The Girls of Good Fortune is a must read. The story is based on a true fact that I had never heard of, the Gold Massacre of the Chinese.
A young half Chinese girl goes to work in the mayors house. She falls in love with the Mayors son and things do not go well. The book jumps from that to her being Shanghaied. She wakes up dressed as a man and has to navigate her way to return to her child. Her father was killed in the Gold Massacre and she fights for justice for his death. So much happens in this book and it keeps you on the edge of your set.
I highly recommend reading this!

I was slightly disappointed in this book and I felt like I could never really get completely into it. As I continued on reading, I just felt like the book had too many things crammed into it, too many perils, too many adventures, too many people lying to other people, etc.. Then, when I finally reached the end, I was totally disappointed and felt like the last little bit was just pinned on to tie things up and didn’t really flow with the rest of the book. I have enjoyed this author’s other books, but this one just did not do it for me. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read copy.

What a remarkable story of a courageous, strong woman! Celia battles the hard trials of her life with such strong determination that you cannot help but cheer her on. From discrimination, to servantship, disgrace, and imprisonment in the Shanghai Tunnels, Celia never gives up. She is a warrior through it all and strives to overcome all obstacles.
A heartbreaking story that shows us the trials that the Chinese people endured. The unjust treatment of a people who only wanted a better life for themselves and their family.

Thank you Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

This started strong and well but quickly deteriorated.

Personally, I don’t like books that focus on women making stupid decisions. And I don’t care to read about unlikeable characters.

I read about 25% before deciding this book was not for me.

I appreciate receiving this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I wish it could be better. I’m definitely interested in that time in our country.

So. Good. Very heavy and very sad but so worth the read. Thank you so much to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for the e-ARC.

✨ARC REVIEW✨
The Girls of Good Fortune by Kristina McMorris
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Big thank you to NetGalley and Kristina Mcmorris for this beautiful ARC — I feel incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to read this one early and support such a talented author!

From the very first page, this book had me hooked. A woman wakes up in a place she doesn’t recognize and instantly — so many questions. That kind of opening always pulls me in. We’re soon introduced to Celia, a half-Chinese woman navigating life in 1880s Portland. She’s intelligent, resourceful, and fiercely strong — and the challenges she faces throughout the book made my admiration for her grow with every chapter.

Celia’s life takes a sudden turn when she loses someone she loves, uncovers devastating secrets, and is forced to leave her comfortable life behind. What follows is a gripping, emotional journey of survival, identity, and quiet resilience. Her relationship with Stephen (the son of the powerful family she worked for) added emotional depth, though I did wish we saw a bit more of him toward the end — I wanted more emotional payoff in their romance.

What stood out to me most: ✨ The raw portrayal of racism and injustice in the 1880s — heavy, yes, but handled with great care.
✨ Celia’s strength and growth — her journey felt so real and inspiring.
✨ The pacing: fast and gripping at the start, a little rushed near the end (I needed more breathing space between intense moments).
✨ The surprise plot twist — I did not see it coming, and I loved being caught off guard.
✨ The setting: beautifully written. I could picture the bustling streets, the tension, the quiet moments of reflection.

By the time I finished, I had to pause and reflect — some chapters hit hard and made me truly feel. I’d definitely recommend this book if you love:

Historical fiction rooted in emotion

Strong, resilient female characters

Social themes and real-life struggles woven into fiction

Just a touch of romance


This book reminded me how powerful historical fiction can be — and I’ll definitely be picking up more by Kristina McMorris in the future!

The Girls of Good Fortune is a heart pounding, deep dive into anti-Chinese sentiments of the 19th century. Kristina McMorris sets this thrilling tale of Celia’s search for identity in Portland, Oregon, 1888. The California Gold Rush had ended in 1855, and the Transcontinental Railroad had been completed in 1869. These two events greatly impacted the American workforce, where the Chinese immigrants had been willing to endure longer hours for lower pay. Now Portland’s port and labor market, ripe with racism and unsavory, illegal political dealings, intensified the danger of Celia “passing” as white. The nonlinear timeline creates intrigue and suspense as the plot sequences are set to collide. This format leads the reader through the labyrinth of the Shanghai Tunnels to the cargo hold of a ship, a San Francisco jail and even the harrowing perils of train hopping. McMorris develops Celia into an admirable, bold young woman as she navigates motherhood, the pitfalls of who to trust, and finding her voice amidst constant perils.
This harrowing tale takes readers from the attack on Chinese gold miners at Hells Canyon in northeast Oregon to Portland’s Shanghai tunnels and along the dim alleys of Chinatown. Heartbreak, Heritage and Honor-all are at stake.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for an ARC of this novel to read and review.

I’ve read several of historical fiction writer Kristina McMorris’s novels, and this latest again shows the depth of her research and her talent for setting and context. Much of the story takes place in Oregon in the late 1880s, in the wake of rising persecution of Chinese labourers, and specifically miners. The Chinese were accepted only as long as they took on the back-breaking, often life-threatening, always poorly paid labour that most white Americans refused. When they were seen to upset the balance, as they did during the late 19th century gold rush, racism fuelled outright persecution and murder, including anti-Chinese rampages that ended in massacres, in which Celia’s Chinese father perishes. Police, officials, and citizens simply walked away. No one is brought to justice.

Celia is a mixed-race, lower-class woman in a time when race, class and gender determined status, and the lines were upheld by law and public opinion. She is truly at the bottom of the social ladder, despite being raised by her white mother to be ‘respectable’ by white standards. Her Chinese father is mostly away from home doing construction contracts. She is mixed race in a time when ‘miscegenation’ was criminal in many states. She takes after her mother, now dead, and passes for white without much difficulty. I found myself longing for a bit more detail about her parents: how did they manage to fall in love and marry and have a child in a society like this one? How did they get by?

As the story begins, Celia works as a housekeeper for the Portland mayor. The Bettencourts have discovered her secret, but the mayor prefers to keep up her pretext. His wife, manipulative and socially ambitious, uses the information to pressure her into extra labour. Celia is also in charge of their young daughter Abigail, who is a brat. And romantic intrigue is introduced in the form of their only son, aspiring doctor Stephen. Their relationship is carefully hidden, and Celia somehow believes it will be acceptable to his parents, despite her lifelong experiences with prejudice.

When Stephen departs to study medicine in England, promising to stand up to his high society family and marry her on his return, it’s not hard to see where this is going. Celia’s pregnancy is discovered, and no one believes her story. The Bettencourts find her another housekeeping position —in a brothel run by an intrepid Chinese woman, Marie. The beautiful Irish prostitute, Lettie, who has suffered a similar fate, becomes her only friend in this new life. Marie and Lettie help Celia raise her little girl, Pearl.

The story is complicated, especially with a dual timeline that is introduced at the beginning without explanation. It features Celia disguised as a man, along with a man who tricks her into making a foolish decision, ostensibly to protect her daughter. She and Owen are ‘shanghaied,’ kidnapped and forced to work as enslaved shiphands under brutal conditions. Near the novel’s end, the actual timing of her experience on board ship becomes clear. By that point, Celia’s adventures are truly unbelievable, especially since no one questions her manly identity even as her disguise literally falls apart. It’s an extra disguise on top of her white woman disguise. It doesn’t support either the anti Chinese or anti women elements of the story.

In the end, there is just too much going on here, and while the historical elements are finely drawn, the main characters are not very appealing. Presented as feisty, determined and intelligent, Celia seems inclined to make dumb choices that endanger her and Pearl even while calculated to protect them. The Bettencourts are either better than most Americans or just as bad, their own choices veering all over. Her beloved Stephen seems hardly worth her trouble, a puppet of his status-seeking parents. McMorris, as always, tells a rich tale soundly based in the uglier elements of the American past. But this novel seems to go off in too many directions, some of which end up, like Celia’s frazzled life, just wrong turns and even dead ends.

The Girls of Good Fortune by Kristina McMorris takes place in the 1880’s in Portland Oregon during a time of anti-Chinese sentiment. Celia was born to an Irish mother and Chinese father. Both of her parents die when she is young, leaving her to make her own way in the world. She easily passes for white and finds a job as a housekeeper for a mayor. She and the mayor’s son Stephen fall in love. They pledge their love to each other and plan on marrying in 4 years when he finishes his studying in London to become a doctor. After he leaves, Celia finds herself pregnant with his child. From there her life becomes a living hell.

After finding out, she is forced to leave her employ, with the mayor finding her work in a brothel. She is allowed no contact with Stephen so he is unaware of her situation. She gives birth to a daughter but is soon finding herself with knowledge of a mass killing of Chinese gold diggers at Hells Canyon, told to her by one of the killers who was passing by the brothel, drunk, and mentally in a bad way. As a result, she is jailed, kidnapped, sent away on a cargo ship as forced labor, escapes, and makes her way back north.

It was unknown to me how much anti-Chinese sentiment existed during that time in our history. I appreciate how much research went into this book so that all that was told was accurate. I liked the writing but did find sections in the beginning where I felt it was drawn, out causing me to skim over parts. The book was fast paced and nail biting. I wanted to keep reading to find out what happens.

Thank you Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read this pre-release copy.

The Girls of Good Fortune by Kristina McMorris. A historical fiction book about the abuse, mistreatment, prejudice, and killings of Chinese immigrants in the American West during the 1880s. The plot revolves around the struggles and hardships of Celia, who is half Chinese. Some of the events appear to be unrealistic, and Celia's actions are questionable to say the least. The conclusion seems unlikely. Numerous plot points remained unresolved. I'm still wondering what happened to Liam and Lettie. The epilogue does reveal some details about Celia and Stephen's futures, as well as those of their families.

Thank you to the author, Sourcebooks and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

Portland 1888 - Chinese immigrants - a "shanghaied" woman. I was hooked.

I was disappointed. This book has two completely different stories that did not blend well. In both stories the plots were predictable, characters were unrelatable, and the dialogue was shallow. I expected more depth.

Thank you, Sourcebooks Landmark and Net Galley for the advanced copy of this book for review. The comments expressed are my own.

Plight of Chinese in America in 1888 told through the experience of a half-Chinese gif who is dismissed from her housekeeping job and sent to a bordello because she is pregnant. She fights to keep her daughter and fights the injustice of murders of numerous Chinese people.

I started out loving this book and then not loving it by the end. And I think because it tried to do too much. I felt like this was 2 books trying to be one book and either could have been interesting but together it didn't work for me.

I was absolutely hooked from the beginning (1888) when Celia, a half Chinese woman who passes for a white woman, wakes up in the dark, in an underground tunnel. I wanted to know how she got there and what was going to happen.

Then the book switches to 2 years earlier where she's a maid for the mayor of Portland and in love with their son, who is about to go to university to become a doctor.

And this is where I feel the author couldn't decide which story to tell. I actually found the first half of the book compulsively readable. I was interested in Celia's struggles esp with her identity when she's surrounded by such casual racism.

But halfway through, the book ventured into what felt like a madcap adventure with a side story taking place on a ship. This was where the book lost me. I didn't really see the point of this and Celia's actions kept getting more and more absurd to the point I was just fed up with her constant bad decisions.

The Epilogue told the story in just a few pages that I wish had been the meat of this novel and not the silliness on the ship and her actions after getting off the ship.

So two halves, two stories and two reactions by me. Part of this I really liked and part I really did not.

I received a complimentary copy of this book "The Girls of Good Fortune" and all opinions expressed are my own. I like historical fiction because I always learn something about the past. This book covered the late 1800's and what happened to the Chinese people in Oregon and Wyoming. Definitely very sad that it happened. Interesting story.

A lot of this book is hard to read – violence and hatred and awful experiences all due to the ethnic backgrounds of the characters. However, it is worth reading because this novel tells true stories that those of Chinese descent experienced in the late 1800’s in the US. McMorris write so well I felt like I was right there and wanting to take up the fight for justice.

“I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own." #TheGirlsofGoodFortune #NetGalley.

I am a huge fan of Kristina McMorris - she is always delivering a well-researched historical fiction read that is also compelling enough to keep with me after I finish the book. I was so excited to get an early copy of The Girls of Good Fortune and I highly recommend it. We experience the hopes and dreams of young Celia as a domestic worker who is half-Chinese and passing as white to avoid anti-Chinese sentiment of the time. As tensions escalate we are drawn more into the tragedy of Celia’s circumstance, both as a woman and as a Chinese American. I learned so much about the violence against Chinese in Oregon and Wyoming - but also came to love and feel for Celia as she continued to fight for hope and to get back the life she deserved. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC - all opinions are my own.

I DNF this book, I just couldn’t get into the story. Too slow moving for me. I have tried to read it two different times. Therefore, I will let other reviewers who enjoy this book promote it, so I will not be posting on social media or reviews on retail sites. That way, this book gets much deserved attention from those reviewers who loved it!

What an interesting novel about the mistreatment of Chinese immigrants in America. What these poor people went through! I had never heard of the Shanghai Tunnels or the Hells Canyon massacre and its really opened my eyes.
Learning about Chinese prejudice in the 1880s West was heart-breaking.
Powerful reading

Celia wakes up in a tunnel under Portland locked in a cell. It's 1888 Oregon and she's been kidnapped to be sold into forced labor. Half Chinese, passing as white, she gradually puts together what has happened to her and seeks not only escape but saving her daughter, possibly finding the man she loves, and rescuing her Chinese father from the horrifying work of an Idaho mine. The history of the time and the research done by the author are woven into the story seamlessly with Celia and her strength constantly at the forefront. A heroine to admire. A historical time to understand.

Thank you, SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for the copy of The Girls of Good Fortune by Kristina McMorris. I’m glad McMorris was able to incorporate the mistreatment of the Chinese laborers in the 1800s into a compelling story because so many people have no idea what went on. While I think Celia’s story overshadowed some historical aspects, she was an interesting main character. The pacing was uneven and the story started so slow I almost gave up. I’m glad I kept reading because it got intriguing and I loved how near the end there was so much action. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.