Book Title: WOMEN OF GOOD FORTUNE
Character Name: Jane Tian
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
Terrible. I don’t talk to my mother if I can help it.
What was your greatest talent?
I know fashion. I was the one who told Lulu not to wear this horrendous sequined maxi skirt to her first date with Harv.
And now look! She’s getting married.
Significant other?
Don’t even get me started on Zihao. He’s still ignoring me because I threw away his favorite shirt, even though it was basically see-through.
Biggest challenge in relationships?
Agreeing on anything.
Where do you live?
In the house my parents bought me in Shanghai. I had to get married to get the deed, but I guess that’s just the price you have to pay sometimes.
Do you have any enemies?
So many.
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
I love being close to my best friends. I love how I haven’t run out of hotpot restaurants to try. But sometimes I get so tired of it. The way the fù'èrdài carry themselves like they’re the ones who built all that wealth, the obsession with brands and status. I wish I didn’t care so much what other people see when they look at me.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
Neither. And that’s probably for the best.
What do you do for a living?
Housewife. Yes, that is a job.
Greatest disappointment?
My parents.
Greatest source of joy?
Shopping.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
Haggle with women over designer clothing through my WeChat luxury crowdshare groups.
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
Believing that happiness is more important than money.
What keeps you awake at night?
This heist I’m planning with my best friends…
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
How to divorce my husband.
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
Beauty. I have chased after it all my life.
Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
Well, I’m not very beautiful. Plastic surgery is expensive. But who knows? If you have a dream, you have to make it come true for yourself.
Set against a high-society Shanghai wedding, a heartfelt, funny, dazzling novel about a reluctant bride and her two best friends, each with their own motives and fed up with the way society treats women, who forge a plan to steal all the gift money on the big day.
Lulu has always been taught that money is the ticket to a good life. So, when Shanghai’s most eligible bachelor surprises her with a proposal, the only acceptable answer is yes, even if the voice inside her head is saying no. His family’s fortune would solve all her parents’ financial woes, but Lulu isn’t in love or ready for marriage.
The only people she can confide in are her two best friends: career-minded Rina, who is tired of being passed over for promotion while her male colleagues are rewarded; and Jane, a sharp-tongued, luxury-chasing housewife desperate to divorce her husband and trade up. Each of them desires something different: freedom, time, beauty. None of them can get it without money.
Lulu’s wedding is their golden opportunity. The social event of the season, it means more than enough cash gifts to transform the women’s lives. To steal the money on the big day, all they’ll need is a trustworthy crew and a brilliant plan. But as the plot grows increasingly complicated and relationships are caught in the cross fire, the women are forced to face that having it all might come at a steep price…
Women's Fiction Contemporary [Graydon House, On Sale: March 5, 2024, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781525804304 / ]
Sophie Wan is a graduate of UC Berkeley and spent too long writing emails before she picked up writing fiction.
As a Bay Area native, she has no choice but to enjoy outdoor activities, but prefers those where her feet remain firmly on the ground. She’s currently shivering her way through grad school in Philadelphia. Her debut novel, WOMEN OF GOOD FORTUNE, publishes with Graydon House on March 5, 2024.
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