Kristin Chen's debut novel hits all the right notes out of the gate. I wish that "Crazy Rich Asians" had taken a page out of her book. Ms. Chen ensures that you get fully immersed in Singapore by following only one protagonist, Gretchen Lin. We do get some of the "crazy rich Asians" elements when Ms. Chen explains about how much some of her friends and family buy on designer wear or drop money at the latest nightclubs. However, these are more asides than major plot points and you don't find yourself getting bored or frustrated.

I loved that the character of Gretchen is struggling with what to do in her life after a surprising announcement from her husband. Fleeing San Francisco for Singapore we have Gretchen returning to work in her family's soy sauce factory. Ms. Lin then provides the readers with detailed explanations on how "real" soy sauce is prepared. Apparently the soy sauce I have dunked my sushi in all of these years is highly inferior stuff. It was quite interesting to hear how long it takes to make really good soy sauce and that you can actually cook meat with it as well, also drink it (which I would probably still never do).

Also though I found Gretchen to be aggravating at times when it came to her facing what was really going on in her life with her family, her family business, her husband she finally does end up coming to peace on what she needs to do.

Ms. Lin is able to immerse the reader in this novel in such a way that I felt as if I was along with Gretchen smelling soybeans, feeling the moist heat in Singapore, and the air in San Francisco.

My only minor quibble is that sometimes characters speak in Slingish, Chinese, Maylay, etc. I wish that it had been explained in some way. I was able to get the gist a few times but some of the sentences I had no idea what a person was trying to say.

I look forward to reading future books by Ms. Chen in the future. I 100% recommend this novel.