Snow Flower And The Secret Fan by Lisa See

I'm sad that I didn't read this book sooner. It was a bittersweet tale of two women and their friendship over the course of their lives. See does a marvelous job, not only painting the picture of the time period these women lived in but creating characters that I as a reader cared about. From the first few pages I was drawn into Lily and Snow Flower's lives. I enjoyed all the detail that See provides about their day to day lives. The information about how a family in rural China might have lived day to day was fascinating to me. I did sadden me to hear how women were treated and how under valued women were seen. Overall, a wonderful story about women and their friendship.

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Shanghai Girls was a pleasure to read. I picked it up and other than stopping to sleep, I didn't put it down.

I hadn't read the blurb on the back of the book, and had avoided reading the details of other reviews, and so I had no idea what was going to happen to Pearl and May. That excitement of not knowing what comes next in the book, and the surprising shock of their life-changing secret was enough to make me never want to read a back cover blurb again.

This was a very entertaining historical fiction novel. My only complaint was that I didn't want it to end. When I came to the last page I thought for sure there would be more to the story. I would love to read a sequel just to find out what happens to the characters, and to me that means that the author did a good job.

I recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of historical fiction, especially those interested in fiction about Chinese women.

To read my full review, visit my blog.