This book felt a bit like a juxtaposition of my life. The themes of abandonment (orphaned as a baby), giving a second chance at life and working for a skincare company seemed to run parallel with this story. On a deeper level, I sympathized and more importantly, empathized with this story and its possibly controversial MC, as an Asian woman living in America, during a time where being a minority isn’t something that should be celebrated and worn proudly. I do it anyway. I felt frustrated and seen during moments where a successful woman wants a seat at the table. A woman who created a skincare line built from an original idea and born from personal experience, only for it to be seen as a sum of its parts by its male board members. This story made me feel something, a lot of things - anger, sadness, but also hope. This is the perfect book to read if you’re feeling like you’re not enough. It’ll make you feel a little less alone and leave you feeling a little more empowered.

3.5 ⭐️

Let me start by saying I truly admire authors who don’t stick to a formula and who are brave enough to explore new themes and passion projects. It’s easy to keep repeating what works — it’s much harder (and more courageous!) to take risks and offer readers something fresh.

I was drawn in by the premise of Saving Face, a story that traverses two worlds — Singapore and Los Angeles — and explores how race, class, and privilege shape opportunity. The novel touches on historical practices in Singapore, the rigid expectations of high society, and follows Monica (aka Ami Shah), who proves that you don’t need to be born into wealth or attend Ivy League schools to build success. With sheer determination, she transforms her life.

Monica’s journey is fascinating: abandoned as an infant and raised by nuns, she eventually works as a maid for a wealthy family, then boldly assumes a new identity, attends business school in London, and builds a thriving company in LA. Her story weaves together themes of self-discovery, ambition, societal expectations, and corporate greed.

But while I loved the concept and appreciated the ambition of this book, the pacing didn’t quite work for me. The first half moved slowly, and by the midpoint — when Monica is on the verge of receiving a major award and starts receiving anonymous texts threatening to expose her past — I felt the story needed more tension and twists to keep me fully engaged.

📖 Saving Face is a thought-provoking novel with meaningful themes but a slower pace than I’d hoped for.

I felt a little twinge of how Monica felt through the story, and facing her struggles, going back to her reality. But how far she came and the impact she made in her work is commendable, proving that skills and a strong will to succeed are more valuable than a traditional degree. Mansi Shah really made an impact on me with this novel, and the writing is so good to binge. Thank you, Park Row publisher, for the digital arc.

Saving Face by: Mansi Shah
Pub Date: August 12, 2025

I finished Saving Face by Mansi Shah and this one hit close to home! 🌺✨

An infant with colic and a red facial rash was left on the steps of a Catholic convent in Singapore. Named, raised, educated, and cared for by Nuns, Monica Joseph had big dreams. Dreams of breaking past societal limitations and social hierarchy.

Working as a maid in a fellow classmates home, Ami Shah, Monica makes a life changing decision and instead of sending a university rejection letter, she sends an acceptance letter and becomes Ami Shah.

From working as a maid in Singapore to a business school in London, Ami travels to LA and sets up a very successful skin care line.

Ami hides her true identity as she struggles with ambition, societal expectations, and the pressure to always “look perfect”, especially in front of her board members.

I see pieces of myself in her—trying to keep it together on the outside while wrestling with doubts and dreams on the inside. Shah’s writing is honest and raw, reminding me that we’re all a little messy beneath the surface, and that’s okay.

It was interesting to read about the orphanage, the Nuns who cared and educated them. We catch a glimpse of another side of Singapore that we rarely see.

If you’ve ever felt torn between who you are and who you think you should be, this book is for you. 📚💖
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc. 💕💕

#BookReview #SavingFace #MansiShah #RelatableReads #Bookstagram

This story centers on Ami/Monica, who is a successful entrepreneur with an Ayurvedic skincare brand in the US who may or may not have committed identity theft. While readers become privy to Monica's hardships and life trajectory, the setting of Singapore, including the convent where the FMC is raised in both serve as pivotal characters in their own right. I thought Shah did a great job at diving into the forgotten history of Singapore that is quite far from the glamor of the country often depicted in media while portraying the lengths people may resort to for opportunities not afforded to them.

Overall, I found the plot and Ami/Monica’s journey interesting, inventive, and well paced. Additionally, I liked Divya's character and the role she plays in the novel. However, I would have appreciated a deeper exploration of classism and capitalism and their impacts on the characters through greater dialogue or plot points rather than through heavy handed messaging at times.

This novel will certainly make for a good book club read, particularly for fellow readers of color who love books and beauty.

3.5 stars

I connected with Mansi on Bookstagram last year, and since then, I’ve been patiently (no, obsessively) waiting for her next book. After A Good Indian Girl, I knew Mansi wasn't going to shy away from tough and complex conversations.

Her latest novel, Saving Face, hits just as hard. The title alone? Loaded. Across so many cultures, "saving face" means avoiding shame, protecting reputation, and upholding the image you've built — even when it costs you.

In the novel, Ami’s entire life is a performance. Mansi takes us deep into what it means to maintain that image — and at what cost. She unpacks financial disparity and power dynamics, the pressure of beauty standards on women of colour, the lure (and harm) of proximity to whiteness, and the exhausting practice of code-switching in order to be deemed “palatable” by Western norms (out main character literally has skin related flare ups). What's going on internally often can manifest externally.

But this is complex and Mansi? Well, she doesn’t just make statements — she builds characters with layers. The kind you want to dissect, understand, and sit down with. That complexity is what keeps me coming back to her writing. Always nuanced, never surface-level.
This book is going to be great for bookclub meetings and I hope pushes readers out of their comfort zone.

Thank you Mansi for the digital arc!

I finished an early copy of Saving Face by Mansi Shah (out this August!), and I’m still sitting with it. This story had me hooked from the very first page. It’s bold, layered, and full of the kinds of quiet tensions that so many of us know all too well, especially those who are balancing ambition, identity, and the pressure to keep it all together.

Without giving too much away (no spoilers since you have to read this!), it follows a woman who is determined to break free from the limitations that she was born into. Along the way, she makes a life-changing decision that completely redefines who she is. Her journey spans continents and industries, but at its core, this is a story about the cost of hiding parts of yourself in order to succeed.

What hit me hardest was how relatable it all felt. The external image of having it all together while quietly having feelings of doubt, imposter syndrome, and the pressure to be "perfect." Mansi’s writing reminded me that it’s okay to not have all the answers. That there’s strength in the messiness too, which we don’t like to showcase outwardly.

Also, there’s a glimpse into a side of Singapore, which is so well done. Add this incredible book to your list. You will want to talk about it with your family and friends when you’re done!

Saving Face, Mansi Shah's latest novel, is about a case of mistaken identity...or more accurately, "stolen" identity. When Monica Joseph grew up, she knew that as an orphan, the most she could aspire to be was the maid in her classmate Ami Shah's house, so when Ami flippantly makes decisions about her future, Monica cannot fathom the lack of care with which Ami's privilege has allowed her to live. With one small tweak, she signs up to take Ami's place at business school and we fast forward 17 years to see how Monica's doing now.

Most of the novel takes place as Monica is working through her own identity and trying to stay hidden while her major skincare company is going through a merger, allowing her to help many more people who look like her. It all seems like it's going well until she starts getting threatening messages from someone who is willing to reveal her identity and cost Monica her whole life.

Throughout reading this novel, I wasn't sure if I liked Monica, who seemed to always have an "end justifies the means" approach to the decisions she was making, but what was clear was that I UNDERSTOOD Monica. The way Mansi wrote this character, I was able to go alongside the journey with Monica as she struggled to keep her true identity hidden and the many decisions she made along the way, as well as the reasons behind the systemic classism in Singapore.

Reading the author's note on this book also helped bring Monica to life for me, allowing me to read a little more about the research that went into these characters as well as the real life history behind the places that Mansi introduced to us in this novel. It definitely made me want to read up more on the history of Singapore.

Overall, this was an enjoyable, and easy read with an important message and I gave it 4.25/5 stars. Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Parker Row, the author, and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin for the advanced reader copy.

3.5 stars

Ami Shah has reached the pinnacle of her career: she is the CEO of her own skincare company for women of color. When she's nominated for a Changemaker award--the first woman of color to be considered--she should be ecstatic but instead she's terrified. Because Ami isn't who she's pretended to be; she stole the identity of a wealthy high school classmate in order to pull herself out of poverty in Singapore and has been living a lie ever since. Shortly after the Changemaker nomination goes public she starts receiving text messages threatening to out her if she doesn't come clean on her own. Simultaneously, she's trying to navigate a merger for her company and needing to do an interview for the Changemaker award. With so many plates spinning in the air, can she come out unscathed?

The premise of this book--especially the fact that we know up front that Ami/Monica isn't who everyone thinks she is--worked for me. It was an interesting dilemma to set up for a character. The very thing she was looking for, success and acceptance of the elite, will be the very thing that could collapse her world. Ami/Monica comes across as a bit one dimensional but the greater questions about secrets, class and race help account for some of this.

*SPOILER AHEAD* When the secret about Monica stealing Ami's identity comes out because of a Singapore connection, the conversations and interiority that Monica has about never getting the opportunities she had without pretending to be someone else felt very heavy-handed and I started skimming through the last quarter of the book. Even though the message felt important, it also felt like the author didn't trust the reader to get it on their own.

Saving Face is out August 12, 2025

This book covers a lot of issues, self acceptance, feminism, racism, discrimination, societal roles and classism, skin issues and problems, but above all the need to fake who you are in order to succeed in life and business.
Does money gets you happiness or are you the most happy when you're surrounding yourself with the people you love and who love you for who you are? That is one of the main questions posed in the book.
This book is a very complexed one, one that you don't fully get at first glance, but the more you immersed yourself in its pages you fully grasped how deep it goes into the full gamut of human feelings and emotions.
I loved the characters and the richness of the described details of places and situations, and at the same time the historical details explained in the book.
This was my first book by Ms. Shah but it would definitely won't be my last.

I have loved all of Mansi Shah’s books, so I was thrilled to get an advanced reader copy of her newest book, “Saving Face.” It’s a unique story about a woman who reinvents herself against insurmountable odds only to risk losing it all. Set in LA and Singapore, it has a timely, international appeal. Is it true that you can’t have it all? This question was posed in the book, and we saw the main character, Monica Joseph, giving up relationships and love for the opportunity of wealth and business impact. Will the secret she is carrying be exposed and cause her to lose it all? This book really keep me turning pages late into the night to see what happens next. The character development is strong, and I was rooting for Monica even though she is sometimes a controversial character. The author kept me guessing on the true motives for each character. This is a uniquely intriguing book that is a terrific read – I highly recommend!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I recently finished reading my "advance reader copy" of Saving Face by the incredibly talented (and Canadian) author Mansi Shah and it really was a slam dunk (excuse my basketball reference - Toronto Raptors/NBA fan here!)

From the first few pages, I was hooked. Any book that highlights a school or university I’ve actually attended has my full attention, but honestly, this book held its own and then some.

Saving Face follows the story of Monica Joseph, who was abandoned as a baby at the Gate of Hope in Singapore, seemingly solely because she was a girl. Fast forward to grown-up Monica, who is now working for a former classmate, Ami Shah, until she makes a life-altering decision to steal Ami’s identity, move to London, and pursue an MBA.

“New Ami” builds am extremely successful skincare brand that earns her a nomination for a global award. That nomination threatens to unravel Monica's long kept secret, and forces her to confront the past she's carefully tried to outrun.

Through Monica’s journey, Mansi Shah explores relevant themes including gender bias, identity, ambition, privilege, and what it truly means to belong, especially in societies that still struggle with the idea that a daughter should be just as valued as a son.

One of the things I love most about Mansi's writing (and I noticed this in her previous book too) is how her characters feel so real. As a Gujarati (South Asian) reader, I loved and identified with the cultural nuances that were highlighted. I also gained a deeper understanding of Singapore, its culture, social history, and especially the significance of the Gate of Hope, something I hadn't appreciated despite having visited the country twice before.

Mansi’s Author’s Notes added thoughtful context into her writing process, that made the story’s foundation even more powerful.

Side note, Mansi's other book that I've read, A Good Indian Girl, was set in Tuscany, so we gained insights into real places (e.g. restaurants) there too.

Saving Face is an absolute page-turner and I highly recommend it.

Mansi's book is published on August 12, 2025!

This book covers a lot of things. Feminism, racism, adoption, sexism, historical fiction... I think it got a little preachy, but it was a good book. I enjoyed the story, though the skin issues were a little much (psoriasis sufferer here). What I don't like in a book is the author spelling things out too much for me. Write the story. No need to end each chapter with a "teaser" question (who could be behind the door?!) or lead-in statement to the next chapter. And there was A LOT of repetitive introspection in our main character. I skimmed more than a few paragraphs that were dedicated to everything going on in her head' The author wrote enough within the story to lead me in that direction, I did not need all that extra. Have a little faith in your reader.
I really enjoyed the glimpse into life in Singapore for a person with Monica's standing. That was new to me and I loved learning about life there.

I just finished this book and I’m just sitting in this feeling of peace, sadness and a little rage. This book stirred feelings about the injustices of the world toward minorities, women, and the poor. The story is about Monica who is an orphan in Singapore working as a maid for a privileged family. Through some deception she steals an opportunity to go to a fancy business school far away and remakes herself as Ami Shah. From there she creates a skin care line that caters to the melanin-favored populace that I really want to buy. She is nominated for an amazing award but is then soon hit with anonymous texts that threaten to reveal everything about her true origins. So begins a story that takes readers between LA to Singapore as Monica tries to figure out how to save her business and find out who is trying to destroy her carefully built house of lies. The story slowly built up tension and suspense as everyone became a suspect and Monica/Ami slowly unravels. Her skin literally starts having a bad eczema flare up that served to represent her inner turmoil. (Guys, my eczema flared alongside hers!)

I enjoyed her scenes in Singapore the most-especially with the people from her past and wished for flashbacks. We are in the POV and living in the moments of Monica/Ami so we are forced to know only what she knows and just accept her deep and layered feelings of guilt and confusion.

I have so many highlights which I don’t think I can share as this is an ARC provided by the author but there was amazing commentary regarding meritocracy and the privileges of wealth and having a certain skin color in this world. It hit hard and even though Monica/Ami did do something “wrong” I really felt for her and considered her actions to be understandable.

I love how Mansi has created another FMC that is fully formed and complex that does not need a man to be her salvation or source of strength. The power of female friends who are like family and good women in her life can be true wealth and I’m 100 percent in favor of this message. Again, I received this as an ARC but these thoughts are my own

Thank you to Mansi Shah for the opportunity to read this book.
It was a different read from what I’m used to. There are many themes here to explore, ambition, shame, in a sense… fraud. It dives deep and gives us an opportunity to look at what it means to be true to yourself and how does someone go about portraying someone else while still bumping into their past self.
An interesting read and I do recommend checking it out.

My thanks to NetGalley, Park Row Books, and the author for my e-ARC.

Belonging to one of the wealthiest families in Singapore, the REAL Ami Shah had choices and opportunities Monica Joseph, her family’s maid, could only dream of. It wasn’t fair. Especially since, unlike Ami, Monica was an outstanding student and serious about her education. She owed it to herself to pursue her ambition. To avail of her competency and talent — by any means necessary. She deserved it.

That is how she justified stealing Ami’s identity. But her face is her own. And, as the CEO of Amala, a prominent skin-care company, there is only so long she can save it from media exposure.

The thing about secrets and lies, though, is the possibility that they will come to light. But how, when, and by whom kept me guessing. Monica lives in constant fear and paranoia. She would love to confide and confess. But who to trust? And what would they think of her?

I enjoyed this book. Although there were multiple themes, they were seamlessly interspersed and didn’t feel overwhelming. The glimpse into the skincare industry was informative and meticulously researched. The vivid descriptions and fleshed-out, true-to-life flawed characters enhanced the story. And the end was satisfying — plausible.

The bonus author notes at the end were enlightening and fascinating. I was not aware that the settings of the book were based on real-life locations. That the author made a trip to Singapore as part of her research added to the authenticity.

In a world obsessed with curated personas and personal branding, Saving Face feels incredibly timely. It asks us to consider what authenticity really means—and whether it’s ever too late to reclaim it. The novel explores themes of ambition, shame, and belonging through the lens of Monica Joseph, an orphan who took a desperate chance two decades ago by stealing a classmate’s identity. As she navigates the glitzy world of entrepreneurship under her assumed name, Monica’s past collides with her present in a way that feels both inevitable and pulse-pounding.

(A BIG thank you to Mansi for being a part of her Street Team and gifting me an early copy)

A rags-to-riches tale about an orphan who steals her wealthy classmate’s identity and builds a new life in America. Two decades later, Ami is now the CEO of a Fortune 500 skincare company—but her past is catching up with her, and she’ll do whatever it takes to keep her secrets buried.

This was my first read by Mansi Shah, and I really enjoyed it! “Saving Face”is a twisty, fictional mystery with unexpected humor and some really interesting historical threads woven in—especially around how orphans were treated in Singapore. I didn’t expect to find it both funny and thrilling, but it surprised me in the best way. Reading about Ami—a morally gray main character—navigate the fallout of her choices kept me turning the pages. I needed to know if (and when?) she’d get caught. If you're into “Yellowface” by R.F. Kuang, The Dropout, or Inventing Anna, you'll love this one!

The book also offers articulate socioeconomic commentary on South Asian culture, particularly around ambition, gender roles, and surviving another day. Even though Ami is not someone we're supposed to root for, I kind of was?? Her journey from Singapore to America is layered with racism and sexism, and even though her decisions are deeply flawed, they felt real and timely.

That said, I do wish the big reveal had a bit more weight—it felt a little anticlimactic after such a strong buildup. But overall, this is a smart and fast-paced read that explores how class and power intersect, not just in Singapore but universally. I definitely recommend picking up this South Asian villain origin story! Happy AAPI Month.

This is definitely not what I expected--neither as funny nor as thrilling--but that doesn't mean it wasn't a good read. It was. I have a little thing for books set in Singapore, and many of them are the sort of salacious, <i>Crazy Rich Asians</i> types, which are tons of fun, but this was a more sobering look at how a society like the one in that series is only possible because of a parallel society more like the one in this book. I don't feel like it was sufficiently critical of American capitalism, but it was still a really interesting look at things from a perspective I haven't seen before!

From the summary:
Twenty years ago in Singapore, abandoned orphan Monica Joseph made a decision to steal her wealthy classmate's identity and move halfway around the world to build her life on someone else's name. For twenty years, she's managed to hide in plain sight…until an ambitious fledgling journalist sets out to write the inaugural full-length profile on her. With her carefully constructed persona and life's work now in jeopardy, Monica is left with no other choice: she must return to the scene of the crime—and the one place she vowed never to revisit.

Commentary:
This book was based on the idea of a young woman reinventing herself literally from the ground up. Monica went from being an orphan housemaid in Singapore, to a wealthy businesswoman in America. Monica began her life as a sickly newborn dropped on the steps of an orphanage, and was raised by nuns. Although she grew up in an orphanage and did not have a great deal of wealth, she was raised with love and given an education. After she aged out of her typical school years she took it upon herself to change her name to that of another, much more wealthy, young woman that she worked for as a maid. This gave her the opportunity of a lifetime, which was to go to university. Most people of her social standing were unable to get an education in a university due to the cost. Monica, on the other hand, had done both the essays and application handling for her much wealthier bosses daughter, and as such had direct access to all of them. When her bosses daughter asked her to handle all of the paperwork and send back the acceptance and all the other declines of acceptance, and that is when Monica saw an opportunity. After all, she was the one who loved school and excelled in her classes. Why shouldn't she have this opportunity? The sisters at the orphanage had taught her morals and honesty, and yet she could find no way to better herself and obtain this opportunity, so she decided to put her plan into action. Monica, who became known as Ami when she changed her name, proceeded to attend university and continue on to establish her own company for skin care, to help with people who suffered from the same skin issues as she did. Everything was going perfectly until she realized that someone knew her secret, and that they would be willing to destroy her and everything she worked so hard for.

I had never heard of the area, or even the history of Singapore where orphans were dropped off to be raised by the nuns. The thought of having to do this to your own child is so incredibly painful to think about, and the child not knowing where they came from, and what made a parent make the decision to abandon them in the first place is truly heartbreaking to me.

While reading this story all I could think about was if I could do the same thing that Monica did. I know what she did was right in the sense that she wouldn't have been able to go to university, and also she wouldn't have been accepted as much as she was in business if she didn't have her "wealth" behind her. It's unfortunate but it truly is a white man's world, for the most part. Would I have been able to pull it off??? Probably not! That being said, if you are looking for a book that is an easy read, and a bit of an adventure through life, this one's for you!