Paper Wife by Laila Ibrahim - 3 Stars

 In China, 1923, Mei Ling's parents are desperate to secure a good future for her. This means setting up an arranged marriage for Mei Ling. She will be a paper wife, meaning she has to pretend to be her husbands first wife. Mei Ling sets off on a long journey across the ocean to a country she has never been to.
Along the way Mei Ling takes a young girl, Siew, under her wing and meets her soon to be good friend, June. But when she reaches San Francisco, she discovers that her husband is not who he says is he. Instead of a wealthy merchant, he is just a servant. Mei Ling, who is now pregnant, worries for her future and wonders if they can become a strong loving family, even if the whole relationship is built on false pretenses.

The first part of this book went by pretty fast, but I found the second half kind of lacking. It didn't pull me in the way the first part did, when Mei Ling was going through what she did on the ship to America and on Angel Island. Over all, it was still pretty good, though.