We’re switching gears from the magic and fantasy to a new contemporary novel! Saving Face by Mansi Shah follows a woman named Ami Shah, who’s the CEO of a skincare company (and also a total fraud). As an ambitious journalist sets out to uncover her real identity, Ami must return to her home in Singapore and face the people she left behind nearly 20 years ago.
Saving Face was absolutely brilliant from start to finish. We were so invested in Ami’s personal journey and character development. And TBH, we’d read anything Mansi Shah writes. Here are just three things we love about Saving Face!
Book Overview: Saving Face
Content warnings: classism, child abandonment
Summary: Ami Shah is on the brink of life-changing success. Her skin-care empire, Amala, is set for acquisition by a Fortune 500 company, and she has just been nominated for the Global Changemakers Award, the most revered entrepreneurial honor. There’s just one problem: she’s a complete and utter fraud.
Twenty years ago in Singapore, abandoned orphan Monica Joseph made a decision to steal her wealthy classmate’s identity and move halfway around the world to build her life on someone else’s name. For twenty years, she’s managed to hide in plain sight…until an ambitious fledgling journalist sets out to write the inaugural full-length profile on her. With her carefully constructed persona and life’s work now in jeopardy, Monica is left with no other choice: she must return to the scene of the crime—and the one place she vowed never to revisit.
Home.
The Girlboss MC
We at THP love more than reading about a strong and independent female CEO. And Ami Shah in Saving Face is THAT woman! She runs her skincare company Amala so well and makes sure everyone on her team will be well taken care of after the merger closes. She also handles her board of investors effortlessly. Even with all the disagreements and challenges of launching a skincare line to help people of color with dermatitis and eczema like her, Ami fully believes in her vision.
Monica Facing Her Past
Monica’s (Ami’s) trip to Singapore after 17 years away is an emotional one. Her first stop when she comes back is to the Catholic convent where she was raised and went to school. Only now, just a few buildings remain while the rest have turned into a tourist hotspot of restaurants and bars. Monica reunites with Sister Francis, the woman who was like a mother to her, as well as the real Ami Shah. She tries to find the person behind the plot to expose her identity, but she comes up empty handed…the first time, at least.
Found Family
We’ve been loving the themes of sisterhood and found family in books like Saving Face recently. When Monica goes home to Singapore the second time, she goes all in on rejoining the other girls she grew up with, her sisters. Like her, they were all rejected by their biological families, only to find a family in each other. Monica can be her most authentic self around Esther, Victoria, and Qi, without fear of slipping up or being judged. They care for one another beyond words, even after being apart for so long. And the happy ending was so well deserved!
A rags-to-riches story with a twist, Mansi Shah’s Saving Face goes beyond, giving us a tale of found family, self-discovery, and reshuffling one’s priorities.
Saving Face by Mansi Shah comes out on August 12th, and you can order a copy of it here!
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Want to hear some of our audiobook recommendations? Here’s the latest!
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