Ha Yut Ying escapes Japanese soldiers in Guangdong in 1940 by turning invisible. She realises she has to keep her magic hidden. However, her mother who has dreams that tell the future feels her daughter has changed and warns her about a curse on their family. Ha Yut Ying’s mother gives her a gold bracelet with links like fishbones to keep her safe.
After the war, Ha Yut Ying is sent to live with her father and his second wife in Hong Kong. They’re wealthy factory owners, and Ha Yut Ying’s stepmother, who is jealous of her beauty, sends her to work in the family’s shoe factory.
On her first day, Ha Yut Ying is run over by a boy on a bicycle, Tommy Yeung, the son of a soy milk tycoon. The two fall in love, and Ha Yut Ying becomes the face of the soy milk’s ad campaign. Tommy’s father forces him to marry a rich heiress. Tommy vows to divorce her and to marry Ha Yut Ying afterwards. But she enters a marriage of convenience with Phillip Yuen and moves to the States and changes her name to Helen.
Helen and Phillip have three daughters, the middle daughter is called Marigold. She was born in San Francisco in 1958, Marigold is quiet, studious, and deeply resembles Helen’s late half sister Lily in both appearance and personality. She is the only daughter to inherit the family’s magical curse.
In the 1980s, Marigold and Helen board a plane to Hong Kong together. They make the journey after Helen’s invisibility magic begins spiral out of control, causing her to vanish uncontrollably. Marigold accompanies her mother back to Hong Kong to uncover long-buried family secrets, reunite with Helen’s mother (Lei Yuk Fong), and break the generational curse before Helen disappears permanently.
This book is i, serving as her adult fiction debut. Inspired by Ye Xian, the ancient Chinese version of the Cinderella fairy tale, the book blends magical realism with a sweeping multi-generational family saga.
I love Elizabeth Lim’s books, they’re an auto buy for me. This one was just wonderful. I had never heard the Ye Xian fairy tale before but absolutely adored it.
Read for The 52 Book Club Reading Challenge 2026
Prompt: A standalone fantasy novel
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
