In this sequel to The Not-So-Uniform Life of Holly Mei, Holly-Mei and her family have settled into a routine in their new life in Hong Kong, where they have moved from Toronto when her mother's job moved them there. She and younger sister Millie attend Tai Tam Prep, and Holly-Mei is on the field hockey team. She's disappointed when she doesn't make MVP, but instead gets the award for the Most Improved Player. This stings especially when Millie wins a bake off with an avocado/chocolate cake even though she wasn't baking to win. Holly-Mei is jealous of all of the attention and social media love that Millie gets, and comes up with an idea; she will put together a team and enter the annual Dragon Dash, an orienteering race around the city. It's coming up quickly, but she manages to put together a team that includes cousins, Gemma, and others from school, but not Saskia, whose mother is pushing her to do better at hockey and other sports so she can qualify for the Olympics. The team calls themselves the Tai Tam Thunder and intend to play for fun until Holly-Mei, driven by the need to win, becomes demanding and takes a lot of the joy out of the training. Will she be able to compete, keep her friends, and get over her need to win things in order to feel loved?
Strengths: I doubt that I will ever get to travel to Hong Kong, so this was a good virtual tour of the city. At one point, Holly-Mei and Millie even get to travel on their own to the market to buy supplies; one of my favorite things to do while traveling is to go grocery shopping, since it gives such a good picture of what it's really like to live in a country. The sibling rivalry was well done, and I appreciated that Holly-Mei still liked her sister and got along with her even when she was jealous. The field hockey and running training will appeal to readers who like sports, and characters like Gemma add some social drama. The other fun part about this book was all of the food descriptions; it's fairly common to get descriptions of meals, but I loved that we got to hear a lot about Holly-Mei's snacks. I feel like at some point I will need to obtain some White Rabbit candy!
Weaknesses: There were a lot of characters to keep straight, so I would have enjoyed this more if there had been a team of about four!
What I really think: This felt a bit like Harrison's The Clique books or Russell's Dork Diaries, with its ensemble cast, school related activity, and friend and family drama, but it was good to see a more international spin on realistic fiction.

I liked seeing Holly Mei again and seeing more of her adventures across Hong Kong. I liked seeing how she deals with her friends and her own growing pains and changes.
I think middle grade readers and teens will like seeing Holly Mei again.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.