Mulan was a Disney movie that I really enjoyed as a kid. I was a little older when it came out (8) vs toddler, which is when the ones that are faves to this day are from (probably because I watched them repeatedly), but it still has great songs and the story, which I forgot for a second was based on a true one until reading this book's acknowledgements, was interesting and fun. So when I read the Disney adaptations series was putting out a Mulan retelling, I was here for it, and was thrilled I got an ARC. It took me a little bit to get into it, this story about Mulan as a finance 'bro' working for her father's company and looking to acquire a whisky company that Shang's family owns. Her dad gets sick, she pretends to be him because Shang's family is known to be sexist and wouldn't deal with a woman but they'd only communicated with her Ba via email so they were surprised but rolled with it reluctantly. Her cousin, Mushu, who works as an assistant and gets Mulan into all sorts of hijinks by talking her up (lies), etc. on their trip to the Li family ranch and distillery, goes with her and over their time there she somehow manages to gain their favor by the end. She also shares a tent with Shang and the attraction between them leads to a kiss, and then more once they're back. But he still knows her as Zhou. I thought the discussions of gender and equality were well done in this book, and the ending, a coming together of strong women, made me tear up, which also seemed appropriate when the author said she and her cousins always cried at the part in the movie where Mulan makes it to the top of the pole and gets the arrow, because they saw a woman, someone who looked like them, being strong and succeeding. Overall, I ended up enjoying myself finding all the similarities to the original, and it made me want to watch the movie again and research more about the historical Mulan. 
•disability rep: arthritis (side char.)
•BIPOC rep: Chinese characters (all main and major side char.)
•queer rep (side char.)
•Out June 3/25 (thank you to Hyperion for the ARC!)