thank you to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for the ARC!

i will not be beating the disney adult allegations with this one 🫣 jesse q sutano consistently delivers quality representation with a healthy dose romantic comedy; the romance fell flat in this one for me. the MCs lacked chemistry, so the narrative failed to build the tension necessary. more than that, i just couldn’t understand why Mulan didn’t speak up a little sooner? enjoying this genre means you gotta deal with the miscommunication trope to a point, but i struggled to believe the character’s motivations by the third act. too much telling, not enough showing for me 🤷‍♀️

Mulan is my favorite Disney movie of all time. I have always loved her story of bravery, courage, self-acceptance, and growth. I’ve also read every book in the Meant to Be series, so when I heard Mulan’s story was the next to be adapted I was elated.

There are things about Worth Fighting For that I loved. I think Mushu’s characterization was pretty spot on. Auntie Jiayi was so lovable and absolutely stole the show. And, I loved Mulan and Shang’s relationship (though it did feel like it went from 0-60 very quickly once it got started and I do wish we had seen more of their relationship earlier in the book). I also love the theme of female empowerment and women lifting up other women.

However, this didn’t mirror Disney’s Mulan as closely as I would’ve hoped. There weren’t as many easter eggs or pointed references throughout the book as there were in some of the other Meant to Be novels, which I missed. I also felt like there wasn’t representation of all of my favorite film scenes.

I’m happy I had a chance to read this early and am glad Mulan is represented in this series.

Worth Fighting For is the best book in the Meant to Be series. Sutanto pulls all the feminism and many favorite moments out of the animated movie. Shang is sexy as ever, and Mulan is confident and resourceful.

Mulan is following her father’s footsteps as a finance bro, and when he falls ill, she hopes to outsmart some mysogynists by pretending to be the masterful executive that has been corresponding by email. If you can get past this part, then the rest is a fun ride.

Sutanto brings a lot of nuance to the understanding of the American Dream from one generation to the next, and perspectives on gender roles. Fans of the Mulan movie can enjoy this breezy take on the tale, and they’ll fall in love with Mulan, Shang, their parents, and Mushu.

Rating: 3/5
Spice level: 1/5

Mulan is one of my favorite Disney princesses so I immediately jumped at the chance to read a retelling. Sadly, it didn't live up to my expectations. I found the book boring. There only seemed to be bits and scraps of romance scenes between Mulan and Shang sprinkled throughout. I honestly think the relationship between her and her cousin (Mushu) was emphasized more which to be far in the Mulan movie there are more scenes between them than the love story. The book had its moments like with Mulan herding the cows or riding the bull, but I never truly got into it.

The absolutely delightful MEANT TO BE Series continues, this time with a reimagining of Disney's MULAN. I was stoked to see that this was the next one in the series, as MULAN is a Top 3 Disney movie for me, and I loved how Sutanto brought out the themes of sexism, war, and determination and made it about financial companies, family businesses, and trying to prove oneself in the face of preconceived notions and expectations. So instead of a woman pretending to be a man to go fight in a war in her father's place, Mulan is a part of her father's financial firm that hopes to acquire a traditional Chinese Whiskey company, and who pretends to be the head of the company when her father is ill and the deal is in the balance. I loved seeing her and Shang have a romance (as we don't really get to see that in the source material, and I understand why but I do LOVE them), and I liked seeing other characters be reimagined ( for example Mushu is her cousin/assistant who helps her put on a finance whiz front, and is quite funny too). Definitely another winner in this series.

I've never read a Mulan retelling before so I was really excited for this, but it fell a bit flat for me. I didn't feel invested in the romance, and some of the references and languages used to make this story feel more "modern" threw me off a bit. I did appreciate the relationship between Mulan and her father; I always love when a book explores family dynamics but unfortunately, nothing else really captured my interest beyond that.

Let's! Get down to BUSINESS!

This is an interesting modernized twist on Mulan's story. I love the idea of her being rich and powerful, going to war in the corporate world, being a finance bro, standing in for her father, falling for Shang, and making it all work despite every possible force working against her. And I LOVE this author's sense of humor.

But this particular book feels wooden, like maybe it was written during a creative or romantic slump. It wakes up a little after Mulan finally arrives on the ranch with Shang because by that point, shenanigans are in full swing.

Maybe that's it. Maybe the need to set up Mulan as a no-nonsense finance genuis prohibited shenanigans — something this author absolutely excels at crafting — and it started off on the wrong foot. Anyway, I kept reading. Mulan/Zhou tries to convince Shang she's the "man" he envisioned when setting up business accounts, and, uh, spoiler alert: it doesn't go smoothly!

I bet a really good audio version would improve the tone for the first few chapters.

The Tangled and Cinderella stories are still my undisputed favorites, but I am just so glad that this millennial Disney kid has these romantic retellings today. There are a total of 13 Disney Princesses out there, and I hope they all get their own Meant to Be. Keep 'em coming!

I enjoyed this story--the similarities to Mulan are unmistakable but it is a great story on its own. Mulan is working very hard to prove her worth to her father when she decides to lie in order to win over a company. It was a lighthearted novel and enjoyable--although it did have a bit of repetitiveness in the beginning. Clearly, if Mulan had been honest from the beginning, the story would never have gotten off the ground, so a little bit of a lie starts down a pretty hilarious path. It's also good that the lie was dealt with rather than brushed under the rug or ignored.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book.
Disney's Mulan came out in 1998, when I was 16 years old. So I was not the target audience, and I was definitely a too cool teenager to have interest in seeing a Disney movie at that time. I've since seen it (not sure if I ever saw it the whole way through in one sitting, more like in bits and pieces), but it was never one of my treasured favorite Disney stories, through no fault of its own.
I was excited to see how the story would be reimagined in this book. For about a chapter or two at the beginning, I was a little nervous that Mulan was going to try to actually dress as and pass her self off as a man, so I was happy when she instead tried to pass herself off as Zhou, the person who had been messaging with Shang already.
Unfortunately, I found the first half of the book repetitive and pretty boring. There was a lot of telling instead of showing, and the telling was the same things over and over again, sometimes with the exact same wording. There were several points I was beat over the head with...that Mulan worried her parents were disappointed that she was a girl and not a boy, that Mulan wanted to focus on the deal she was trying to make, that Mulan was attracted to Shang even though she didn't want to be, that Mushu didn't belong in finance, etc. They were important points, but they weren't subtle by any means, so I would have liked less reinforcing in the narration, and maybe a little more action.
The book picked up for me in the 2nd half when things started changing, but that made me question whether it was really likely that such big changes were likely to actually happen.
I did enjoy that Shang cooked and that Mulan did not, and I also enjoyed all the descriptions of food. The playful banter between Shang and Mulan was my favorite part, and I would have liked more of that.

This is a modern retelling of Mulan set in California in the world of finance bros. Mulan steps into her father’s shoes to try to acquire a very traditional family’s business. Problem: the son is very handsome and certain members of the family are very endearing. Antics ensue as she tries to connect with them as Zhou (her father) and maintain her secret.

I thought this was a really unique take on the story of Mulan and even in the backdrop of a business acquisition deal, Jesse Q. Sutanto cleverly incorporated the badass gender-norm defiance, family pressure and pride, and impressive character growth from a story we all know and love.

I also appreciate Jesse’s trademark wit I’ve enjoyed throughout all her books and the way that comes through in plot points and the characters of this story (particularly the chaos gremlin that is Mushu!!!). As always with Jesse’s work there is a lot of value to the insight she provides into being a part of an immigrant family - the joy and love side by side with the pressure and turmoil. I think her words always craft a very authentic telling of some of the experiences that are unique to families who come to America looking to build a different life.

This is the first “Meant to Be” book I’ve read. I love the modern telling of Mulan. It was a sweet romance that you would expect from a Disney story. It’s lighthearted, funny, and a quick read. Some of the feminism was a bit too on the nose for me, but overall it’s an inspiring story of a woman fighting to prove herself in a man lead industry and falling in love in the process.

Cute romance. The only issues I had were the continuous use of the word “finance bro”. It was on almost every single page. If I ever see the term finance bro again I’m going to lose it. James was insufferable. The extremely large main cast of the Li’s was too much. I kept losing track of who was who and the family relations. A family tree would’ve been nice. Plus, Shang’s cousins besides James were completely ignored except at the very start during introduction and at the end of the book.

I was lucky enough to get the ARC from Netgalley. This book was a fun ride for the 5th installment of the meant to be series (Disney based) from Mulan and her partner in crime Mushu. The beginning was hard to break the mold of the movie but once you mentally removed the movie it was fun to live in this version of Mulan. If you want a fun, light read, and love a large family dynamic this book is for you!

This was my first Jesse Sutanto book and I loved it! I’m looking forward to reading some of her other books.

I think I had some misconceptions about her writing based on reviews I’ve read or heard in the past. This particular book did not have any graphic sex. There was some language, but it wasn’t excessive. The cultural references were interesting and fun and didn’t seem overdone to me, though I can’t speak to their accuracy at all, not having any Chinese ancestry myself.

This is my second-favorite Mulan retelling (I’ve read a few) and the only one I’ve read where Mulan didn’t pretend to be a man, which made the romance seem more practical.


Many thanks to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for the Advanced Reader copy!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an e-copy of this book. I was so especially honored to receive it, because I love this series so much. This iteration did not disappoint!! It was so goofy and silly but had a good balance of serious moments and romance, too! With all the characters and plot devices we know and love from the original movie, only reimagined and given a 21st-century makeover, it was a quick and easy read. Highly recommend for fans of this series, Disney fans in general, and fans of the twisted tales/villians/princes series!!

Ok I ready about 60% of this book before I eventually DNFed it. And truly truly has nothing to do with the author. I’ve been looking at her other books and want to check her other books out. But I couldn’t handle the secondhand embarrassment hahah. This is also the first of the Disney meant to be series that I have read. So yes I liked the writing style and I liked the characters! But man I’m bad at feeling second hand embarrassment.

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.

Backstory! I love the movie Mulan. I have absolutely loved two of the four Meant to Be books and enjoyed the other two. I loved Jesse Q. Sutanto's Vera Wong mystery , though, I did DNF the other books by her I tried to read. That being said, I was beyond excited to receive this arc.
Now, onto my thoughts on Worth Fighting For. I enjoyed it, but I didn't end up loving it. I liked the character of Mulan, the fact that she was a finance bro was amusing and a nice twist. Her relationship with her parents and Shang's relationship with his mom were so sweet. I thought the premise for her deception was a bit contrived and never really made much sense to me. I also rolled my eyes at watching a Tiktok video meant she could sheer a sheep with little difficulty. I think if it had been longer and been able to flesh more plot points out I would have liked it more.
It was a solid 3 star book for me, but I could see how others would enjoy it more. I think if I had been able to turn my brain off for a couple things it would have rated higher for me. All in all, it was a good addition to the series and I look forward to seeing what comes next.

Worth Fighting For is a modern retelling of Mulan set in the Bay Area. Mulan is a workaholic finance bro whose firm is looking to acquire Shang’s family’s whiskey company. This was such a fun read—I enjoyed every minute of it!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Worth Fighting For from the Meant to Be collection completely stole my heart! This story had the perfect balance of emotional depth, tension, and romance. The connection between the characters felt so raw and real—I was rooting for them every step of the way. The push and pull, the moments of doubt, and the undeniable love that made it worth fighting for had me hooked from start to finish. If you love a story that tugs at your heartstrings and makes you believe in love that’s truly meant to be, this one is an absolute must-read!