Today I want to talk about a book I absolutely loved…
Worth Fighting For by author @jesseqsutanto. 📚✨

Here's a modern take on Hua Mulan, but this time in the corporate world. Mulan works at her father's company, Hua Zhou, who suffers a heart attack just as they're about to close a deal to buy a family bourbon company.

Mulan wasn't convinced about the purchase, but ends up taking charge of the negotiations. When she meets with the Li family, she discovers they're extremely traditional and sexist. They don't accept women in business, much less sell their company to one. So Mulan pretends to be her father to protect the family legacy.

🌸 This was my first read by this author, and I have to say... I was fascinated!
As a childhood Mulan fan, I have to say this modern retelling was a wonderful experience. The way the author adapted the story and how it depicts the clash between the traditional and the modern struck me as very real and necessary.

💪🏼 This book reminds you that women are enough, powerful, and capable. That there's no mold we should follow. We're not "just" wives or mothers; we can lead businesses, make decisions, and fight for what we believe in!

📚 If you're looking for a quick, entertaining read with a powerful message, Worth Fighting For is perfect for you! 🫶🏼

This was a fun twist on the Mulan story. I loved the interactions between Mulan and her cousin, Mushu. Mulan works for the family business and while her father is recovering she has to try to keep things on track for a deal her father is negotiating. The situation gets out of hand as Mulan interacts with the highly traditional company.. sparks fly between her and Shang.

Okay, this Mulan retelling was actually really cute. I absolutely adored Mulan, Shang and their swapped gender roles. I also love the Aunties and their banter. There is a lot of toxic masculinity which can be a bit much but there are actual men and families who think this way so it’s not really far off the mark. The romance is just okay. But I do really enjoy Mulan and Shang together. Mushu was also a wonderful side character!

Thank you to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for this ARC!

Jesse Q. Sutanto has written some of my favorite and most memorable characters. The Aunties and Vera Wong convinced me to give this Mulan retelling a shot.

In this version, Hua Mulan is a brilliant financial analyst trying to make a name for herself amid the old boy network and prove her hiring was not based on nepotism. When her father falls ill, she steps in to close the acquisition of a family owned whiskey enterprise. Impersonating her father, Hua Zhou, Mulan finds herself in over her head living up to the persona the Li family expects all while finding herself attracted to Shang, the company’s CEO.

There are laugh out loud moments, entirely outlandish moments, and tender moments as Mulan tries to determine just what she wants from her life.

In typical Sutanto fashion, the supporting characters steal the spotlight at times. Mulan’s cousin, Mushu, and Shang’s mother, Auntie Jiayi, are two I fell in love with over the course of the story.

As in any retelling, some elements of the original are emphasized and others are downplayed. My two issues with this version are (1) the original Mulan is fierce and fearless while the modern version is less confident, and (2) finance bros. If there is any group of characters I don’t want to spend time with—even in fiction—it’s finance bros. Like most classics, it’s hard to improve on the original.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.

One word for this Mulan re-imagining…OBSESSED 😍

This was one of my favorite Disney-inspired contemporary romances to date! Jesse did such a phenomenal job of making the story more modern while incorporating so many of the best lines from the original story, without it EVER feeling forced

Mulan as a finance bro? 10/10
Shang as the CEO of a whiskey ranch? 10/10
Mushu as the fiery bestie cousin? 10000/10

I LOVED this story! It was such a fun read and now I want to binge every book @jesseqsutanto has written 😍

Thank you so much to @jesseqsutanto and @hyperionavebooks for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review! 🩷

This was a five-star read for me!

Mulan is successful in a predominantly male field. She is the right-hand person of her father’s hedge fund company. When her father had a medical emergency, she felt that pressure to acquire an ultra-masculine whiskey brand. In her father's absence, she pretended she was her father, Fa Zhou.

When I saw this one, I KNEW I had to read it! As soon as I saw that it was a modern take on Mulan, I was hooked! This was a fun read that included family drama, cultural pressure, and mistaken identity. It had all the things I LOVED about Disney's Mulan with a modern twist. I highly recommend!

I really wanted to be able to like this book because I loved mulan growing up but instead of mulan being the bad ass I remember from childhood, they made her boy crazy. Every other page she was distracted by how attractive Shang was. This totally missed the mark for me..

I can't give this more than a two. I was so disappointed because I have loved other books by Jesse Q. Sutanto. This one just fell flat. I actually felt so annoyed while reading it. There was zero subtlety or tension between the love interests. Overall plot was expected which was fine because it's a modern retelling of Mulan. It just wasn't funny, the romance was not believable, and the side characters were so ridiculous. Shang's macho-man family was incredibly stuck in their toxic masculine ways, but when it was explained it didn't fully match up with how obnoxious they were. And Mulan in her job fighting as a woman in a male dominated finance office. I could have heard the term "finance bro" 10 times less than it was in there. Everything was just so over the top. It wasn't funny. There was no good banter. Ugh. I didn't really enjoy this one at all, but will still read others by this author.

I liked getting to see each of the nostalgic characters that I knew and loved growing up in a new light for this retelling. I wish there had been a bit more development of Mushu but overall it was a fun story!

This is very much a rom com. Very funny and chaotic in the beginning but oh I loved the rest of it! Loved learning about Chinese customs (good and bad) and foods. Very nice perspective on the patriarchal and misogynistic views of both Chinese and western societies and how it affects both men and women. Loved Shang and his different ways from the rest of his male family members but I adored Mushu

Unfortunately, this retelling was not for me :( I would have loved if Mulan had the same personality as the animated movie because that really is the whole point of a modern retelling. Keep the same personality traits and same character development in the modern world.

I don't want to read from the perspective of a finance bro, even if she is Mulan. I hate every character, and am beginning to hate the plot as well. So sad :(. DNF at 16%.

Thanks to Netgalley and Hyperion for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

WORTH FIGHTING FOR by Jesse Q. Sutanto was also a LibraryReads Hall of Fame selection for June. Part of a five book series (Meant to Be) about Disney heroines by different authors, it is a rather obvious retelling of Disney's Mulan set in the present-day financial world. I had an extremely hard time accepting that the main character, Mulan, would be both a well-respected member at her firm and willing to let her cousin/assistant style her hair and choose her clothes when meeting with potential clients. That was a big disconnect although it clearly added some humor and pushed the story along. This title could work as a very light beach read if one is willing to overlook the repetitive nature of Mulan's musings about her various roles, combatting toxic masculinity, and raging hormones. My suggestion is to look for Vera Wong mysteries by this author instead.

I was excited for Worth Fighting For because I’ve loved the rest of the series and am a big fan of Mulan, but this one just didn’t land for me. Mushu’s character lacked the charm and comic relief I expected and often made things worse for Mulan, which was frustrating. While I appreciate the author’s intent, the rushed romance and overall tone felt off compared to the magic of the original story.

▹My ⭐ Rating: ★★★.75 out of 5 (rounded up)
▹Format: 📱 eReader
▹TL;DR Review: For someone who doesn’t like the Disney movie “Mulan,” I surprisingly really liked this retelling!
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💬 Summary:
Mulan is a badass navigating the male-dominated world of high finance. She works twice as hard just to be heard over the sound of her male coworkers high-fiving. When a chance arises to land a major client and prove herself to her father, she seizes it.

The client? Li Shang, CEO of the family-owned luxury whiskey brand Wutai Gold. The catch? Shang has been emailing Mulan’s father, Zhou—who never mentioned his gender.

So obviously, Mulan does the only thing that would make sense—she pretends to be her dad. Now she’s off to the family’s ranch to charm the ultra-masculine Li family and close the deal… all while trying not to fall for the CEO she’s technically catfishing.

To what lengths will Mulan go to prove that women have a place in Corporate America and can lead companies away from the red? Will she be able to meet the demands of the Li family? Does Mushu learn not to throw Mulan under the bus!?
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○★○ What to expect from this book: ○★○
– Single first-person POV
– Low spice (innuendo and closed-door spice)
– FMC is resourceful and ambitious, but knows how to make fun of herself
– MMC is a self-proclaimed mama’s boy, who is intelligent and respects boundaries
– An incredibly funny side-kick: Mushu (portrayed as Mulan’s cousin)
– Tropes: mistaken/hidden identity, only one tent, strangers to lovers, workplace romance, fish-out-of-water, retelling, banter
– Triggers: Workplace misogyny, toxic masculinity, sexual innuendo, masking, anxiety
– Representation: BIPOC women in Corporate America, Chinese family & culture
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↻ ◁ || ▷ ↺ 1:00 ──ㅇ────── 4:12
Now Playing:The Man by Taylor Swift
❝ I’m so sick of running as fast as I can; wondering if I’d get there quicker if I was a man. ❞
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★○ If You Like the Following, You Might Like This Book ○★
➼ Movies like The Proposal, Crazy Rich Asians, Disney’s Mulan (obvi)
➼ Hectic—but loving—family dynamics
➼ Witty banter
❝ What audiobook are you listening to? Let me guess: How to Be the Manliest Man Who Ever Manned? ❞
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⍟»This or That«⍟
Character Driven—————✧——————Plot Driven
Insta Love/Lust————————✧———Slow Burn
Sweet——✧—————————Spicy
Light/Fluffy———✧————————Heavy/Emotional
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🎯 My Thoughts:
This was my first Jesse Q. Sutanto book and I was in love with the writing style and witty banter throughout. It hooked me early on.

The Good: So much.
- There are tender moments, but overall this is a light, comedic folktale re-telling of China’s most impressive warrior.
- Mushu had me in stitches. While Mulan herself had some funny lines, Mushu was the comedic relief necessary for this book
- As someone who works with men and women in finance (via marketing), I loved the take on this in the Corporate world. It was a very fitting way to modernize this story

The Not So Good:
- I get the ick from terms like “finance-bro.” And it’s used more than once
- I know the point of this story can be boiled down to feminism—and this re-telling did a great job of making that modern—but I still mostly hated the Li family at the end. I wish that the uncles bowed down more. It felt like so much toxicity lead up to a main event that just…kind of ended abruptly

All of that to say, I was pleasantly surprised by this book and recommend it for a fun yet poignant palate cleanser! This book is already out, so search for it at your local library or where ever you find your books :)

Thank you to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for the chance to read this eARC. These opinions were my own.

When I was approved for this ARC I was so excited to read a modernized retelling of Mulan - a classic Disney story I love!

However, upon diving in, I found the fast paced story to be lacking depth and I was not a fan of the writing style. There were many characters that were introduced so I felt that this hurt Mulan and Shang's character development and made it hard for me to connect with their characters.

Additionally, it's hard for me to believe in their romance and believe in their chemistry when we are told of their relationship, rather than actually seeing them fall in love.

I was hoping to read a story with an intelligent and strong female lead but the over the top references to toxic masculinity and the overuse of "finance bros" was a little much.

**Thank you to Netgalley and Hyperion for the ARC and the chance to read and review. All opinions are my own**

A fun, modern twist on my all time favorite Disney princess story Mulan. The acknowledgements about family and legacy from the author made the story feel even sweeter.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC.

A quick enjoyable read, I enjoyed the familiarity of the story, and how the author was able to modernize it. I had to memorize the poem as a kid, and also enjoyed watching Mulan when the original Disney cartoon came out - it was fun to recognize some of the one liners from the cartoon.

I would say that this would be ok even for mature upper middle schoolers and high schoolers. I appreciated the romance "clean", especially compared to other books I've read.

I'm a fan of Jesse Q. Sutanto's cozy mysteries, Mulan, and Disney retellings, so I was very on board when this book was announced.

Jesse Q. Sutanto does very well, taking a beloved story, set in the first century, and making it contemporary and realistic. Mulan is still dealing with the fact she's a woman in a man's world, but instead of physically posing as a man, she's using her father's reputation and a lot of ignorance on the men's behalf to prove herself worthy.

I really enjoyed this one. It's my favorite of the Meant to Be series, so far. If you're a fan of retellings, cowboy romances, hidden/secret identity, meddling moms, and only one tent, this is the story for you.

4 1/2 stars, rounded up to 5.

Thank you to Hyperion Avenue and NetGalley. I voluntarily read an early copy of this book.

3.75 ⭐️’s rounded up! I have read all the Meant to Be novels and this one is definitely top 3. It was a really cute and enjoyable story. I love Disney and am always worried that books based off Disney will have an extreme amount of references, but this one has a great balance. I loved the focus of women empowerment and watching Mulan overcome stereotypes that have been put on her by those around her.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book!