Immensely popular, her third novel, The Last Rose of Shanghai, sold 100,000 copies within six months of its publication. A powerful story of...a Shanghai heiress and a Jewish refugee...one readers will never forget." - Pam Jenoff There are many more grouses I have but all of those would require leaking of spoilers. So just know, quite a lot of silly things happen in the second half, events that make no sense at all! Too many ad hoc alterations and exaggerations. The second half messed up all the good feelings created in the first 50%. A very successful and transporting novel that beautifully captures the sounds, smells, and social mores of seventh-century China.” — Historical Novels Review (Editors’ Choice)

Does all this add up to a good story? In some ways, yes. Certainly, living in an occupied city is awful. Both Aiyi and Ernest experience their share of tragedy. But Randel avoids making the story an atrocity Olympics. The reader finds suffering, but the suffering alone doesn’t take over the story. It felt authentic to me, at least. In contrast, Aiyi and Ernest’s respective story arcs are really strong. I loved watching Aiyi fight to maintain her power and financial independence at a time when women still dealt with bound feet and social expectations about their role being limited to the home. I enjoyed watching her negotiate with the powerful Jewish magnate Sassoon, and seeing her outwit Japanese soldiers and her domineering oldest brother, all to hold on to the business she’d worked so hard to build. I was especially captivated by the tension between how much she was willing to sacrifice for Ernest’s sake, because of her love for him, and how much she’d refuse to give up to ensure her own future. I found Aiyi to be a complex, compelling heroine, and I was totally into seeing her story unfold. For example, there’s the usual barrier of Aiyi being engaged to another man. But more important than that is the fact that Ernest is also on the run from Japanese soldiers, who suspect him of killing one of their own, and the powerful Japanese commander has threatened to shut down Aiyi’s beloved nightclub unless she turns him in. Thus, Aiyi’s motivation for staying away from Ernest has only a bit to do with the usual barriers of family honour and duty, and much more to do with who she is as a person who values her financial independence, and takes great pride in what she has accomplished with her night club.

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I’ve read a number of WWII books focused on Europe or Japan, but I wasn’t aware of the events in Shanghai. I’m really glad I came across this book, and the author has piqued my interest about this piece of history. She included a list of further reading at the end of the book to learn more about Shanghai during WWII, and I will definitely be adding some of them to my TBR list!

Old Shanghai, the city that existed between the two world wars, is a conundrum. Not strictly a colony but rather an International Settlement, a port city forced open by imperialist aggression in 1842 after the first opium war. The part of the city that was sectioned off came under foreign control, its residents subject only to the laws of their home countries. The irony is that as a result of this, Shanghai was to become a refuge during the 1920s and 30s for more than three million Chinese fleeing civil war, warlordism, disease, drought and famine. In the late 30s, it also became a port of last resort for some 30,000 Jewish refugees fleeing fascism in Germany and Austria. Born and raised in China, Weina came to the United States in her early twenties. She holds an M.A. in English from Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas.The best of the Shanghai-set novels by China’s leftwing realist writers of the 1930s – who also included Lu Xun and Ba Jin – which accentuated the harsh and often brutal capitalist face of the city and offered an intimate portrait of working-class life.

Aiyi Shao is a young heiress and the owner of a formerly popular and glamorous Shanghai nightclub. Ernest Reismann is a penniless Jewish refugee driven out of Germany, an outsider searching for shelter in a city wary of strangers. He loses nearly all hope until he crosses paths with Aiyi. When she hires Ernest to play piano at her club, her defiance of custom causes a sensation. His instant fame makes Aiyi’s club once again the hottest spot in Shanghai. Soon they realize they share more than a passion for jazz - but their differences seem insurmountable, and Aiyi is engaged to another man. Set against a panorama so vivid you can almost hear the jazz in Aiyi Shao's nightclub, Weina Dai Randel brings to life fascinating WWII history new to me and, I imagine, countless other readers. The story of a well-born entrepreneur and the German-Jewish refugee she loves will stay with you long after The Last Rose of Shanghai ends." - Sally Koslow The Last Rose of Shanghai is about the forbidden love between Aiyi Shao, a wealthy heiress, nightclub owner, and business mogul in Shanghai, and Ernest Reismann, a penniless Jewish refugee from Germany, whom Aiyi hires to play the piano at her club. The romance between them is sweet: I love how much they care for — and take care of — each other. And while the obstacles between them did get a bit much towards the end (a scene featuring a tank stretched the limits of even my suspension of disbelief), I do like how the core reasons they couldn’t be together were very true to their characters’ unique circumstances. Often, stories of struggle are written from the point of view of middle class or impoverished characters. Aiyi being rich gives us an angle not often seen in historical fiction: that of a wealthy young heiress who does her best to be independent despite the constraints of her time and location, and at the same time, being proud of her financial status and beauty. There's a secret in the book. You can guess the big reveal at least 30-40 chapters before it happens. (The book has 92 chapters!)Weina Dai Randel's poignant, sweeping love story paints a vibrant portrait of a little-known slice of World War II history. Not to be missed!" - Kate Quinn

A must for historical fiction fans, especially those fascinated by China’s glorious past.” — Library Journal (starred review)First, though I give the author credit for writing in a language that is not her first, the writing is not particularly enjoyable. I've always heard that one of the principal rules of writing is "Show, don't tell." This book has a whole lot of telling and very little showing. Aiyi, our first-person narrator, spends tons of time telling us about how rich she is, what lavish jewelry and clothing she wears, about her nightclub and her servants and the reputation of her family. And yet there are instances when the reader has to infer that something has happened because it isn't explicitly stated that it has. I'm thinking of one part here in which a character is shot by a soldier; the book says that the soldier has a gun and that the character is bleeding, but it never actually explains the connection. In the midst of shelves full of World War II stories about white people in Europe and North America, finally, here’s one set in China. Finally, here’s one that stars a Chinese woman instead of a white one with blond hair and blue eyes. Finally, here’s one that talks about the Japanese occupation of China, and the intra-Asian racism and cruelty during the war, alongside the horrors of the Nazi regime. My thanks to The Last Rose of Shanghai and NetGalley for the DRC of “Lake Union Publishing”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.