Gemma Huang is on a gap year to pursue an acting career, which is reluctantly supported by her Chinese-born parents. Gemma fights the lack of Hollywood roles for Asians and is finally offered a “big break.” However, the role she lands requires she travel to Beijing - a place her mother has forbidden her to ever go. Gemma chooses to go to Beijing, not only for the acting role, but to try to discover what her parents are hiding. When she lands, she is besieged by media who mistake her for wealthy Chinese socialite, Alyssa Chua. As Gemma struggles on set to fight the racial stereotyping in the direction’s vision, she discovers the connection between Alyssa and herself, and her mother’s enormous secret.

What a great book to shed light on Asian stereotypes, and give insight to Chinese culture! I loved the respectful relationship between Gemma and her parents - even though her parents drove her a little crazy, like any teen’s parents do, she still had a great love for them and was sick about going against their wishes with her trip to Beijing. I do feel like everything tied up a bit too neatly at the end, and am curious to see where this is going since it is advertised as book one in a series. I highly recommend this book for library systems looking to diversify their collections.

I really liked 'Heiress Apparently' and found it to be a strong young adult book about an aspiring actress following her dreams and learning about the family she never knew.

My favourite parts of this book was learning about the historical moments and people and found it all very interesting. I also really loved the setting of Beijing and all the different places that Gemma visited during the book.

I also loved seeing Gemma's relationship blossom with Alyssa and seeing how close they got to each other at the end of the book. I also really liked Gemma's relationship with Eric. I was not completely obsessed with them being together and would've been happy with them staying just as friends, but I really liked how Eric and Gemma were both there for each other no matter what and were always encouraging each other to follow their dreams.

I don't know if this is a series but I'd happily read another book following Gemma and her family. I'd probably recommend this book to anyone who loved 'American Royals' because reading this reminded me of that book.

Thank you to ABRAMS Kids for providing me with an advanced copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This one definetly took longer to get into than anticipated but it was a great read. Solid 3 star but the writing got on my nerves at points

Heiress Apparently (Daughters of the Dynasty) is a book that takes a little why to get going, so please persevere as it's well worth it.
It's an original and interesting story that has some fantastic character progression as the story devlops.

I had such a fun experience reading HEIRESS APPARENTLY!

It was satisfying to see Gemma Huang's growth and development throughout the story: from pursuing her dreams as an actress to raising her voice while fighting for her role. Furthermore, Ma created a mysterious atmosphere when it came to Gemma's family secrets.

I absolutely loved that this novel is based on the most famous Empress of China, Wu Zetiang - I still can see before my eyes Fan Bing Bing's beautiful portrayal of Wu Zetiang and all the media references regarding Asian characters ("Crazy Rich Asians" to mention one). As someone who used to binge watch Chinese drama since I was little, several passages resonated with me and I kept nodding while being infused with nostalgic feeling. The depiction of traditional Chinese parents and "perfect-child-comparison" was spot on plus the usage of pin yin only increased the familiarity with this novel. Ultimately, the mention of Chinese history was the cherry on the top of cake.

I thought that Gemma's mother being involved in art history was a refreshing approach since I rarely read the combination China-art. We see a few (or almost none) Asian representation in media and I found it relevant how Ma brought this subject matter to our attention, also highlighting that Asians are not monolith.

What I also adored was the mention of food (hum bao, you tiao, turnip cake and moon cake), Mooncake festival and Chinese customs. There's queer representation in this novel and I was rooting for the cute love story.
My only small critique is that I found the revelation at the end anti-climatic as I was expecting a bit more.
HEIRESS APPARENTLY is a lovely YA novel that shows you the preciousness of standing for your beliefs and the unbreakable bond of family. I am looking forward to reading the sequel.

A well-written and engaging story about family, secrets, fame, and fortune. This book shows a young woman trying to find herself both in her career and within her family. Gemma, a Chinese American, has never known her family and has felt displaced in America. When her new film project starts filming in Beijing she has no choice but to go against her mother’s wishes and return to her family’s home. She discovers her mother’s long kept secrets and meets her long list family. This is a story about family connection and discovering your own true identity. There are many wonderful and inspiring characters throughout. Each character has a detailed personality and comes to life on the page. This was a wonderful read and I can’t wait to read more from Diana Ma.

I totally forgot to post a review of this- stupid current events curtailing my review schedule. :) This story was the YA contemporary/ mystery I needed this winter. It's a fun fantasy where Gemma takes a gap year, gets a part in a movie after just a little while, and flies to China to film it. It's fiction so suspending your disbelief is part of it.
She meets her long lost family and as she struggles to keep her old boyfriend back in Illinois happy, finds a new guy, and success at work? Maybe.

I would like to take a moment to thank the publishers, netgalley and the author for an ARC in exchange of an honest review.

Okay, so I DNF’d this one.

I got 6% in and I couldn’t take it. This book suffers a lot from show and don’t tell. Gemma’s boyfriend has absolutely no one screen personality that we get to see. Nothing at all that I saw. He just existed and was good looking and I didn’t get to know anything else about why he likes her or what they have in common. Fine, I figured he would probably break up with her.

Anyway, I continued reading and it seems like at every possible turn there’s a nasty comment about white people? I understand that I was not the intended audience, but as someone who enjoys protagonists of all races and reading outside my own culture I was curious as to why you would deliberately alienate readers. Comments like this, if directed at Asian characters, would be met with criticism and I would be angry seeing it, so would Asian readers.

So it seemed odd to me to perpetuate stereotypes of any group of people. This would be fine if any of the characters I saw were racist but all of them were directed at the white roommate who hadn’t done anything to anyone as far as I could see? I was confused. Anyway, feeling throughly alienated I decided that it clearly wasn’t meant for me. Unlike crazy rich Asians and numerous other Asian novels it felt impossible to forget that I was an outsider and be engrossed in the plot.

I won’t rate the book though as I feel this would be unfair.

I was underwhelmed by this book overall. The key concept - a Chinese American girl goes to China for the first time - seemed interesting. The actress trying to push back against the stereotyping and racism that's endemic in Hollywood was great, and the scenes in the book that focused on that were well written, with an interesting internal monologue for the character. The mystery of the families, however, and the constant question of "But what did my mother *do*?" felt like the pacing wasn't quite right. It escalated very quickly which meant that the tension plateaued for me, and the resolution wasn't so much something that Gemma created as something that happened around her, which I always find lightly frustrating.

I did enjoy the book, and I finished it within a few days. It's a good YA book, and if someone were looking for a novel that had to do with actresses and acting, I'd definitely recommend it; it just isn't a book I'm going to be shouting out recommendations to everywhere I go.

This was a DNF. Even for free I could not read this. The writing is horrid and the events, dialogue, and pretty mich everything was ridiculous. It had the air of someone who is trying to write for teens rather than actually writing with their interests and maturity in mind.

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for supplying me with a free copy of this book for a review*

Gemma Huang has just landed herself a big break as the lead role in an updated version of M. Butterfly; the only caveat is that they're filming in Beijing, the only place her parents have forbidden her to go to.

I enjoyed large parts of this book, I couldn't put it down as it's a such an easy read. However, there are major parts of this book that did not sit right with me; such as parts of the pacing felt off, the book for the most part is quite fast paced however at around 80% everything just happens to try and conclude the book in the fastest way possible. Although it seems that there are more books to come in this series, it felt very rushed towards the end.
The parts of this book that I enjoyed were: the discussion of Asian stereotypes portrayed by the media and the challenging of that in the book, the instalove trope, the points of history and culture what was represented and the exploration that took place as well as the topic of food that was spoken about.

A fun, lighthearted read that manages to tackle the complexities of stereotypes, family, Chinese history, racism, and LGBTQIA+ rights. Personally, the book felt predictable and I was not as engaged as I would like, but I did enjoy the aspects of family and the issues the book brought to light. While the plot itself was interesting, and I enjoyed seeing all the cultural references the author incorporated into the story, the pacing felt off and the characters fell flat.

Heiress Apparently by Diana Ma was the unexpected and absolutely enthralling answer to many, many previously unanswered wishes. As a supporter and advocate of diversity and inclusion in literature, personally and professionally, Heiress Apparently is the perfect example of well-written Asian (Chinese-American and Chinese) representation in young-adult literature and is a delightful debut novel to what I hope with be a series, or at least a duology. While Heiress Apparently does have some minor issues with pacing and character development, these small imperfections do not take away from the powerful storytelling that is the ultimate combination of a romantic comedy and family drama, perfect for fans of Crazy Rich Asians and American Royals, as well as fans of Chinese and Korean dramas, in general. The central character, Gemma Huang, recently graduated from high school and is using her gap year from UCLA to pursue her own dream of becoming an actress in Los Angeles. Gemma’s dreams soon come to fruition after she is cast in the lead role of a new adaptation of M. Butterfly, which is going to film in Beijing, China, which just happens to be the only country (and city) her parents have explicitly prohibited her from visiting, due to some unknown family secret(s). Upon arrival, Gemma soon meets new friends and foes, all the while unraveling her parents’ secrets and discovering who she is as an individual and as an actress through self-discovery and self-reflection. While I appreciated the 2nd romance, I was honestly reading Heiress Apparently to better understand Gemma and her family’s secret history. I also appreciated the inclusion and shout-out(s) to real-life Asian actresses and actors within the book, whom many readers will be able to connect with/understand. All in all, with the addition of ancient and modern history interwoven with cultural traditions, art, food, and clothing, along with the LGBTQ+ activism, Heiress Apparently sets the stage as a powerful 2020 debut that will capture many hearts along the way.

A warm-hearted and much-appreciated thank you to ABRAMS Kids, Amulet Books, and NetGalley for providing an advance copy! Please make sure to pick up a copy of Heiress Apparently at your local book depository.

Heiress Apparently at its core is a story about family. From Gemma’s small 3-person family, to the wider family she chooses throughout the book, there’s always relationships being built upon throughout the book. The family dynamics felt real and were recognisable for how parents and adult children would act towards one another.

I loved Gemma as a character because she did not play into stereotypical Asian character traits, and the book even highlighted the problems with those stereotypes when it came to representation. Plus, Gemma as a character was a great protagonist to follow as she has flaws and makes bad decisions but learns from them and understands when she has done wrong. ­­­

The stereotype and representation topic is something that is explored throughout the book. From how Asian stereotypes are contributed to by media such as film by how they’re represented by those in charge of the production who aren’t Asian, to more nuanced “who am I” discussions of Gemma who is Chinese but also “not Chinese enough” when she’s in China, and American but “not American enough” when at home. It also touches on the dichotomy of “traditional” Chinese values that are assumed by western audiences and how Chinese people actually react to sexual identity, unisex dressing etc is very different and more relaxed than the assumption.

There are two stories that are being told in this book, one is Gemma trying to make it as an actress and improve Asian representation in film. Then there’s Gemma finding out why her parents forbid her from travelling to China, and the backstory of her family. Each of these stories could quite easily be in their own book, but the actress storyline is what forces Gemma to travel to China and for the second story to really start. Whilst both stories do wrap up by the end of the book, I did find it disappointing when a middle section of the book made Gemma lose a lot of focus on becoming an actress and being great at her job.

The romance of the book was cute but also predictable. The romance isn’t the central focus of the book, which I was expecting and so there’s not much attention relying on it. The romance is more of a need for someone to help Gemma navigate China, and to find a chosen family, I think. But overall, it wasn’t too much, and I was routing for the couple to be together because he was supportive and encouraged her to be herself rather than change.

Whilst I don’t often read contemporaries for the world building as they are set in the real world, I adored how the author wrote about China. As our main character was both Chinese and a tourist, we got to see/read about the tourist places as well as in depth knowledge of the food she’s always wanted to try. I enjoyed how we got to explore the city whilst it not being assumed that we have knowledge already like some American based books do.

Overall, Heiress Apparently was a sweet and fast read for me that I devoured in only a couple of days. I’d recommend it for anyone who loves romcoms, and I’m excited to see what happens in the next book as the ending wrapped most things up.

Positives of Heiress Apparently
Characters have a lot of depth, both individually and relationships
Chinese representation
Negatives of Heiress Apparently
Two stories that aren’t as linked as they could have been

Heiress Apparently was a one day read for me. Fun, light and engaging with a focus on family and repairing relationships and building new ones, set against the backdrop of Gemma visiting China for the first time to play the lead role in a film with some socially dodgy themes.

The main pull of this book is the mystery: why do Gemma's otherwise very nice seeming parents never want her to visit China, and definitely never Beijing? Why does she look so much like a very popular young Chinese woman called Alyssa? The book strings this all out a bit, which makes sense as it forms the biggest chunk of the book. The other chunk is Gemma's role in a film when she has struggled so hard to find decent roles, and now she finally has the chance to work for someone she really admires.

This is a fairly simple, fun romance read that was intriguing enough to get me flicking quickly through the pages, even though it left me with a slight feeling of "whaaat, that didn't really make a whole lot of sense but whatever" at the end.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would definitely read any sequels that might come out down the line. I was sold just by the idea of Crazy Rich Asians meets The Princess Diaries, but there's also Chinese history! And art appreciation! And genuine conversations and musings about theatre and film, particularly about the struggles women of color face in the industry. And, of course, plenty of romance :)

Gemma, an up and coming actress, lands a breakout role in a film that brings her to Beijing. What she doesn't know is that she bears a startling resemblance to China's biggest (and richest) social media star and that there's more to her family history than she thought.

I'll start with the good, which is that I found the Chinese history, art, and culture to be really interesting. That aspect is unusual to see in a contemporary book and it was cool to learn about! The rest of the book?...it was honestly pretty disappointing. While I'll always appreciate Asian American representation, in this case Gemma's entire personality seemed to be that she was Chinese American. The books over-explained pretty mundane parts of being Asian, almost like it was trying to educate a non-Asian audience. One memorable part was when we were explained the meaning and use of 'Ni Hao' in excruciating detail. Characters did things to help the plot, not because it was in their nature to do so. And I'm sorry to say this: Eric, the love interest, is pretty bland.

I went into this story not know much about the plot and with an open mind. While this book definitely had a YA crazy rich Asians feel I just didn’t mesh with it. I found it just wasn’t keeping my attention and I wasn’t connecting with the characters. The writing style was okay and I can see how this would be a great book for people that like American Royals but it just wasn’t for me.

Enjoyable but I felt like it tackled too much and left a lot more questions unanswered than it could have. I actually enjoyed the romance aspect though, and the found family portion...although it felt that the parts that were lacking was the part I was most interested in—the history and the movie!

This book was a fun easy read about a girl who wants to break into the acting community that is #oscarssowhite while she is an Asian American woman. I kind of got a Lizzie McGuire vibe where she looks just like this other girl in their country when she travels there and people mistake her for that person. Overall, very enjoyable!