This book had a really good premise and it's reminiscent of a lot of books I've loved in the past. There's parts I liked and I really wish I loved it more. I feel like if it was longer and more developed it would be a 5 star

Okay so I was really looking forward to reading this but I just couldn’t get into it. I tried reading it multiple times before I just gave up. The concept sounded really interesting but I just didn’t enjoy it or the care for the characters at all.

Half fox-spirit and half vampire, Lady Jing has always been an outcast in yin Shanghai. Her grumpy personality and short temper do not help the matter either. Being the ward of the King of Hell, she is tasked with running errands. Deliveries mostly. One of those turns out to contain a mortal, Mr Lee challenging her control over her vampire side...

When Jing overhears some courtiers’ plan to steal the priceless dragon pearl from the King, she decides to expose them.

This book was different from what I expected. Without any prior knowledge, I believed it to be similar to The Daughter of the Moon Goddess, but the only link between them is the Chinese folklore background. Shanghai Immortal turned out to be completely different. It is a fast, chaotic and highly entertaining read. Lady Jing is a brilliant character. She is smart, sassy, sarcastic, surprising, and rebellious and struggles with anger management issues. She has noble ancestry, but she has been mistreated since childhood because of her mixed blood, making her prickly. Her total lack of social skills and innocent approach to love made her weirdly adorable. It also leads to many funny situations, as this book is full of rather absurd humour, despite touching on serious subjects like drug use and child abuse.

To sum up, it is a quick and entertaining read.

Shanghai Immortal was an enjoyable fantasy with a romantic subplot. The pacing of the book was pretty good and I was entertained throughout the story. The characters had well fleshed out personalities and the humor was fun. I will say I think this story was more enjoyable for me than most because I have some knowledge of Asian culture and had a friend that could explain some of the unfamiliar slang. Some of the slang/insults didn't translate well to English, so that could be disruptive for the reader. I'll also say I'm not sure why this is categorized as a adult, as it read as more upper YA/coming of age tale.

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for this ARC for my review.

I have mixed feelings towards this book.

The premise was beautiful but the story lacked depth.
I loved the rich references to Chinese mythology but would have probably appreciated the story more if I had actually had any basic knowledge of these myths and legends.
I enjoyed Lady Jing's sassy attitude but she still seemed too immature for my liking most of the time.
The romance was sweet but felt too much insta-love.

All in all, one too many BUTS...

An adult fantasy novel set in an immortal version of Shanghai where the FMC is half-vampire, half-hulijing fox-spirit? Sign me up! Unfortunately, this is where the positives ended.
In theory this sounded like something I'd love, but when I actually opened it, and was greeted with the word ta-tas in the first chapter (probably first page too, but it showed up as the second for me) I knew this would not be the case.
The FMC is one of the most immature characters I've ever read (this includes YA books where the characters are still literal children) and the writing is absolutely atrocious. The term "piss-fart" shows up no fewer than 12 times, "turd" shows up 25 (turd-eggs, turd-brained bitches, etc), and ta-ta' 13 times. I don't know anyone who speaks like this - let alone a century-old badass immortal.

3.5/5 ☆

At first, I wasn’t sure if I’ll like this book because I wasn’t a fan of the writing style but once I got to know the character, I couldn’t imagine her story being told with any other writing style. The way of narrating perfectly embodied the character.

I’m not a fan of spitting, angry characters but Lady Jing was not just rude in the beginning but also hilarious—enough for me to keep reading the book—and her character development was slow, realistic and incredible and I loved how in the end she works through her trauma and leans to connect to those around her and manage her anger better.

Lady Jing’s relationship with Mr.Lee was so cute but intense at the same time. And it was really interesting to see the way her relationships with people changed as the book progressed.

I appreciated the way the author trickled in actual historical events and places into the story.

The climax was a little too rushed for my liking and I wish I would’ve seen words like piss-fart a little less but overall this was a lovely debut.

I was a little annoyed about Little Jing’s character, she was sabotaging herself so so much. Of course she redeems herself by the end of the book.

I felt like the ending was rushed, there were some things that could’ve been left out or written shorter so that we could have the ending a bit prolonged. I wanted to the scene in the Hulijing Court to be a lot longer, to be written more in depth.

Also, I lost a lot of time just looking up the words. I would’ve enjoyed an extra page just with some easy explanations/translations.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the story.

4⭐️

<b> I am a degenerate mix of unfortunate genes and circumstances. From my dearly departed mother–a hulijing, or ‘bitch of a fox-spirit’ as I prefer to call her–I inherited my feral lack of charm; from my father–some leech-faced vampire who couldn’t be bothered to stick around–a damned inconvenient predilection for blood.</b>

Lady Jing is half vampire, half hulijing fox spirit and was sold as a child by her mother to the King of Hell, Big Wang, in exchange for a diamond. She now lives in yin Shanghai with Big Wang, and Jing has a terrible temper that often gets her into trouble. When she overhears that someone is going to steal the dragon pearl from Big Wang, she uses it as an opportunity to expose the hulijing for what they really are.

Mr. Lee is a mortal who is helping Big Wang set up the Central Bank of Hell, and Lady Jing is tasked with ensuring his safe passage into Hell. When Jing finds herself in serious trouble, Big Wang sends her and Mr. Lee to yang Shanghai. But trouble follows them amidst all of the excitement of Jing’s first time in the mortal realm.

An exciting first book in this series and an excellent adult fantasy debut! I loved Lady Jing’s feistiness and her relationship with sweet, gentle Mr. Lee. Jing is so chaotic and funny and you can’y help but love her. this book was a lot of fun and I can’t wait for the next one!

<b> “Try not to die, okay? I’ve become rather fond of you.”

“I’m very hard to kill.”</b>

I really wanted to like this novel. The description sounded so amazing, but the characters let me down. I had such trouble liking Lady Jing. As part spirit fox and part vampire and almost 100 years old she could have been so well developed and engaging, but instead acts like and has the vocabulary of an immature teenager. This was especially apparent when compared to the other characters.
The world building definitely has potential and I'm hopeful the next book will have a more solid pacing.
I debated between 2 stars and 3 stars, but since I feel like now the stage is set and the second book has a firm foundation to build on, 3 stars is the appropriate rating.

The most fun romp through 1930s Shanghai and its demon underworld! A unique voice you can't help but root for, and heartwarming romance. I can't wait to find out what happens next for Lady Jing and Mr Lee.

I couldnt get through this book. It was too long for me to commit to after not liking it 25% in. I had to dnf. I wasnt too invested in the story or the characters. The main character read to immaturely for me considering this is supposed to be adult.

The world-building was excellent, and I really grew to love the characters and world. Thoroughly entertaining!

One of my favourite things about Shanghai Immortal by A.Y. Chao is that you start off in immortal Shanghai but get to visit mortal Shanghai too! I loved that Jing lives in the immortal realm and we saw her experiencing mortal Shanghai, and I love that Tony is from mortal Shanghai but we got to see him visiting the immortal side! The perspective and reactions from both sides were so fun!

But my ultimate favourite part? The love. There are so many different kinds of love featured in this book and the fact that Jing truly seems to believe at the beginning no one loves her, but then we see her grow and understand? That was beautiful!

Shanghai Immortal follows Jing, half hulijing fox-spirit, half vampire and the ward of the King of Hell. She is constantly being taunted by the spiteful hulijing courtiers, so when she overhears their plans to steal the dragon pearl, she takes her chance to expose them. Her search for intel takes her through both Hell and mortal Shanghai where chaos ensues.

I had a really good time reading this one! The world was crafted so well with immortal Shanghai mirroring the mortal version and creating the perfect backdrop for Jing's journey of self discovery! It was pretty low stakes for most of the book and character driven, so a lot of focus was on the relationships. Jing has a slowburn romance with a mortal she's tasked with keeping safe that was really cute and I am excited to see more of them! He really helped her open her eyes to love and friendship, creating so many heartfelt moments.

My only complaint was some of the dialogue was quite cringy and Jing acted very immature. Some of it was humorous, which is how it was intended, but I just found myself annoyed a lot of the time. It was still a really fun book though and I do plan to continue the series!

I am giving this book a 3.5 star rating rounding up to 4.

I was excited to read a debut novel by a Chinese Canadian Author that introduces people to Asian folklore and belief. The story is focused on Lady Jing who is half hulijing and half vampire who is the ward of the King of Hell. She believes that he treats her as a servant and doesn't seem to care for her.

As the story progresses, you see her grow into herself and she realizes some important things about the people around her. I found the first half of the book difficult to get through. The author uses words such as "mafan", "dabian" and so on to replace certain words and I found it difficult to keep my focus on the story. I flew through the second half of the story as the plot picked up and you get to learn more about Jing's past.

The premise of the story is intersting and I do want to continue reading the other books of the trilogy.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC and this is my honest review.

Thank you, NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton, Hodderscape, for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

Lady Jin is half-vampire, half-hulijing fox-spirit and an absolute sasshole. Pawned by her mother to the King of Hell when she was a child, as his ward she has spent ninety years running errands, trying to control herself, ignoring the taunts of the hulijing courtiers and more. When she overhears one of them planning to steal a priceless dragon pearl from the King, she decides to seize this chance and expose them. With the help of a gentle mortal, who was tasked to set up the Central Bank of Hell, Jing embarks into a dangerous chase through Hell and then mortal Shangai, looking for intel. But some of her hijinks put the mortal into danger and she's forced to ask herself what's more important: save her face and get revenge or get the chance to love?

Sometimes when a book is really hyped I'm a bit cautious and I'm afraid of being disappointed by the story. This was absolutely not the case. Shangai immortal is the MAGNIFICENT debut by A. Y. Chao and it's unbelievably good. It's an adult fantasy debut, with a rich and intriguing worldbuilding, with half spirit, demons, deities, king of Hell, magic and so much more. The main character is Lady Jing and she's AWESOME! All trouble, really sassy, witty and smart, involving herself and a poor mortal into a quest to find intel in order to avenge her loss of face. Deities and demons in jazz age, mortal and immortals, an outstanding tale of Chinese mythology, told with brilliant writing style, intriguing and complex characters and with a plot filled with twists, dangers, love and more.
You can't not fall in love with Lady Jing. She's the best.

My original review for this book wasn't very good - and whilst I stand by some of the points I made, I wanted to come back and revisit it and give it a fair review after some reflection.

I think that the book reads a little more like YA than it does adult - but I don't think that's a bad thing. It was just a little bit difficult to reconcile what I thought I was reading to what I was actually reading.

I also found it a little jarring in the difference between the way that Ling and the others in Hell spoke, versus the way that the people in Mortal Shanghai spoke? It felt like that was the biggest issue for me.

Overall though, I did actually quite like the storyline and the twists, even if I guessed some of them.

A joyful romp through the underworld with one of the most hilarious, wonderful protagonists I've read in a long time.

The biggest problem I had with this book, that I've seen a lot of people discussing as well, is that it is marketed as Adult but reads very YA. The main character is supposedly a hundred years old, but reads very very young - she's very childish and petty, and very juvenile. I really could not get along with her and it made for a disappointing and frustrating reading experience. There were mentions of "ta-tas" and "piss-farts" every other page, and I just ended up skimming because it felt like I was reading the exact same page over and over again. I found it really hard to be invested in the story - it wasn't as exciting or captivating as I would expect a story in this setting to be. But as I said, I just couldn't get past the main character and her incessant whining - I don't think I'll be continuing with this series sadly.