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.

Saving Face is the first book I’ve read by Mansi Shah. I had mixed feelings about this book and had a difficult time trying to rate it. Monica is such a complicated character. The way she handled the spam calls seemed strange to me. Naria, the journalist, was incredibly messy character to the point where I couldn’t stand her. There’s a part in the book where I didn’t understand why Monica let her get away with such scummy behavior without consequences. The culprit behind the spam calls didn’t surprise me at all. I found that Divya was the only honest Indian woman and the only true girls’ girl in the story. What bothered me the most was the portrayal of Indian women. It cast them in a negative light which is especially frustrating in today’s political climate. Climbing the corporate ladder is already difficult and this type of representation doesn’t help. Back to the storyline, the pacing was off. The beginning moved slowly and I struggled to get into the story. However, I really enjoyed learning more about Monica’s past and her present-day trip to Singapore. Once Monica’s secret came out, the ending took a strange turn. I didn’t love how things escalated so quickly or how abruptly the story ended. The last 30% could have been much more developed. With all of that said, I applaud the author for researching complex topics and pushing her writing capabilities. Though I had mixed feelings about this book, I’ll definitely check out her earlier books.

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.