Really enjoyed learning more about this time period. I loved the combination of characters and setting, the sisters, and family, and the sort of then and now time lines. I hope to read the next in the series soon.

I received this egalley as part of the ALAN conference and it is kept on a kindle in my classroom. My rating is based on the fact that my students have enjoyed this title and I look forward to when I get the chance to read it.

Her Rebel Highness

This is the prequel to Heiress Apparently, which I read a couple of months ago, and really enjoyed. I don’t read much historical fiction, so this one took me a little longer to pick up than I wanted to, but I ended up loving it!

We follow Lei, who is the mother of Gemma in Heiress Apparently. It is the year 1988 and this book deals with the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the protests leading up to it. Lei is rich girl living in Beijing. Her dad is high up in the communist party, and her mom is descended from an Empress, and one of her jobs is to guard and keep secret their art collection. Lei gets interested in the protests and becomes really passionate about helping out, even though she can’t tell her family about it. She also starts to fall for one of the leaders of the protests. She is torn between following her heart and staying loyal to her family.

I really enjoyed this, it was so difficult reading about the massacre, especially knowing the death toll is still unknown. But this was a beautiful story, and it made me want to reread Heiress Apparently with this background knowledge. This was just so good!!!

Thank you to netgalley for providing a e-galley for review. Her Rebel Highness is the prequel novel to Heiress Apparently. While I appreciate the protest aspect of this book, I feel like there was too much focus on the protests and not enough character development. I just wasn't invested in the present day story. I was very interested in the story of the women of the poetry and painting however.

***Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance digital copy of the book in exchange for honest feedback.***

Her Rebel Highness is a historical fiction bookworm's dream come true. Not only does it have a timeline in 1980's China, but also in the Tang dynasty. Ma weaves these stories together in both obvious and subtle ways. I loved how Her Rebel Highness gave me even more insight into Gemma's mother, Lei. To the family secrets and conflict that lead to the events in the first book. But both of these stories examine difficult choices. Whether it be to speak out against our family, or to choose a different path than what our family wants.

What a wild ride! I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I started this sequel. It was very different from what I expected but super unique.

In book 1 we follow Gemma and she takes an acting job in Beijing, finds a girl who looks nearly identical to her, and figures out that they are cousins who’s mothers are twins but have been feuding for decades.

Here we follow Gemma’s mom during the revolution in Beijing which all led up to the Tiananmen Square massacre.

The middle part of this book dragged a little bit, but the history that was discussed was super interesting and not a story that I knew a lot about. I feel like the ending set up for a third book in this series and I think that could be really cool. 3.5 stars rounded up

I really enjoyed this book from the perspective of Lei, Gemma's mother! I didn't know that this was going to be a series and I'm honestly glad it is because it offers another insight into Chinese history that felt relatable but also gave us a backstory into Gemma's story before it took place. I'm really excited to see where Diana goes next with this series since there seems to be more stories to be told!

This book was good and interesting to read, but not as great a read as its predecessor. I absolutely loved Heiress, Apparently. This one? It just didn't flow as well to me. I don't know if it was the time period or the characters, but I did not feel as invested in this one as I did with the first. It wasn't a bad follow up, there was a lot of good cultural and historical information that was really interesting, but it just didn't pack the pizazz that book one had. Solid three stars.

Her Rebel Highness is a fast paced, historical novel. At first, I didn't realize that this novel took place in the past, but once I did, I found Lei's voice highly engaging. I loved how the arts and history were emphasized.

Lei has always been the wild one despite her good grades and plans to get into a tier 1 university. It's no surprise that she makes up her mind to join the student protests in Tiananmen Square, but Lei doesn't expect that she'll fall in love while she's there. As a rich girl at a pro-democracy protest, she has a lot to lose, not only because her father is a high-ranking Communist party official, but because her mother has been hiding a secret that could expose the whole family to disgrace. Lei is forced to choose between her family and inheritance or the man she loves and the movement they both believe in.

Having read the first book, I was worried that the ending of this one would be spoiled; in Heiress Apparently, Lei's daughter stumbles across her secret, so it wasn't much of a surprise in book 2. However! It turns out there's a lot about Lei that I never could have guessed based on book 1. Overall, this book does a remarkably good job of twisting together the varying plots of family relationships, budding romance, classism, historical facts, ancient secrets, and character growth. While the book certainly takes some creative liberties, I am excited to do more research into the Beijing student protests of 1989, and I'm glad that this fictional account gives me a clear visual as I embark on that adventure. Lei's character is well-developed, and the twists that appeared in the last 30 pages had me unable to put the book down. I recommend this book for anyone, young adult or older, who enjoys forbidden love, political intrigue, historical fiction, and Chinese culture.

Thank you to Amulet Books and Netgalley for this ARC

The review will be up closer to pub date. This book is perfect for fans of Crazy Rich Asians and Dynasty!

DNF - I was interested in this book because I was intrigued by the historical backdrop of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, but unfortunately, I couldn't get into this because of the writing. I found the characters to be extremely one dimensional and the dialogue to be clunky. Perhaps this might be better suited for someone else since I know writing style is very subjective, but it just was not for me.