Shanghai Girls is one of those books that I added to my to-read list on Goodreads and then promptly forgot about it (probably because I have 300+ books on my to-read list. I work at a library ok? New books are always being added to the shelves and older books pass through my hands and I just can't help myself xD). Anyways, lucky for me, my older sister bought a copy of the book at a used book sale and told me that I should definitely read it. She dropped it off at my apartment and then proceeded to ask me everyday if I had started reading it yet. I had a stack of books from the library that I was trying to finish so it took me two weeks to get to it, but once I started reading, I flew through the book.Shanghai Girls follows the story of Pearl and her younger sister May, two women living in 1930's Shanghai. As the daughters of the owner of a rickshaw business, they consider themselves to be very Westernized and well off. Ignoring the threats of an impending Japanese invasion, the girls continue to live their daily lives as if nothing could ever go wrong. All of this changes when their father admits that he lost his fortune and in order to keep their home, he has arranged marriages for both of them. These are not an ordinary arranged marriages as their father has decided to marry them to two American citizens. However, before all is said and done, Japanese troops begin to attack the outskirts of the city and both Pearl and May's worlds are further turned upside down with the start of the second Sino-Japanese war.
