I love the Meant to Be series, and I love Jesse Q. Sutanto so naturally I jumped on the chance to read the advanced readers copy of Worth Fighting For, a modern retelling of Mulan. It was everything I hoped for and more. This may be my very favorite of the series so far.
Mulan is a finance bro- no really- with everything that working in Private Equity implies. She graduated from Princeton with a 3.9, and works a tremendous amount of overtime at her father’s finance firm. She is always thinking that people are judging her for nepotism, so she makes up for this by working harder and longer than anyone else. No war in this retelling, and it does take place in America, San Francisco to be specific.
When her father has a massive heart attack, she keeps the deal with a fancy whiskey company alive by stepping into his role. There she meets Shang, who is not so much her commanding officer but a part of the deal. Mushu is Mulan’s assistant- not a dragon but a cousin who went to Rutgers while Mulan was at Princeton. Mushu and Mulan have the strong relationship you would expect of a character in the sidekick role. I loved the ending and how much of Chinese-American immigrant culture the author incorporated as a part of the story. It made me think of my own ancestors and how many of them chose to leave their homeland and start a new life in America. Different generations are a part of the conversations here and while they don’t save China so much as a whiskey brand, if you had never seen, or really heard of Mulan – this story is great stand alone without some of the hokey throwbacks you sometimes see in other “modern retellings.”
One last thing- I loved the acknowledgements at the end. Half a banana!
Thanks to Netgalley and Hyperion for the ARC. Book to be published June 3, 2025.
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