The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by Kelli Estes

Her debut novel The Girl Who Wrote in Silkis available at, where your purchase helps support this blog. You can follow Kelli at her website on her Facebook page, and Twitter. When not writing, Kelli loves volunteering at her kids’ schools, reading (of course!), traveling (or playing tourist in Seattle), dining out, exercising (because of all the dining), and learning about health and nutrition. Today she lives in a Seattle suburb with her husband and two sons. Kelli Estes grew up in the apple country of Eastern Washington before attending Arizona State University where she learned she’d be happiest living near the water, so she moved to Seattle after graduation.

I’m thrilled and honored to interview Kelli Estes about her debut novel The Girl Who Wrote in Silk. The Girl Who Wrote in Silk even made the USA Today Bestseller’s List in December 2015. And did I mention it’s all so beautifully written, a real page-turner that will keep you engaged from the beginning to the end? The story spotlights atrocities against the Chinese in America, exposing history that never should have been forgotten. There’s interracial love in the past and present (Inara catches the eye of a handsome young Chinese American professor in her quest to understand the story behind that silk sleeve Mei Lien falls for Joseph, a man whose kindness and generosity seem as endless as the oceans that surround their island). Kelli has woven together the lives of Inara and Mei Lien – two women separated by over 100 years, but bound together by an embroidered silk sleeve with secrets of its own – into an enchanting story filled with love, courage and humanity. Granted, the novel takes place in the gorgeous San Juan Islands (which allowed me to imagine myself into this refreshingly cool summer destination), but it’s much more than just the setting. Normally it’s a month that doesn’t register much in my mind, as I usually spend most of it shut up indoors with the A/C cranked on high.īut I vividly remember the August days when I read The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, as though the book itself provided a much-needed vacation from the oppressive heat. It’s so humid you feel like you’re wrapped up in a steaming wet towel wherever you walk.

I finally got my hands on a copy from the library sometime in August, which is coincidentally one of the most dreadful months weather-wise in Hangzhou. I’m surrounded by bookish friends and bloggers who get really excited whenever they hear about interracial love stories (especially AMWF pairings) and this was one of those books everyone seemed to be talking about the summer of 2015. The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by Kelli Estes is that kind of book. Some books are so captivating that I even cherish the memories of scrolling through the pages with my e-reader in hand.