Living Treasures


Fiction - Cultural
318 Pages
Reviewed on 06/28/2016
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Cee-Jay Aurinko for Readers' Favorite

Yang Huang's debut novel, Living Treasures, takes us to China in 1989, the year of the student movement. Bao, a law student at Nanjing University, believed Tong when he told her that she would not get pregnant after having sex because it was her first time. A pregnancy test proved otherwise. Her parents wanted her to continue with her studies, but to do that, she had to go for an abortion and no one at Nanjing University could ever know that she was pregnant. After a two-day trip, Bao arrives at the village where she grew up with her grandparents. The fate of her baby is pretty much etched in stone. Will the abortion of her child break her? Will Tong ever forgive her for going against his wishes?

As a child, Bao was quite the "miracle worker," according to her grandmother. Bao's reunion with her grandparents makes readers wonder how she will live up to that analogy, especially since her grandmother appears to be a bit grumpy at first. Her grandfather introduces both Bao and the reader to the keeping of bees, a development that the reader will find very intriguing. Bao meets many interesting characters while staying at her grandparents' home. I loved the insight that Huang provided when it came to the histories of Bao's father, her mother, and various other characters. The antagonist makes his actual appearance quite late in the book, so readers will have to wait a while for a taste of danger. This is one of those books where everything comes full circle.