Book Review: "Saving Face" by Mansi Shah

The CEO of a global skincare company, Ami Shah is a role model. Raised in Singapore, she had to break down a lot of barriers to get to where she is, and convince many that despite her gender and the color of her skin, she’s a businesswoman to be reckoned with. Her company, Amala, is about to merge with a Fortune 500 company.

Her nomination for the Global Changemakers Award is unprecedented. This prestigious award has only gone to white men; she is the first woman of color to be nominated. If she wins the award, it will increase the value of Amala and cement her legacy.

While she should be beside herself about this honor, Ami would prefer to withdraw her nomination. All of the publicity makes her nervous—not because she’s shy, but because she’s not who she says she is. Ami (whose real name is Monica) was an orphan raised in a convent in Singapore. But since orphans in her country never had a chance to amount to much, she decided to steal a former classmate’s identity and move to London, which is where her new story began.

But as the merger details are finalized and the award ceremony draws closer, Ami starts getting threatening text messages promising to expose her lies if she didn’t confess. She knows if the truth comes out, everything she built will fall apart. To figure out who is blackmailing her, she must go back to where she vowed she’d never return: Singapore.

“She wanted to prove that just because a girl had been abandoned, it didn’t mean she had to carry that weight with her forever. She could find purpose, and through that, she could find herself.”

This was such a thought-provoking, emotional book. Mansi Shah created a story that seemed so plausible, and even though it’s a bit of a slow burn, it was tremendously compelling.