4.5 stars — this was recommended to me by a friend, and it was worth every bit of hype given to it!

I loved the education on Singapore and its fascinating melting pot culture (even more interesting to learn that it’s inspired by the true stories of real orphaned girls). Monica was both sympathetic and flawed and made for a great, interesting lead. While I went into this expecting more focus on the mystery of who is threatening to expose her lies, I really enjoyed that this ended up being less about that and more about Monica coming to terms with her background and discovering herself — it felt fulfilling to follow her journey of growth.

Thank you to Harlequin and netgalley for the gifted copy of this book!!

Monica Joseph stole her wealthy classmate, Ami Shah's identity and went on to build a global skincare empire. This is a women's fiction story about class differences, privilege, found family, being a woman in a male-dominated world and figuring out where you belong.

The story has some suspense as Monica starts getting threatening texts from an unknown number who claims to know who she really is and so Monica heads back to Singapore, her birthplace to find out who could be behind this. She meets her friends and those who raised her again.

Monica has never truly been able to enjoy her life since she adopted her identity as Ami. Her focus has been solely on money, as is understandable for anyone with a background like hers and who struggled so much to get where she is now. But in the end, you also need to enjoy life instead of just trying to survive it.

Throughout the story, Monica was in survival mode, one thing kept popping up after the other which also triggered her eczema as it was linked to her stress. Sometimes you need to take a pause rather than impacting your health and mental peace.

What Monica did was morally wrong but to be in her shoes, who wouldn't be frustrated? To get opportunities just because of your family name even without trying for it? As someone who is currently job hunting, I can relate to that part hard. To see others get jobs because of their family connections while you're out there applying like a maniac and trying everything but not seeing results.

We really need more stories with older protagonists like this (women in their 40s) and women of colour trying to fight against the system while trying to make it at the same time. I am glad that towards the end, Monica was able to figure out what she wanted with her life and that she got the closure she wanted. Also loved the friendship bond between her and her friends.

I’m always so interested in reading about the every day life of characters from a background different than mine.

Now don’t let this bright pink cover fool you. The novel doesn’t shy away from tough themes and gets to the heart of some weighty issues.

Ami is such a complex and deep character. I felt with her on her issues and struggles. Class, the trade off of getting ahead, being non-white in a white world. It gave me so many things to think about.

I liked the time spent in Singapore and the mystery of who knew Ami or should I say Monica’s secret.

Soneela Nankani Did a great job narrating the audiobook. She brought Ami and her struggles to life. She kept me interested in the book and her voice sounded perfect for how I envisioned Ami.

SAVING FACE - @mansishahwrites

Ami Shah is a successful entrepreneur who is nominated for a most revered honor but she doesn't want the limelight as she is not who she says is. Years ago she assumed another woman's identity to move abroad and build a life. But with the award everything she worked to hide will come blaming out and destroy everything she worked for. And to prevent that she needs to return to a place she vowed never to come back - Home!
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A woman's fiction which takes about a lot of difficult and relevant topics like injustice, casteism, inequality, beauty prejudices making me along with whoever reads reflect upon these harsh realities and do better for the future.

It's a slow burn story with a mystery element which unfolds and blends with the story well.

A book which would be perfect for any book club discussions.

I did not expect the depth and insights provided by this novel set in Singapore and the United States. Ami Shah is the founder and CEO of a successful skin care company she started to accommodate people of color. When she is nominated for an award that usually goes to white males, Ami realizes her secrets might be discovered. Raised as an orphan dropped at the steps of the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus, Gate of Hope, Ami, who is really Monica, was raised and educated by the nuns. When she became a maid to the real Ami Shah’s family, Monica had a chance to reinvent herself, hiding her background to become a success story financially, but alone as she continued to hide her past. Monica’s search for authenticity and her acceptance of growing up Indian in Singapore was a journey worth taking. Highly recommended. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

A riveting exploration of cultural identity, ambition, and the consequences of choices made. Saving Face is a stunning portrait of a complex woman caught between privilege and poverty, truth and deception. An insightful, powerful, and deeply affecting novel that firmly establishes Shah as a major voice in contemporary fiction.

Saving Face follows Ami Shah, the founder of a successful skincare line catering to women of color. But when an intrepid, ambitious journalist seeks out Ami to write a groundbreaking profile piece in light of Ami's nomination for the Global Changemaker's Award, she fears the truth behind her rise will be revealed. Because Ami is really Monica Joseph, an impoverished orphan who was abandoned at Singapore's Gate of Hope as an infant, and later assumed the identity of a wealthy classmate to create a new life for herself in America. As the pressure around her grows, Monica is forced to face the truth of her past and the consequences of the choices she made long ago.

Laced with drama, suspense, nuanced commentary on racism, culture, sexism, and immigration, Shah's fourth novel is an incisive, masterfully crafted story that challenges readers' perceptions of moral ambiguity and asks the question: If you could become someone else in order to make the world a better place, would you? Shah just keeps getting better, and this is her most compelling novel yet! Easily one of my favorite reads this year.

I had no idea what to expect when I started reading SAVING FACE by Mansi Shah, but I was immediately intrigued when I read, “People love a rags-to-riches story, but hate a woman who lied to get ahead,” on the inside cover.

Yes, SAVING FACE is a rags-to-riches story, but it’s a complex and deeply layered one about a complex and deeply layered woman—and the lengths she’d go to pull herself out of a life she believed was destined for poverty.

Ami Shah, AKA Monica Joseph, is intelligent, resourceful and filled with so much ambition—and you can’t help but wonder what her life would have been like had she been born into the life of privilege that she so desired. Could she and would she have achieved everything that she does without all of the lies and deception?

This book is a thought-provoking exploration of identity that pulls at your heartstrings. You want Monica to get everything that she longs for, despite all of the questionable and deceitful decisions that she makes. I love how the book has added elements of mystery and how masterfully the tension behind those elements is both crafted and revealed to readers.

If you enjoy thought-provoking books with complex and layered characters, you will enjoy reading Monica’s journey.

Thank you to @mansishahwrites, @parkrowbooks, @harpercollinsca, @librofm & @netgalley for the gifted copies to read and review.

couldn't have been more thankful that my hobby allows me to snag amazing arcs of authors i love! this is my third mansi shah book (i have A GOOD INDIAN GIRL) waiting for me on my shelf in physical format. but i was so honored to have been contacted by mansi herself to read this ARC. so let's get to it!

much like A TASTE OF GINGER and THE DIRECTION OF THE WIND, SAVING FACE wraps up in clear mansi fashion. not a complete HEA, but realistic and heartbreaking nonetheless. a silver lining, a 'happy for now' that still manages to make your heart swell.

i started with the end because it's what stood out to me most, though i'd like to say that the ending dragged out much longer than i'd like and certain sub plot devices i felt weren't necessarily needed or should have been mentioned throughout the beginning and middle.

BUT, i was eating up monica as a CEO of amala, and wish i had a little bit more time with her dynamic rather than the blackmailing panic. it's one of the reasons why it's a four star read as opposed to five, but i simply can't complain when mansi's ability to weave a tale and incorporate actual human nature and classism and culture is 100%

wonderful read, and definitely kept me company after work 💕

Saving Face is a sharp, layered novel that lingers with you long after the last page. Monica Joseph’s life—starting as an abandoned child in a Singapore orphanage and transforming into Ami Shah, the glamorous founder of a global skincare empire—is both inspiring and unsettling. It’s not just a story about ambition; it’s about the masks we wear, the lies we tell ourselves, and the cost of reinvention.

Monica is a fascinating character. She’s brilliant, resourceful, and determined, yet her choices are often morally gray. You can’t help but root for her even when you’re questioning her decisions. Shah crafts the tension masterfully—especially when a journalist starts peeling back the layers of Monica’s past—and you feel that quiet dread of secrets teetering on the edge of exposure.

The settings are vivid, from the vibrant streets of Singapore to the polished, high-stakes world of American business. Beneath all the success, though, there’s a constant undercurrent of loneliness and fear, making this as much an emotional journey as it is a dramatic one.

If you enjoy morally complex characters and thought-provoking explorations of identity, privilege, and ambition, Saving Face will pull you in and refuse to let go.

With a dream acquisition and a nomination for the Change Maker Award-something that has only been bestowed upon white men, the spotlight is on Ami Shah. While most entrepreneurs would rejoice at this turn of events and bask in the business world’s spotlight, Ami Shah is doing everything she can to ensure that not even a speck of light shines on her. Her reason? She is not who she claims she is.

Ami Shah, aka Monica, is an orphan from Singapore who stole the identity of her rich classmate. If this truth comes to light, it would completely unravel her life. When she starts receiving threatening messages, she returns home one last time, refusing to let everything she had worked hard for years to build crumble down in an instant.

This is a story about ambition, sisterhood, classism, found family, about how the past always has a way to rear its head and will never stay hidden forever. The book is very interesting to read. You cannot help but feel for Monica, who has lived so many lives-as an abandoned Hindu baby, as Monica, an orphan and as Ami Shah, the entrepreneur. I was feeling so anxious for Monica, and it was so frustrating to see everything she worked so hard for slip from her hands.

I loved the book from the first chapter itself. The chapters are short and easy to read. I loved the South Asian representation. There was a sense of belonging while reading this book. It felt like reading a story about one of us, without trying too hard. There are so many lines that south asian women can relate to, especially the lines ‘it's our own families that need to see there is more to life than doctor, lawyer, engineer, and marriage and kids.’ I enjoyed Ami’s banter with Oli and the sisterhood she had with her childhood friends.

This is my first book by Mansi Shah and definitely not the last. Her writing has me hooked and I am looking forward to reading her books, both new and old.

For those who love found family and enjoy South Asian representation this book is definitely one that should be on your radar.

good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book. good book.

I enjoyed this story of Ami Shah, a Singaporean businesswoman living in the US, who ascends to the top of the business world as the founder and owner of a successful skincare company for non-white women. But one day, lies and secrets from her past threaten to unravel her future, forcing her to determine what kind of life she truly wants to lead.

The story touched on interesting issues such as non-white women in the white-male-dominated private sector, the price of success, and the tradeoffs one must make to get ahead, whose true consequences may not be realized until it is too late. I enjoyed seeing Ami start to question her choices and assumptions.

The novel unfolded in LA and Singapore, which was interesting to learn about. I knew little about Singapore and it was eye opening for me to learn about the insidious classism and the limitations it set on movement between the social classes. I thought the author did a good job of making the reader grow to understand and like Ami, who, we know from the synopsis, has built her success on a lie. I liked the strong, confident woman Ami became on her journey to self-acceptance and embracing her identity.

I really enjoyed this read and look forward to more by this author.

Thanks to the publisher for the complimentary digital copy. All opinions are my own.

Since a long time ago that I haven’t share a full review and also participate in a book tour but I’m really honored Mansi Shah reacted to me for helping to present her new baby book to you all.
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Also, I was in a big book ban but Saving Face made it fade completely. 🥹 and that was amazing! 💙😭
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In Saving Face’s story, we find Ami Shah, an Indian girl, that after she escape from Singapore to the Western continent and studied hard, she fulfilled her dreams and created a huge skin care company, Amala.
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She also had some complications in her path, but she could manage them, until she was announced as a finalist of the Global Changemakers Award. That it’s a prize that was mainly given to white men, and Ami’s nomination as a brunette Indian woman has been a huge revolution.
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Unfortunately Ami has a huge but that make her holding back for wanting to pursue that prize and it’s because, she hides the truth of her real life’s story to everyone.
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With the stress of feeling a huge fraud, she will have to face the possible complications of the situation and going back to her origins, to Singapore where her real story had started.
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The book itself was very fresh for me because it was an argument totally different that I’m used to read, but I did enjoy the change because as a girl that is pursuing my dreams and recently I have started a tiny enterprise, it’s inspiring to read about not white women having their own huge business and being successful.
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Also it made me living the difficult circumstances Ami had to face in the novel I’m glad to read it because it teaches you that any path in life is easy, that even you could fulfill your dreams and being successful you will find difficult situations, the objective in life is not giving up and facing them up even the truth was hard.
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For me it was a 5⭐️ read 🥹

I ended up reading this via audio, but I wanted to share my same review here: This was great and I had no issue with it, other than that it just wasn’t my style of Book. So I have nothing bad to say I just would say it’s not my cup of tea. It definitely deserves this star rating though, and I hope others enjoy it.

Monica is orphaned in Singapore and ends up working as a maid for a wealthy family. When the daughter of the family rejects a great opportunity, Monica decides to take advantage of it and changes her name and moves to the other side of the world to pursue the dreams she could never be allowed is she were to remain herself or in her status in Singapore. She goes on to build a successful cosmetic business which focuses on making products for women of color and with skin issues that most other cosmetic companies tend to ignore. Soon she starts to receive anonymous texts that threaten to unravel her past and blow up her business, especially when she is nominated for a Changemaker award.
Although technically Monica did something that would be considered “wrong”, I fully understand why she did it and I felt for her as things started to crash around her.
Monica is such a deep and strongly developed character and the people she is surrounded with, in particular the women she has surrounded herself with, show the power of found family and that they can mean more than anything money can buy.
Thanks to Park Row and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

Saving Face by Mansi Shah is a timely and deeply thought-provoking story of transformation, identity, and inequity. It centers on Monica Joseph, abandoned in a Singaporean orphanage, who assumes the identity of her affluent classmate, Ami Shah. Under this borrowed name, she gains admission to London Business School and builds a thriving skincare brand, only for her past to catch up with her years later

Monica’s journey is filled with many emotional complexities. I found myself first feeling fierce anger at the systemic inequities that pushed her into erasure, as well as sadness at the resources denied to so many. I was enraged that she felt compelled to fabricate an identity to prove her worth, and heartbroken that keeping her secret meant she couldn't foster intimate relationships. Monica never fully belonged to the life she created, nor the life she erased.

Mansi Shah’s novels consistently shine a light on women navigating patriarchal, classist, and capitalist systems that seek to define them. Saving Face, much like the Shah's previous 3 novels, is not just fiction with a strong female main character. It’s a mirror to the gender bias, class stratification, and identity politics women face, especially in diasporic contexts

What makes Saving Face particularly compelling is how the layered storytelling invites readers to confront uncomfortable truths while rooting for the protagonist. Mansi Shah blends rags‑to‑riches ambition with a meditation on belonging—not just in one’s given family or the society into which you’re born, but also in the family you choose.

How far are you willing to go to change your life? To change the world, you were born into. To be able to go to college and succeed at anything you set your mind to? Would you steal someone's identity and go to college? Flinging off the old and becoming someone that you always dreamed of becoming. Someone you were more than capable of becoming. But they were held back due to circumstances beyond your control. This book points out the differences of what it is like trying to climb the corporate ladder, if you are not a white man, and someone not from means. A person who has different colored skin comes from a different part of the world, and should be welcomed no matter what.

Twenty years ago, Ami Shah, made the decision to take on the identity of one of her schoolmates, which she also was a maid for. The real Ami never had to worry about anything in her life. It was all laid out before her on a golden path. While Monica was always behind her scrubbing and helping her fill out business school applications. When Ami made her decision and asked Monica to throw away the other acceptance letters, she decided to take control of her life and to go to business school as Ami. Changing her life forever. Ami is the owner of a cosmetics line that she is selling to a fortune 500 company. All her dreams have come true but is she happy. She is alone, does not trust anyone, and is haunted by what she did to take control of her life. When an unknown number begins sending threatening texts that they will reveal the truth. Ami is made to go back to Singapore and confront her past. Will she lose her company and everything for which she has worked for?

I felt like Ami was constantly playing Whack A Mole. She would get one situation managed and another would pop up. The constant unknown made me tense, and a pit sat in my stomach. Hoping that Ami finally finds what she is looking for. That by rising above her class she has shown others that it does not matter where you come from. Drive and ambition are what people should be focused on. Another key thread throughout the book is family. A family is constantly being redefined. You form your own family as you grow older. It could be made up of friends, people who raised you, your genetic parents, it does not matter if you have love. Thank you to Mensi Shah for reaching out to me. I loved your new book!

Thank you to the author and publisher for the ALC and eARC!

Saving Face is follows our main character, Monica, 20 years after she stole the identity of one of her friends to provide a better life for herself. She is a successful business woman and nominated for a big award. However, with this recognition, the more eyes on Monica. Will her identity remain a secret?

To be honest, I have very mixed feelings about this book. However, the TLDR of it is I think that the idea of this book was what drew me in and the suspense of it really keeps the book going, but the execution fell slightly flat for me.

Let's first dive into what I liked. I really enjoyed my time reading this book! I really liked the narration of the book, I don't love this audiobook narrator, however, I think that the narration of this book really helped to bring the story to life. You can really tell that the author did so much research into the background of this book. The main character's backstory is based on a real place, so the amount of research required to create a convincing backstory is a lot. I liked seeing that research really shine through the story. I also really liked seeing the differences in relationships with the people in her pre identity theft life and post identity theft life. It was also really interesting learning more about the backstory of Singaporean history and exploring a different landscape with a person of Indian heritage.

Now to what I didn't like. I think that this book could have made a really great thriller. Not saying that it does not make a good literary fiction, because it does, I just think that it could have made a great thriller given the premise of the book. The author also did a lot of telling and not showing, which in some cases I did like, but overall I did not like. Furthermore, the author would spell out the negatives regarding racism and misogyny within the situations that the main character experienced, rather than showing the reader through action and small dialogues that would have created more depth to the stories and characters. Was the mystery a little predictable? Yes, but the suspense of the how everything would play out kept me motivated to finishing the book.

Though I did have criticisms of this book, I did really enjoy seeing the characters interact with each other and seeing how everything played out. I would recommend this book.

I'm such a fan of Mansi Shah's work, I was so excited to get an advanced copy of this novel!

Ami Shah is on the verge of everything she’s ever wanted: her skincare brand is about to be acquired by a major company, and she’s up for the prestigious ChangeMaker Award. However, the only problem is that Ami Shah doesn’t really exist. Twenty years ago, orphan Monica Joseph stole the identity of a wealthy classmate and built a new life under a false name. Now, with a nosy journalist digging into her past, Monica’s carefully crafted empire is at risk. To protect the truth, she’ll have to return to the place and the secrets she’s spent two decades trying to outrun.

This book had me on edge from the start. The author masterfully builds a tense atmosphere, capturing the emotional weight of living a lie and the isolation that comes with it. The main character’s growing distrust of everyone around her was heartbreaking, but it made perfect sense in a world where secrets rule and truth feels dangerous. No one in this story walks away blameless, which only deepens its exploration of humanity which is flawed, complex, and real. The novel tackles classism, racism, and bias with nuance and honesty, and still delivers a gripping, satisfying ending. It’s both a compelling story and an important one that I definitely recommend!

Thank you to the author, Harlequin Audio, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and Park Row for the ARC/ALC of this book.

eh, the idea was really good and it started out fine, but none of the characters were compelling enough to sustain this and at points there were long stretches of dragging. 3 stars. tysm for the arc.