I wish I'd been aware of the very last line of the Acknowledgments before requesting an ARC of this book to review, "Above all else, this is a testimony of God's mercy and love." Had I known, I would have avoided reading this stilted "historical fiction" book about Ying Ying, who grows up in China with academic parents persecuted by Mao's Red Guards. In China and subsequently in America Ying Ying is lauded for her elegance, dancing skill, height, and supermodel-level body and beauty; as a brilliant student, and then a successful manager in the lucrative tech world where her team develops the world's first Text Message for mobile phones. Through it all she remains a perfectionist. And yet she's unfulfilled until she finds God. I found it tedious and not very interesting reading about Ying Ying overcoming misguided belief in communist propaganda only to instead spout church dogma.

Written by Li-Ying Lundquist, who according to Acorn Publishing's bio overcame "the plights of a young immigrant who did not speak the language, obtained her Master's in Computer Science from a prestigious university and became a successful lead engineer. While working for AT&T Bell Labs, her team made the world's first "Text Message" for mobile phones... She hopes readers of Wings of Silk will be inspired by the lessons of forgiveness, grace, and God's powerful love."

This was a book with a very strong start, but I found lost some momentum toward the latter half.

Some of the things I liked included the childhood section, I think the writing really suited the childhood point of view, and to see such a scary and serious time in China through a child's eyes was an interesting exploration of the Post-WWII time period. The writing was pretty conversational and straightforward, and the book read like a memoir. I really enjoyed the use of the butterfly motif as well and was rooting for Ying-Ying on her journey. I also liked what this book had to say about therapy and mental health.

The issue was mostly around the characters and the circumstances of the novel. A lot of the characters were very one-dimensional, many barely fleshed out characters. Every event was extremely summary-based as well. Any tragedy one can think of is utilized in this book, and I am not sure how fictional some of these accounts were but I didn't find then particularly fleshed out or explored. Some of them were very sudden due to the summary-nature of the writing as well. I also wish a few character arcs and relationship were tied up a bit more.

Overall, the book was fine, it did keep my interest to see where everything went but I wasn't particularly amazed with much of it.

Wings of Silk is an ok read. I think the author was a little light on the devastating Cultural Revolution. The main character Ying Ying spends most of the book being miserable. I felt the characters were one dimensional, just going through the emotions.

I read this book in 2 or 3 sittings, finding it really hard to put down. It reads like an autobiography and seems to have been based on the life of the author. I couldn't help but root for Ying-Ying in all her hardships and relationships and was very very glad (and actually very surprised) that she eventually found joy, peace and forgiveness through a means I will not reveal here.