I really enjoyed the beginning of the book, however the rest felt a bit too dragged....
I do usually enjoy family sagas, but this book wasn't my cup of tea.
But I guess it will be good, for those who enjoy longer stories....
Also, audiobook felt more enjoyable.
DNF at 60%

A genuinely brilliant book. Engrossing, lyrical, moving, it's an insight into China in the twentieth century, into war and trauma, race and identity, into family and living and trust. I wish I could read it for the first time over and over again. Just so good.

dnf @ 18%

I liked the beginning and found it very enjoyable. The overall setup was brilliant. But the book began to lose me when the main characters began their travel. At that book, it became too repetitive. And after they settled down somewhere, the story was filled with the descriptions of their mundane lives.

I get that the author is trying to paint a picture of their mundane lives during the war. But I think she could've done it in a way that wouldn't feel so mind-numbingly boring.

Maybe it's because historical fiction in general isn't a genre I read a lot, or maybe it's just that this book wasn't for me. Either way, when the prospect of going back to a book seems like a chore, I know it's time to abandon it completely.

What a beautiful debut book.

Peach Blossom Spring is a unique historical novel that is full of compelling, engaging characters and Chinese history. This was so beautifully written.

Thank you to netgalley and to the publisher for the e-arc

I enjoyed this book following 3 generations of a Chinese family from just before World War Two until present day.
I did however find it overly long in places, especially the second half in America which wasn't as interesting to me as the Times further back in history in China. I also didn't find the characters as engaging at this point.
A lovely and ambitious first novel though.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Need a map
I think that a map of China in the book would have helped me to understand the journey of the characters in this well researched and informative novel.
The story starts in Hunan, where Meilin lives with her son and husbands family. The family run a successful business and everyone seems comfortable. Meilin's husband does not return from the war though his brother Longwei does. shortly after his return the Japanese invasion reaches their town, they have to leave quickly and can only take a small amount. One of the things that Meilin takes is a precious and valuable scroll telling legends with a moral or revealing end.
Some of the family members are left behind and Longwei tries to protect his Wife Weinling, his two daughters, Meilin and her son Renshu, they travel through dangerous areas in bad conditions, by train, boat and walking, with each new move the conditions get worse. They pass through Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and other well known places, at one point the family gets separated leaving Meilin to provide for Renshu, she meets with help and kindness and also abuse. Renshu does well at school and eventually moves to the USA to attend university, he does well and changes his name to Henry. The past haunts Henry even when he marries Rachel he is still haunted by the political situation in China and will not discuss his background with his daughter. His struggles are well described and understandable to a degree.

🌸5 ⭐️Debut Author Mellissa Fu brings us a heart wrenching multigenerational family tale .It begins in China in 1938 spanning three generations of the Dao family . Meilin Dao and her 5 year old young son Renshu are forced to flee their home in China , a country thrown into a merciless war. They leave mainland China and travel through deserted villages up and down rivers and finally reach safety in Taiwan. Their journey is a wrought with many dangerous obstacles and hardship.The memories of war will haunt their family forever but they must show resilience and adapt to their ever changing environment in order to survive and continue the legacy of their family tree .

🌸Many years later Renshu attends college in America in search of a new beginning and a promising career .He must leave his beloved mother behind but her continued strength and resourcefulness steer his determination to succeed.

This was soul wrenching in parts and the mother son relationship filled my heart and broke it at the same time . If you liked Packino ( now a Tv series ) or Celeste Ng you will love this also .Historical fiction based during the Sino Japanese WW2 war and subsequent conflicts .

Thanks to NetGalley for an arc.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Beautifully written and with engaging characters and spanning a long time line, this is a good historical read and different in a way that makes it compelling.

This book was very much quite a slow read for me. A book of 2 halves travelling from China and then when settled.

This is Melissa Fu’s debut novel and I found it to be an excellent read. When I was in school and through my early life I really wasn’t interested in history, but now I really enjoy reading and learning about the past. So if you want to learn about China’s history while reading a great book then this is the one for you. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like to have to keep packing up and leaving your home with the bare minimum, but Meilin did it time and again with such grace while still being a good mum to Renshu. I think reading this book now was even more poignant due to what’s happening in Europe right now. Thank you to NetGalley and Headline, Wildfire for letting me read and review this book.

What an incredible debut! There is something so wonderful about being immersed in a story from page 1 and not looking up until the end and this book did just that. Compelling and rich characters combined with a gripping storyline has made this a very enjoyable read. Thoroughly recommend all those that love not only generational fiction but really great writing to pick this up.

I've always loved historical intergenerational sagas in Asian history, there's just something so special in witnessing how a family's journey unfolds over bouts of history, witnessing how wars and politics influence the socio-economic conditions and the day- to- day of ordinary people.

Peach Blossom Spring was no exception. Lyrical, resonant and full of soul, it was an incredible look into Chinese history and its compelling characters. Definitely a historical fiction not to miss.

Starting in China 1938 with the family of Dao Hongtse the focus of the story quickly moves to focus on Meilin, the wife of his youngest son. As Japan invades China, Meilin and her son Renshu face tragedies and a struggle to survive as they cross China seeking safety with Renshu ending in the USA.
The book is split in to parts for each stage of their journey and is told from both Meilin and Renshu's perspective, it is easy to immerse yourself in that period of their lives. The USA part is a slower than the earlier parts but all in all this is a lovely story, and doesnt follow obvious routes.

I was given a copy of Peach Blossom Spring by NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review.

‘We can forgive without understanding. Sometimes we must. Maybe that’s what forgiveness is – accepting someone’s actions, even if there are no good explanations.’


I’m always astounded when I’m on tour for a book that shouldn’t need any promotion. This is the sort of book I’d buy for my grandmother (she DNFs things like crazy).

Peach Blossom Spring spans three generations as they’re impacted by war and need to constantly move. The book revolves around loss, but also hope, because no matter what you decide, “it will be both a blessing and a curse”. We have Meilin who takes her son and travels all over China, eventually settling in Taiwan to raise her son Renshu. Renshu wins a scholarship to the US, where he settles down as Henry and raises his daughter Lily.

It’s jarring sometimes, to think of how Meilins life started out and where she had to go, and how she had to do it. You know the dangers that surround her, but Melissa Fu, relied more on us knowing rather than needing to spell everything out which worked really well. While the bulk of the book focuses on Meilin and Henry, the rest that shows how Henry settles in America feels more rushed than the rest; which is good because that is how life happens at some point everything is a fight and then things settle. You also see Henry/Renshu’s paranoia kick in when it comes to Lily trying to learn more about her heritage; he’s just so scared after what happened in the war and in the early years of his moving to the states. Eventually, he too learns how to plant an orchard (not just a literal one), but by giving Lily the stories that he heard and the journeys he had to make.

Peach Blossom Spring follows three generations of a Chinese family through six decades of social, geographical and cultural change. It focuses on two members of the Dao family – Meilin, wife of the younger son who fears she may now be a widow, and her son, Renshu.

Opening in 1938, Meilin and Renshu, along with Meilin’s brother-in-law and his family, are forced to flee their home in Changsa following the Japanese invasion of China. It’s the first in a long and dangerous journey that sees them move from place to place in search of safety. The scenes of panic as families attempt to escape bombing raids, take cover in crowded shelters and make long journeys, often on foot with only the possessions they can carry, are described in a way that really brings to life the horror and desperation. It is impossible to read some of the scenes without it bringing to mind the current situation in Ukraine. Throughout it all, Meilin’s one objective is to protect her son and to try to shield him from the full horror of what is going on around him. One way she does this is by telling him traditional Chinese stories using the beautiful illustrated scroll which is her most treasured possession. As well as a distraction, these stories constitute life lessons and offer ways of looking at the challenges one may face.

Meilin is a wonderful character who demonstrates fortitude and a determination to survive despite all the obstacles placed in her way. At some points, she is forced to make impossible choices and place herself in vulnerable situations, always prioritising the needs of her son over her own. Eventually she finds the means to get them to relative safety in Taiwan where she does everything she can to ensure a secure future for Renshu. Meilin’s story was the most powerful and engaging part of the book for me and I was rather sorry when the focus moved from her to Renshu.

Having said that, Renshu’s experiences when he travels to the United States to study is a fascinating exploration of what it is like to leave one culture for another and of the immigrant experience. He makes a deliberate decision to shed his former identity and create a new one – Dao Renshu becomes Henry Dao – and also to consign his past to the mental equivalent of a locked box, consciously splitting his life into ‘Renshu’s world’ and ‘Henry’s world’. Moreover, Henry fears any association with the politics of China might threaten his US citizenship or have consequences for his family in Taiwan.

In the final section of the book, the focus moves to Henry’s daughter, Lily. She longs to know more about her Chinese heritage, feeling as if she’s incomplete without this. ‘Sometimes, Lily feels that there’s something she’s supposed to know that she doesn’t, or something she’s supposed to be that she isn’t.’ There’s a touching scene in which she and her classmates are asked to construct their family trees and Lily feels ashamed that one side of her tree is blank. Lily cannot understand her father’s reluctance to allow her to learn Chinese – which she longs to do – not least so she can converse with her grandmother. She’s also perturbed by her father’s reticence about the years before he came to America. What she doesn’t know is that Henry fears he has nothing to offer Lily in the way of heritage. ‘What tradition could he pass down? A broken country? Suspicion and betrayal? Miles and miles of misery?’

When Henry finally unburdens himself to Lily, she writes down everything he tells her in much the same way as the author recalls writing down her own father’s experiences when he finally chose to share them with her, memories he had kept hidden for a long, long time. For Lily, learning about her father’s past finally fills in those gaps in her family history, allowing her to embrace both sides of her cultural identity.

In her note to readers the author explains that although the Dao family are an imagined family their experiences reflect the actual experiences of families who lived through the Sino-Japanese and Chinese Civil wars. As she notes, ‘Here is one of the great gifts of fiction: from many threads of human experience, we can weave a tapestry of narrative.’ In Peach Blossom Spring, the author has certainly woven an enthralling tapestry that provides an insight into China’s rich culture and takes the reader on an emotional journey through a turbulent period of Chinese history, one sadly reminiscent of the times we are living through.

At the beginning of this story, we read about Meilin and her son Renshu who are fleeing the Japanese attacks on China. It’s all the more poignant reading this just now when we see people in Ukraine having to do exactly what Renshu and his mother did: leave at short notice to escape a war and take with them only what they could carry and what they valued. I really admired Meilin and her courage and determination to keep her son safe whatever it took. It must have been so hard to look for the blessing in every disadvantage as an old Chinese fable said.

I learned a lot from the book about fairly recent Chinese history and what it was like for Chinese immigrants having to assimilate into a very different culture. They had to make decisions about what parts of their traditions to hold onto and what to leave behind. Renshu adopts the name Henry and takes every opportunity offered to him America. He puts the past firmly behind him, marries an American and becomes American citizen. Yet he was always so wary and careful not to do anything that could create problems for his mother in Taipei. He tries to leave his memories behind and assimilate into American life.

I can’t imagine what it must have been like for Meilin, with her only beloved child to moving to another continent with little opportunity to see him again. My daughter is currently studying in Canada and we are able to message every day and have video chats whenever we like. Meilin and Henry’s only communication was a monthly letter with occasional photos and very occasional phone calls.

The third generation in the book is Henry’s daughter Lily who has many questions about her heritage. Henry is still fearful of the Chinese state and doesn’t want her to look to the past but she has a deep rooted need to know about the Chinese side of her background. She doesn’t quite feel she fits in Chinese community, partly because she was denied that part of her culture when growing up but doesn’t feel she’s fully accepted as an American either.

One of things Henry learned from the Chinese stories he heard as a boy was about not looking back, to take everything of value with you, to leave behind anything which weighs you down. While he and his mother literally had to do this in his early life, he metaphorically clings to this throughout his life too until he realises that he really has to come to terms with his past.

Peach Blossom Spring is an outstanding debut novel and I was really interested to read how much of it was inspired by the author’s own father’s story. This captivating, epic story of family, belonging, resilience and hope is just superb and I highly recommend it. Please do judge this book by its beautiful cover

In a Nutshell: Outlier review alert! Call this either bad book timing or a mismatch of expectations. But after a particular point in the story, I just couldn’t concentrate. The story is impactful and the writing, lyrical. But it wasn’t on the same wavelength as I was.

Story:
The narration begins in 1938 in the Hunan province of China. Meilin is looking forward to a happy future with her husband Xiaowen and young son Renshu. But with the Japanese attack changing her fortunes, she is forced to escape with the help of her brother-in-law Longwei and his family. What follows is a tale of sorrow and courage, with Meilin trying her best to provide for Renshu the future she had dreamed of. This forms the first one-third of the story. The rest of the story is divided between the US and China.

Where the book worked for me:
❤ The characters in the initial segment, especially Meilin, are so well-carved that you can gauge their personality and their behaviour perfectly. Meilin’s attitude is practical, praise-worthy and inspiring as she battles the adverse circumstances while still striving to keep her independence.

❤ When you think of WWII and the historical fiction based on it, you will hardly ever find a story set in China and focussing on the Japanese attacks. Most such fiction focusses only on the war in Europe and US. So the WWII part of this story was insightful and much welcome. It didn’t create any feeling of déjà vu.

❤ I loved the first section of the story that focusses on Meilin as the central character. It is well-written and engrossing.

❤ The writing is so lyrical, it was a treat to read, at least at the start.

❤ The various Chinese stories that Meilin tells Renshu are the icing on the cake.


Where the book could have worked better for me:
💔 Once the story moved to the US shores, I found myself losing concentration. It starts off well, no doubt, but soon starts meandering into elements that I didn’t expect, such as the political leanings of the Chinese students in USA. I think I enjoyed the Meilin segment so much that this was boring in comparison. To add to it, I didn’t find myself connecting with Renshu at all, and as he is the prime focus of the US narrative, there went my enthusiasm down the drain.

💔 You will appreciate (and understand) the subtleties of the book better if you are familiar with Chinese politics and history. I am not.

💔 There are a lot of time jumps in the story, creating a very hurried kind of feel. At the same time, the story spans a long time period (it begins in 1938 and ends in 2005!) and this led to a feeling of too much within one story.

💔 I found it terribly, terribly slow. It took me a week to complete this, that too because I hopped and skipped through the final quarter as I was so bored.

Basically, the book reminded me a lot of Pachinko. Before you jump in excitement, let me tell you that I didn’t enjoy Pachinko much as well. But Pachinko’s flaw was that it carried the generational saga one generation too far. Here, it wasn’t the number of generations but the drastic change between the focus of the content that created dissatisfaction in me. It was like two separate books have been joined together, one fabulous and the other tedious.

As the other ratings and reviews will tell you, a majority of readers have relished this book. So please read them before you make up your mind about this. I still believe that had I picked it up at some other time, I might have enjoyed it a tad better. I was reading Jeffrey Archer’s Kane and Abel alongside this one, and that is such a well-written family saga that this one paled in comparison.

2.5 stars from me, rounding up to 3.

My thanks to Headline, Wildfire, and NetGalley for the DRC of “Peach Blossom Spring”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

I didn’t finish this book in time with the ARC I was given. Oh well… I’ll just have to buy it! But honestly so far this book has blown me away. I’m so intrigued and excited to see what happens. Also isn’t this cover absolutely stunning??? I feel so invested in this boon already I love the setting as well and seeing how war affects an entire family.

Spanning six decades and three generations, this sweeping tale of identity and belonging possesses an emotional heft so intoxicating it makes you giddy. It is compelling and thought-provoking, a perfect blend of storytelling, history, and the exploration of the human psyche. It’s nigh-on perfect, and I loved it.

It’s 1938 and the Japanese have invaded China. Newly widowed Meilin and her young son Renshu flee their home and join thousands of other refugees seeking sanctuary in the country’s hinterland. Years of deprivation, horror and tragedy follow, as does civil war, before they end up in the relative safety of Taiwan. Decades later, Renshu — now Henry — has made a new life for himself in America, with a family of his own. But the darkness of his past haunts him still, causing rifts with his loved ones that may never heal.

This is a story that spoke to me on so many levels. I started with little knowledge of China’s tumultuous history, but Fu’s prose, shimmering with the most vivid evocation of time and place, transported me there. As a mother, I identified — in a way I can only describe as visceral — with Meilin’s primal urge to not only protect her child but to sacrifice her own happiness for his. And my heart ached for Renshu and the obstinate rejection of his heritage even as his American-Chinese daughter begged to know hers.

But, while this is the story of one family, and a beautifully told one at that, it resonates with much wider meaning, shining a light on a multitude of interrelated complexities that thrum with relevance in our modern, globalized world: migration (forced or otherwise), the dilution of birthright (culture, language, religion, custom), the loss of roots, and the overwhelming human need to find a place to belong.

The ending of this book simultaneously broke me and filled me with effervescent joy. Fu has written from a place of deep personal understanding, and this radiates from every page. As a debut, it is a triumph, and I can’t wait to read more of her work.

I really enjoyed this story following multiple generations of a family as they leave their home in China for Taiwan, and later settle in America. The characters felt so real and well rounded, their motivations and concerns always understandable, and the relationships between them felt realistically complex and full of depth. I felt it captured the sense of place and time very well.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.