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A review by gracenevitt
Worth Fighting For by Jesse Q. Sutanto
2.75
This book is essentially a modernized version of the classic tale of Mulan as told and portrayed in Disney's cartoon version of the story. I came in quite excited and not know exactly what to expect, and unfortunately was a bit disappointed in how the storytelling shook out. In this version of the story, Mulan works for her father's private equity firm and starts out the novel frustrated by the fact that she is constantly being talked down to, as a woman in finance. Her father suffers a heart attack and essentially she has the task of acquiring the whiskey distillery business that her father had been corresponding with via email for the past little while. Unfortunately, it's owned by extremely traditional Chinese men, and don't take kindly to women in roles of power. With all that set up, she takes her father's place and pretends they've been emailing with her the entire time. Due to some claims her father had made in the emails, she is put in a bit of a sticky situation, and is asked to spends time with Shang and his family on their family ranch so she can prove herself to them.
In general, the premise of this was interesting enough, but it did feel a bit stretched to fit in with the Disney adaptation. In its own right, the story is quite silly, and definitely needs a heavy suspension of disbelief to get through. Other than that, the writing was a bit clunky for me, and the romance came on Extremely fast. It was definitely very much insta-love (although Mulan at one point has a moment literally acknowledging and being shocked by said "insta-love"). In general, it lacked the heart I was hoping for, as it was stretching to do maybe just one or two too many things in the story. For some reason it just didn't quite click for me. It was fine for a fun little silly "turn your brain off" kind of romance novel, but I found myself rolling my eyes at the choices being made and the style of writing.
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.
In general, the premise of this was interesting enough, but it did feel a bit stretched to fit in with the Disney adaptation. In its own right, the story is quite silly, and definitely needs a heavy suspension of disbelief to get through. Other than that, the writing was a bit clunky for me, and the romance came on Extremely fast. It was definitely very much insta-love (although Mulan at one point has a moment literally acknowledging and being shocked by said "insta-love"). In general, it lacked the heart I was hoping for, as it was stretching to do maybe just one or two too many things in the story. For some reason it just didn't quite click for me. It was fine for a fun little silly "turn your brain off" kind of romance novel, but I found myself rolling my eyes at the choices being made and the style of writing.
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.