Books like Secret of a thousand beauties by Mingmei Yip

When her fiancé dies before the wedding, seventeen‑year‑old Spring Swallow is conscripted as a ghost bride to comfort his spirit. Facing a life confined to her future in‑law’s household, she rejects the status of a "bad‑luck woman" and escapes on her wedding day. In the city of Soochow, she joins a community of renowned embroiderers led by Aunty Peony, whose delicate work once won the Emperor’s admiration. As the women prepare to replicate a famous painting in a year‑long commission, jealousy and betrayal seep into the fabric of their lives. Spring Swallow becomes entangled in each woman’s heartbreak while also entering a dangerous affair with a young revolutionary. Her journey takes her from the remote hills around Soochow to the cosmopolitan streets of Peking, where she harnesses the secret techniques she learned from Aunty Peony and her own indomitable strength to forge a life of her choosing.

First publish date: 2014