elements that are grounded in the real world, please read this book. If you like reading about high society machinations, read this book. If you like charming side characters and love interests that make you *feel*, read this book.

When Alice Sun turns randomly invisible after an awards ceremony for her prestigious boarding school, her first reaction is panic. Then, she realizes she can monetize her newfound power, with some help from her academic rival Henry Li, and her panic becomes relief. As the "Beijing Ghost," Alice discovers her classmate's secrets in exchange for a fee. But when she gets a request that is much more "criminal" than "petty secrets," she has to decide whether her future is worth her morals.

Y'all I can't even say what I liked about this book because it's everything. There were no weak points at all. The romance between Henry and Alice was delicious, the plot was amazing and well-developed, and Alice's character was phenomenal. There were so many painful moments when I related to Alice, and I just. Want the world for her.

Thank you so much, NetGalley, Inkyard Press for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

Alice Sun has always felt out of place at her elite Beijing international boarding school. She's the only scholarship student among China’s most rich and influential teens, until one day she starts to turn invisible. For real. When she discovers her parents, even with the scholarship, can't afford her tuition, she decides to use her new powers to discover and sell her classmates' scandalous secrets. But going from petty to real crimes happens fast and now Alice has to deal with her own conscience and to what means being a good person and what to do. If monetizing her powers is worth losing her conscience or her life too.

First of all, If you could see the sun is one of the most wonderfully written book I've read this year. It grabbed my attention since the beginning, because how couldn't you not love Alice Sun? How? She's a brilliant character, stubborn, shy, out of place, but willing to do anything to get what she wants, while, also, growing up in her journey during the whole story.
It's a unique and very peculiar book, pushing the reader to ask themselves questions. What would they do in Alice's place?
In this genre-bending debut, I still can't believe is a debut, this Chinese American student is brilliant and smart, with invisibility powers and it's thought-provoking and I loved it.
It's so peculiar, weird, but in a good way, brilliant and so amazing, I couldn't love it more.

If You Could See the Sun was even more amazing than I anticipated and I enjoyed it so very, very much. I tend to be very particular about the YA books that I read these days, and I had a feeling that this book would be something I wouldn't want to miss.

I'm incredibly impressed by how well Liang captures Alice's experiences and manages to convey so many different important themes and ideas. The premise of this book was so fascinating to me, and I really liked how Liang executed this idea in a way that felt both realistic and compelling. I will definitely be checking out more of Ann Liang's work in the future!

It gave GOOD FOR HER energy and I liked it a lot!!

I've been exploring dark academia this year, and this is definitely a highlight for me after some disappointing reads. I enjoyed how Liang blended magical realism with ethics. The character dynamics were fantastic, and the world-building was done very well.

I wanted the pacing to be a little smoother, but I definitely enjoyed this author and will be looking out for more from her!!

3.5/5

We have one answer to what would you do if you could turn invisible!

Set in a modern-day environment where our main character, Alice, a Chinese-American teen, attends an exclusive (and very expensive) international boarding school on partial scholarship finds out that her parents are struggling to pay the partial school fees and she is going to have to transfer at the end of the term. Alice has spent her years at Airington school fighting to be top dog when it comes academics and she knows that if she wants to achieve anything in this life, she HAS to stay at Airington. But money isn't the only thing that is standing in Alice's way of staying at Airington; she has also developed an odd tic of sorts. She randomly turns invisible.

When she comes up with a plan to raise her own funds for tuition and utilize this unexpected invisibility talent, she needs the help of her mortal enemy, and academic rival: Henry Li. *Cue enemies to lovers!* Alice may be in over her head though as her special project to earn tuition money turns downright illegal.

Enemies to lovers - check!
Social Class Commentary - check!
Chinese-American cast - check!
Adventure - check!
Questionable morals - check!
Secrets & Scandals - check!

Highly recommend this adventure-packed story about what it means to be truly seen.

Guys, this cover is legit STUNNING! It immediately caught my eye (as did the title, if we're being honest), and that was all it took to get me diving right into If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang.

Alice Sun is brilliant – though she doesn't see herself as a star. In fact, Alice frequently feels invisible. She's one of the top students at her elite boarding school, and yet people don't know the real her.

So perhaps it shouldn't have come as a surprise when Alice did start turning invisible. At first, Alice decides to turn this odd series of events into a business venture, but it doesn't take long for things to get out of control.

Okay, I would like to nominate If You Could See the Sun for the Young Adult award of the year. Which Young Adult award, you say? Any of them? All of them? I'm not sure! But I know it deserves one.

At first, I wasn't sure how I would feel about this book. I loved the premise, but a good premise has burned me in the past. Thankfully, that wasn't the case for If You Could See the Sun, as I found myself reading it late into the night.

There's a good reason for that. There are many elements in If You Could See the Sun, and they all work well together. Alice's character is compelling, naturally. But more than that, I enjoyed the chemistry (enemies to lover style) she had with Henry Li. Combine this with the backstory, her strange new ability, and her determination to get some money out of said ability? Well, that's just the perfect recipe, don't you think?

The pacing of this book is perfect. There's always something going on that will keep you invested in the story, but it rarely feels like sensory overload. And trust me, you'll want to keep reading and see how these events play out.

Long story short, go read If You Could See the Sun. It's worth it.

I fell in love with this cover. Then I decided that I must read it asap.
Alice is a scholarship student at her private school but money is her problem. Alice has to make a very important decision, at the same time she acquires her superpower, suddenly Alice becomes invisible and finds a solution to her problem, something that will help her find money. She is in a difficult situation that needs to learn how to control her life and solve her problems. She and her genius enemy (slow burning) create an app that will use her superpower. Over time, Alice realizes that there are other things in life besides studying and grades that are also important.
This is a very exciting book and I really wanted to know how it would end. Alice is very witty, cute and it was a pleasure to follow her adventures. It was really interesting. Henry and Alice are the perfect couple, they are wonderful for each other and when they work together it's something incredible, they complement each other perfectly.
This book is definitely one of the best this year. This adventure is full of amazing emotions. I believed that I read someone's mind and I completely believed in this story. Many thanks to the author.

I am relishing these dark academia books. School. College. All of it. Ann Liang does such an incredible job at crafting Alice's character. Her flaws and strengths, her arc, is spectacular. The way her relationship with Henry is set from the very beginning and its evolution are masterfully done. The commentary and critique on who gets access to education is amazingly written. The metaphor of invisibility in school and its subversion as a superpower is excellent. Moreover, the ethics and ramifications of these acts are explored with nuance. Some of the ramifications could've been further explored, but it doesn't take away from the heart of the story. I love that the stakes and pace keep you trying to figure out what happens next. The book is exciting and well-balanced. I definitely recommend this book to everyone who is looking for a great dark academia book. Thank you for an early copy of this book!!