Intelligent, steeped in history and culture, Paper Wife is sure to please. It’s on par with Memoir of a Geisha, one if the best books I’ve encountered. Highly recommended.

China, 1923 a country in chaos. For Mei Ling life would never be the same again as her sister Jah Jeh was to be married. Yet most upsetting was the fact that her sister would be going to California far from their village in China, far from family and perhaps Mei Ling would never see her again. Jah Jeh was going as a "paper wife," taking over the identity of her new husband's deceased wife. It was the only way she could enter the country. However, fate intervened for the day before the wedding Jah Jeh becomes ill with a fever. Too late for plans to change, it is left to Mei Ling to be exchanged for her sister. Sick at heart to leave her family, she now goes down the path where her new life will begin in San Francisco.

Yet all is not what it seemed to be. The voyage to California and the wait to enter the country left her ill at ease. Told by the matchmaker in China that her husband was a merchant was quite a disappointment when finding out that he was really a houseboy for a wealthy family. Who was she to believe? Deceived as she was, what was she to do, where was she to go? Yet, Mei Ling gives it her all, while trying to trust her husband. There were other forces at work, other secrets to contend with, not just her marriage. Would she be able to lean on her husband...would he be able to support her through more difficult times, the ghosts that were tearing her apart?

To read about another culture, to understand how it feels to be an immigrant in a whole new society, books such as this give you a glimpse into those lives. The book is compelling, the characters seem so very real, you have to wonder about the reality behind this work of fiction. I sat down to read this novel and ended up reading it in one day. This was an outstanding book, resonating within me longer than it took me to read it. Highly recommended.

My thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

What a beautiful book, written with sensitivity and care for the characters. I loved the style of writing, the story and most of all the deep respect that the Chinese were shown. I found myself engrossed and couldn’t put the book down. At no stage was there a hint of predictability and every page held a new adventure. Thank you Leila Ibrahim for yet another magnificently written book

I enjoyed the Paper Wife from a historical perspective both in China and California. But everything was just a bit too easy for Mei Ling. I expected more issues or a more difficult time resolving the issues Mei Ling came across. For me more angst on Mei Ling's part would have captured my attention more.. Then I read the author's bio and understood why the story was written the way it was. It's the author's style and I respect that.

This book was really interesting and it started off with a bang. Our main character Mei Ling is growing up with her family in 1923. To try to make her life better in the future her parents arrange her marriage to a wealthy businessman from California. However there is one slight problem. The woman he came to meet originally has died so Mei Ling must take over her identity and become his "paper wife" in order to enter the United States.
I loved the story because it isn't like anything I've ever read before, there was so much deceit from both sides both the wife and the husband that it was hard to see who, if anyone, was telling the truth to begin with. I found the story very compelling and I couldn't seem to put it down for any length of time before I had to pick it up again to see what was going to happen. I found the story moved very quickly but not in a rushed way. The characters were really interesting and even the bad ones that I didn't care for to much I loved the way that they were all written. I also felt really bad for Mei Ling because every turn she came across there was more deceit and she had to face new challenges that most people her age and of her culture would not have had to face otherwise. Very fascinating read and I'm glad that I got the chance to read it. This is one book that stays with you long after you finish reading it and I feel that it is also one that deserves to be read not just once but
multiple times. For each time that it is read it will hit you with just as much power and passion as it did the first time.

Ibrahim spins a tale that will resonate with immigrants of all generations. It was easy to be swept up into the story and to overlook the few plot machinations that stretch the imagination but seemed necessary to make the plot work. However, the story isn’t enough to fulfill the book’s potential. The author does a nice job of portraying Ming Lei, the paper wife, as a multidimensional character, But the other characters tend to fall more easily Into one-dimensional good or evil templates. The plot flies along until nearly the end, when a truly shocking and unexpected action occurs. Instead of exploring the ethics associated with the action (which is dismissed as having been necessary) or with its long-term impact on the character who committed it, the author seems to expect the reader to also accept it and move on. Although I read the complete text, I could not move on from that act and the lack of introspection and insights led to my disappointment with the novel. There’s a lot to learn in Paper Wife about the practice of assuming names and positions to gain entry to the country, about how immigrants were treated while detained until the immigration process is complete, which by contrast to what we know about today’s practices seem almost benign, and about some of the struggles newly arrived immigrants faced in 1920’s California. Everything falls into place a little too easily, though, and the lake of character development and the lingering ethical issues (there are more than the one represented by the shocking act) make what could have been a very good book only mediocre.