This was a fast-paced, thriller-adjacent novel that touched on a lot of geopolitical, race and class issues. I found the story compelling, but the prose and writing lacked the warmth and emotional pull to get me truly invested. The characters did not have much depth, especially Rebecca and her husband. There were also too many twists that were both obvious and far fetched at the same time. And the timelines were confusing (also I could never really figure out when the husband learned of the adoption details…)

I was happy to learn more about the experiences of Chinese immigrants and liked the publishing side story. But the rest did not resonate with me as much as I was hoping it would.

Thank you for the ARC to review!

This book has it all - family, mystery, history, culture, literary fiction. I felt like I could predict a lot of what happened, but the writing was so engaging and moving, I loved the way it was told.

Jasmine’s story was so fascinating - from her time in China married at 14 to the awful Wen to her time in NYC in Chinatown and at her place of employment. I felt like I was there with her, witnessing all she went through.

I felt less connected to Rebecca, but I thought her story in publishing, trying to get a manuscript to publish was interesting. I am curious how much of this happens to editors and writers.

I’m a big fan of Jean Keon’s work and was excited to get the chance to read her latest, The Leftover Woman. Told from alternating POVs, Jasmine is a young, Chinese woman illegally in the United States, desperate to reunite with her 5 year old daughter, adopted by a white couple in New York. Rebecca is a privileged, professional woman who loves her adopted daughter and her husband as well as her career in the publishing world.

Both storylines were compelling and fast-moving, coming together in a not unexpected twist. The story touches on the racism both Jasmine and her daughter experience, as well as the sexism experienced by Rebecca. I read this in a couple of days, swept up in the lives of Jasmine and Rebecca. There is a lot here that book clubs will be able to discuss.

Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins and the author for the opportunity to read this digital ARC.

The Leftover Woman was my first book by Jean Kwok and I was really impressed. Such strong story lines of two different women and how their lives intertwine. First you have Jasmine who is on the run from her abusive husband in China trying to make ends meet in New York. When typical forms of employment don't pan out, Jasmine must make hard choices to make sure she makes enough money to pay back those who helped flee to America. Rebecca is a high powered book editor in New York trying to navigate the world of publishing while maintaining her relationship with her husband and adopted daughter Fifi. While the lives of these two women seem anything but similar, deep down they are after the same things.

I really enjoyed this novel. It was much deeper than I was anticipating, and I enjoyed hearing about both women's stories equally. They are not the same, but there are some universal truths about all women that I think this book really captured. I loved how the book turned out and would love to read more by this author. Great emotional read!

I'm a huge fan of Jean Kwok's writing, but found The Leftover Woman a bit...hollow. While the story of Jasmine and Rebecca is compelling, there is a depth or a warmth that seems to be missing.

Jasmine has escaped her small village in China after her family has married her off to Wen, an older man when she was 14. After being told her first child died, she suffered miscarriage after miscarriage. Because of the Chinese one-child policy, Wen is determined to try over and over until they have their son. Jasmine finds evidence that their first child, a girl, did not die, but was adopted by a couple in the U.S. She soon escapes to the U.S. to try and find her.

Rebecca is an editor at a publishing house. She's in a bit of a spiral after her most recent writer had a bit of a scandal when his celebrated memoir was found to be full of fabrications. She needs a win. All the while, she also tries to balance motherhood and a loving marriage.
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It just felt.....like it was trying to be emotional and to pull at the heartstrings at every turn. To talk about grief, to talk about death, to talk about the Opium club. I felt like there were too many missing details, too many time jumps. Travel time was a huge issue for me for some reason - where was the club vs where was the apartment vs where was the gym vs where was Chinatown and all of this by subway?

Still, I'm not going to STOP reading Jean Kwok. I still enjoy her writing. I just didn't like this as much as I had hoped.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Within the first few chapters of The Leftover Woman I knew this was a book I was going to like and have trouble putting down. While it did mostly live up to my expectations, there were a few things that I found that weren't quite believable with the book. Without giving too much away, there was a lot decided in one of the last scenes, where sirens could be heard in the background. A lot of decisions were made in a very short period of time.

However, overall this is a very good book. Jasmine has come to the US to seek out the daughter she was forced to give up because of China's one child policy. Jasmine's daughter, Fifi has been adopted by Brandon and Rebecca.

The Leftover Woman is about Jasmine's journey to find her daughter and also the story of Fifi's adoptive mother, Rebecca. Told in each woman's perspective, Jasmine and Rebecca are eventually going to meet and clash. There are many topics covered in the book as Jasmine struggles to be able to pay her debt to the snake heads who helped her come to the country to Rebecca trying to balance work and family.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Leftover Woman told the complicated story of China's one child policy combined with transracial adoption. Jasmine is a young Chinese woman trying to find her way in America. She's hiding a few secrets that aren't revealed until much later.

Rebecca, a wealthy book agent, is struggling to balance work and family. Her career is teetering on the brink of destruction, and she has major concerns about the state of her marriage. She also worries that her adopted Chinese daughter loves her nanny Lucy more than her.

This story was told in the dual perspectives of Jasmine and Rebecca. While these storied seemed disjointed, we begin to see the connection later on. I kind of figured out the twist halfway, and I felt that the story lost some of its steam midway. The ending was interesting and really brought a sense of closure.

Thank you Netgalley and William Morrow for this advance reader copy.

This book covers a lot of ground. Yes, it’s a family drama. But there is also a very clever plot twist that I didn’t see coming three quarters of the way through. I didn’t expect a family drama to be so propulsive, but I had a hard time putting the book down. Once you get through the first few chapters, the book is like a runaway train up through the shocking end.

The Last Woman is told from two POVs — one is first person for Jasmine, a Chinese woman who escaped an abusive relationship in China. The other is third person but hewing closely to Rebecca, a privileged white woman who has adopted Jasmine’s daughter. I thought it was an interesting choice to choose the different points of views for the characters. It made us feel a lot closer to Jasmine in some ways since she was telling her story in first person, but I also felt a level of sympathy for Rebecca because the third person narration was able to explain some of her annoying issues in an empathetic way.

Rebecca’s husband is Brandon, a professor who’s also a linguist who can speak a ton of languages. He’s basically a foil for Jasmine — he spends a lot of time in China and speaks native Chinese, but he ultimately doesn’t belong there.

There is a lot of social commentary going on — whether about the one child policy, adopting from a different culture, illegal immigration, privilege, working mom parenting… it definitely made me think a lot.

Although the book is definitely different than Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere, it gave me the same feels and I think readers who love Celeste’s work would also appreciate this one.

Thanks to Netgalley, William Morrow and Jean Kwok for the ARC.

THE LEFTOVER WOMAN by Jean Kwok was the first book that I have read by this author and I found it to be exceptional! It will be published on October 10, 2023. Thanks to William Morrow and Netgalley for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my opinion.

This is the story of two mothers and their intertwining stories. It has themes of international adoption, motherhood, China's One Child policy, and the publishing industry.

This was a beautifully written multicultural family drama and I look forward to reading Kwok's earlier works as well as her future books!

4.5 stars rounded up! I could not put this one down, even though the first half dragged and was a bit repetitive. The second half was absolutely riveting. I would have to do more research, but I was under the impression that family size restriction was no longer the policy in China and that there are actually more orphaned boys than girls due to the fact that so many people wanted to adopt China's "lost girls." Therefore, I'm not sure how technically accurate this book is being that it's set in modern times. My only other nitpicks were the lengthy descriptions of clothing; we get it, these people are rich. Also, the author definitely set up some loopholes/conveniences for the plot that made a couple of the twists predictable.
Lastly, and I’m not sure how this could have been done differently, but I found it a bit disorienting to read our MC’s dialogue as clear, fluent, articulate English in some places and as broken English in others. When she was conversing with fellow Mandarin speakers, of course we can assume she would have been articulately speaking to them in a complex way that would have to be read by us as English, but that made reading her broken English in other parts sort of jarring.

Maybe it's just the COVID brain that I had reading this while sick, but I didn't see the biggest twist coming at all while other reviewers found it predictable.
I will definitely be sharing this book and I'm sure many readers will enjoy it as thoroughly as I did.

Thank you very much to Net Galley, William Morrow and Jean Kwok for the ARC! I'm so glad I read this book.

Reading books such as The Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok allows me to walk in another person's shoes. The author actually furnished me with two pairs of shoes to walk in through the alternating voices of Jasmine and Rebecca. It was a fascinating story about China's one-child policy, immigration, foreign adoption, domestic abuse, the publishing world and so much more. I pretty much raced through the book in a day as it turned out to be much more suspenseful than I had expected. Thanks to NetGalley, William Morrow Publishing and Jean Kwok for an advance copy to read and review.

The Leftover Woman was a suspenseful and emotional book by Jean Kwok. I devoured it in a day! That wasn't my plan, but I could not put it down. The facts that Jean Kwok did chapters in the POV of Jasmine and Rebecca was amazing. Having both emotions and life of both women made this story so much more emotional. Jean Kwok also entwined each chapter seamlessly. I highly recommend The Leftover Woman and look forward to reading what Jean Kwok puts out next!

Suspenseful, beautifully plotted, and emotional — I couldn’t put it down. I felt all the things and was completely engaged. As the story progressed and the plot thickened, I could not wait to return to the book to get to the end. Fair warning, the start was a bit slow, but once the pacing found momentum ~30% in for me, it was like a snowball plummeting down the hill to the finish… or a train barreling towards a head-on collision. 😅

Don’t miss this if you love a gripping and emotional read about motherhood, adoption, privilege, immigration, and the female experience.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Food for thought:
As an interracial adoptee, specifically Korean, I can see how this book could be triggering to adoptees who may have had less than positive experiences with their adoptive parents. Rebecca — with her white savior complex, narcissism, entitlement, yet unwavering fierce love for Fiona — while only a fictional character, is a real life portrait. Should these character flaws be forgiven for her misguided yet unwavering love? Do you think this story normalizes unhealthy placements? Thoughts from any other adoptees?

Publication date: October 10, 2023
Pages: 288

Thank you to @netgalley and @williammorrowbooks for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

You know early on that Jasmine and Rebecca are on a collision course but what connects them? Jasmine escaped her abusive and absent husband by paying snakeheads to get her to the US where she hopes to find her daughter. What she finds is a struggle, supporting herself by working at a bar but she also to her surprise, finds Anthony, her childhood love. Rebecca appears to have it all- a job as an editor, a handsome successful husband, and Fifi, the daughter they adopted from China. And then Rebecca's life starts to swirl as she tries to sign an important author. There are lot of secrets here. Kwok does a good job comparing Rebecca's privilege with Jasmine's marginal existence. If I have a quibble, it's with the Anthony subplot, which felt unnecessary. No spoilers on me for this one. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A very good read.

I had heard about the one child policy in China before but I never really thought of the extremes some of those families would go through to ensure they have a male heir.

Jasmine is sold to a powerful Chinese man at the age of 14 to be his wife. She learns to love him, but finds out that he is not one to be trusted. When she finds out that her daughter, whom she believed died at birth, was in fact adopted to an American couple, she will do anything to try and get her daughter back. Putting herself in very dangerous situations.

I have rounded this up from a 4.75.

Jasmine is sold to an older man when she is 14 but eventually she escapes by paying "snakeheads" to get her into America. The story is told from her point of view. Rebecca is a wealthy woman living with her husband and adopted daughter. She works as a book editor and is the other point of view. Both the characters were well developed and for most of the story I didn't like Rebecca very much. She seemed more concerned with appearances and her career than her family. Her husband, Brandon, seemed too good to be true. The story explores how some people in our society are looked over, ignored and taken for granted. I wasn't expecting a thriller but the ending had me reading faster and faster to get to the conclusion.

Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow for providing me with a digital copy.

Looking at the personal issues surrounding immigration is eye opening when told by a Chinese immigrant. Lucy finds herself in NYC with no papers, no contacts, limited English, and a huge debt to repay to the Chinese mafia. She finds work first as a live-in nanny, working for a well off, entitled white woman and her too-good-to-be-true husband. The most interesting part is how each sees (or doesn’t see) the other. So many themes are explored, including motherhood, marriage, one child families dictated in China at that time, spousal abuse, adoption, mothers working outside the home, fidelity, strip clubs, etc. This is a story that has the reader hoping for the best for nearly every character.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for the ARC to read and review.

5 Stars

The Leftover Woman written by Jean Kwok

This is a domestic suspense novel about two very different women from different cultures pulled together through their mutual love for their child.
I loved the alternating stories of the two women. Jasmine, a rural Chinese villager married off at the age of 14, experiencing domestic violence and multiple miscarriages and is now in search of her stolen daughter in America. Rebecca with a high-powered career, handsome husband and adopted Chinese daughter.
Both lives collide and both separately in turmoil. This was a page-turner. I could not put it down.
Really loved all of the characters, I felt for both Jasmine and Rebecca. I liked how both were flawed but not villains. Both have their own battles and biases. This story explores identity and belonging and motherhood. As a mother myself, I imagined myself as both Jasmine and Rebecca and the lengths I would go through to make sure my child was safe.

Jean Kwok's The Leftover Woman is a pageturner with depth of both emotion and ideas. It takes elements of typical domestic suspense and family drama and elevates them with a specific world and several social issues in the US and China. Kwok intertwines the dual narrative of two women - both mothers - with several complex topics, from adoption to China's one child policy, domestic abuse to undocumented immigrants, and overall the complexities of motherhood across class, location, and culture. The result is a fascinating, moving narrative with much to discuss - great for book clubs.

A Chinese woman comes to New York to search for her daughter who was taken from her and was adopted by an American family. The book goes back and forth between the Chinese woman and the American mother. Although the writing style was a bit boring and overwritten, the plot is really good.