Thanks to Netgalley and Amulet for the advance Kindle copy of this book. It’s out tomorrow! All opinions are my own.
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5. I loved this one. Aspiring actress Gemma gets her big break - a role in a film, co-directed by her idol. The only catch? It is filming in Beijing, the one place her mother has expressly forbidden her from traveling. Gemma, curious about her parents’ home country and dying to accept the role, takes off anyway. There she finds that she is a dead ringer for a famous Beijing socialite, and has a family (and secrets) she never knew existed. Recommended for grades 8+.

I wanted the princess diaries

4 stars!

This was highly entertaining, fun, past paced and very light hearted.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Heiress Apparently follows Gemma Huang on a journey that takes her from living in LA with 3 roommates in a 2 bedroom apartment to her getting the lead role in a movie shooting in Beijing to her finally finding out why her parents are always so mysterious of their past. This is a whirlwind from the start and it quickly becomes addictive.

I believe going into this without knowing much about it is the best way to do it. Let yourself be surprised and let yourself try to assemble the pieces of this story. This is a fast paced entertaining read that will make you feel as if you're watching a happy film.

There are some really incredible historical parts in this book that provide authenticity to the story and just overall allow for the reader to learn more about China as a country and its culture.

It is a sweet read about love, betrayal, family secrets and hope. For anyone in need of a pick me up, this is definitely it.

a little cringey and too predictable but still enjoyable.

This book didn’t get a ton of great reviews (at least on Good Reads), but I thoroughly enjoyed it! It had a little bit of everything—drama, romance, history/culture, mystery, self-discovery, travel, food, fashion, and family. I thought it was well-written and really entertaining! Highly recommend!

2.5*

This book was ANNOYING! i found gemma unlikeable. However, i had high hopes that the excellent storyline would take over, and thank goodness it did! the ending was what the whole book should have been - emotional and sweet. I hope the sequels turn out the same way.

this book is just NONSENSICAL. it tries to be bouth rom-com-y, light and cute, while also bringing up (with little to no actual conversation) a lot of heavy topics. it feels performative at best with the "look we have gay people! look i'm DISGUSTED with this homophobic line in the movie! look i'm so against this and that! eat the rich!" at some point even the evil director becomes so cartoonishly villainous, it just makes him look like a poor caricature. i can't take him seriously.

the characters have no depth. gemma is just as indecisive and unstable in the last chapter as she was in the first. she makes a decision and then doesn't even overthink it, but on the next page you see her being like ACTUALLY! so there's absolutely zero development to her. her friends are so bland and unimportant, the only reason why i could discern them at all was because camille's only personality trait was also being white and dumbed-down by gemma's internal monologue. she must like her friend so much and have so much faith in her lmaooo the first boyfriend was also there for literally no reason. we could've cut him out and it would make zero difference to the plot. he was truly just useless.

also, i just love how the reason why i picked up this book showed up for like 2 pages 90% in and was overall insignificant to the plot. like brother in christ what is this writing what is this pacing!!!

the fact that not even lesbians could save this book should speak for how bad it was