Thank you netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review of the Night Ends with Fire by #kxsong

A Mulan reimagining where Meilin, the main protagonist, shows how the story changes when she embraces her ambition to be more than what society allows for women. It handles well the societal expectations and gives realistic reactions to Meilin as she progresses through her journey.

I found the mention of her kung-fu ability cheesy. Thankfully it didn't imped my enjoyment as this book has an interesting magic system and doesn't fall into the usual plot of the main character having immense power without training. We see her struggle with the different nature's of magic and trying not to be corrupted by it.

I liked the writing style and found it easy to engage with. This could almost be a standalone book if you like open endings. However, we do have a sequel to look forward to, so I'm interested to see where it goes.

#thenightendswithfire #fantasy #mulanreimagined #netgalley #hodderscape #magic #fiction

The Night Ends With Fire is a Mulan/Romance of the Three Kingdoms retelling. When Meilin’s father refuses to join the imperial army, she takes his place (both out of duty or piety but to escape violence from him and an arraigned marriage) disguised as a man. But she does not simply want to blend in, she wants to standout and succeed with the help of a sea dragon spirit and the magic it bestows on her. She draws the attention of two opposing princes and the eyes of two warring god spirits whose conflict threatens the Three Kingdoms.

I thought the framing of Meilin (our Mulan substitute) as selfish in joining the army was such a strange choice because it was about survival, escaping her abusive father and the abusive husband-to-be chosen for her. That’s not selfish at all. Did she possibly go too far in wanting to be the best and to outshine everyone? Maybe, but I still would only call that just slightly selfish and more of a foolish choice to draw attention to herself. I also thought Meilin was far too competent from the start (she is a staff and kung fu master) so we don’t get to see her grow into herself and faced far less adversity in the army than the book suggests (she gets an instant best friend and she he prince privately tutors her).

This book also felt like it had an agenda and it was not gracefully executed because it’s never subtle about it. Every man here is bad (except of course her two love interests who are flawed but have understandable redeeming qualities). Otherwise, if you are a man, you are bad from the beginning or the author will tack on a completely unnecessary twist at the end to make you bad. The book also confuses whether her being a woman or her being a spirit medium is what makes her wrong in their world so it just doubles down on both so it’s confusing if she is being discriminated against for either or both when that distinction is absolutely necessary to the story it is telling.

I can’t help but compare this book to similar recent Asian fantasies. Its comp title Six Crimson Cranes has the whimsical fairytale quality to it with its YA fantasy. Song of Silver, Flame Like Night delivered the sort-of starcrossed romance with shifting allegiances and conflicting ideologies. Another comp The Poppy War treaded the line between YA and adult fantasy so well with its mixture of YA tropes and grimdark storytelling. She Who Became the Sun has the grit and darkness of an adult Mulan-esque story this is trying to go for. All this just left The Night Ends with Fire to read like a Disney’s Mulan retelling and feeling like just a more mature derivative of it and still coming across very YA rather than adult. I don’t know if I’m being unfair to it, but that’s just how I felt.

I wouldn’t say that The Night Ends with Fire is a bad or unreadable book. It’s just a bit misguided in its messaging and execution.

I was initially very excited by the premise of this book. Meilin escaping an abusive father and abusive husband to be, seeking freedom and glory while hoping to subvert the traditional patriarchal rules.
Unfortunately, Meilin turned out to be incredibly unlikeable. I understand developing a flawed character and internalised misogyny, but there were just pages and pages of it. So much so, other characters barely got any development. There was no explanation for some of the characters motives or actions, beyond giving the FMC information that she would not have otherwise had. The ending felt rushed and the set up for a sequel felt very forced. The romance she was meant to have with the prince felt very forced, whereas the rapport she had with the enemy prince was much more believable. The spirit dragon premise was largely unexplored, her ability to use his power seemed to grow from nowhere, even despite being manacled in iron for weeks.
Plus many conclusions takes Meilin until near the end of the book to reach that the reader reached much earlier, even some that Meilin is told explicitly.
Overall it was a disappointing book and I won't be reading the sequel

The Night Ends with Fire is a Mulan retelling set in a secondary world that resembles ancient China. Instead of a full retelling, it takes the premise of Mulan and the name of the main character, Hui Meilin (once even using the alias Mulan), and sets her on a more fantastical and less heroic path.

A war is about to break between three warlords, and all men are drafted. Meilin’s father is a violent opium addict and he has no intention to serve. Meilin is forced to marry an old, violent man, and to escape her fate, she disguises herself as a man and joins the war.

She soon discovers that it’s not easy to be a soldier. But she has help. Prince Sky takes interest in her solitary training and starts to train with her. But more importantly, she’s possessed by an ancient spirit of a dragon that offers her help when she needs.

But it’s not a noble dragon, and the help comes with a price. She doesn’t mind. She’s not a noble person either. She’s greedy and selfish, and willing to do anything to survive.

She’s not the only person in possession of a powerful spirit. The enemy army has one too, and she and her dragon make it their business to destroy the other spirit. It’s not an easy or straightforward path to a victory. And she’s not the only one after the other spirit.

This was an interesting story. It’ll likely be marketed as a YA fantasy, but it avoids the most clichéd tropes. There’s a hint of romance, even a triangle drama, but it doesn’t dominate the story or serve as the driving force of Meilin’s actions. She’s not a good, moral, or noble person, and the dragon spirit makes the most of her greed to bend her to his will, but it was easy to sympathise with her need to be free from the fate chosen for her as a woman. The love interests weren’t good or noble men either, and it was difficult to choose between them. The magic took a heavy toll, and it wasn’t an all-powerful force that she could use at will.

The book was a bit too long and complicated though. The plot kept twisting and turning, bringing new players in the game, and making life unnecessary difficult for Meilin. Regardless, I found myself slightly bored with the middle part of the book, and it was difficult to care for the story or the people. The adversary wasn’t interesting enough, despite his destructive power, and in the end, he was a rather pitiful creature and his demise didn’t feel a triumphant victory.

The biggest twist was saved for the end. The world is stacked against Meilin, and it finally catches up with her. But she’s not about to give up. How she will survive is the story for the next book. I’d be interested in reading more.

"Would you surrender yourself to the world, or would you make the world yours?"

The Night Ends With Fire is an amusing Mulan retelling, sprinkled with splendid twists here and there, that makes it so entertaining to read. Instead of willingly returning to her destiny of confinement pre-war, our main character, Hai Meilin, yearns to lead─to rule as a general, for she has tasted the sweet taste of freedom and learnt that she wields a power so great it feels impossibly wrong to sit back and watch men decide how she should navigate the course of her life.

When the Three Kingdoms are declared to be at war and his father refuses to partake, his eldest daughter takes the matters into her own hands and enlists in her father's place, faking an identity to be a boy named Hai Ren. Her initial resolution was simple, escape her abusive soon-to-be husband, and be granted a few more months to live. It is no longer so simple then, once the sea dragon spirit consistently calls out for her, demanding to be heard. How is it so wrong wanting to break free from restrictive gender boundaries of the society?

This was such a good page-turner, I ended up loving it more than I thought I would. I resonate with her unending greed and desires, her longing to belong. Some parts frustrated me and the ending left me craving for more, I can't wait to read the second book.

I loved this mash up of Mulan, Chinese history of the Three Kingdoms, and Chinese mythology. It felt like Song weaved together aspects of all these into one new story that she made her own.

I loved that our protagonist's worldview expanded as she saw more of the world, how she became aware of her naivety and constantly kept growing. I loved the understanding of power and who has it, of how there are no good sides in a war. I loved the conflict within her and her ultimate decision that she wanted to be selfish, to get her own way, while also maintaining this hope in other people's goodness.

Definitely for readers of Sue Lynn Tan and Joan He, and if you found the Molly X Chang a massive disappointment, this was everything I'd hoped that could be.

This was an exquisitely written and ferociously angry retelling of Mulan. As the author’s note states, we’re used to the Disneyfied version of the story and not the original ending – here Mulan is determined to change the narrative. It is resplendent in its rage.

This was one of my most anticipated reads for the year. I read the blurb and was so excited for it.
I think I may have overhyped it in my head maybe, but it just fell a bit flat for me.
Mulan was one of my favourite Disney movies (along with Hercules) - I am aware that the Disney version is an idealised version of the story of Mulan but hey I loved it as a kid and I still love it now.
I feel like parts of this story were just a bit too elongated to the point where I got quite bored. But I persevered and I'm not happy with that ending. I mean it makes sense but it's not a good ending for Meilin.
Liu Sky annoyed me, I get that he puts duty and honour above all but he took that too far.
Sparrow and Tao eurgh.
I feel like Meilin would have been better off taking her chances with Lei.

I had very high expectations of this book and I enjoyed it, but didn't love it quite as much as I had hoped.

The Night Ends With Fire is an interesting retelling of Mulan, where the protagonist Meilin is driven by her desire for freedom, as well as her greed for power and recognition. While I sympathised with her story and her starting motivations, I didn't so much with her growing greed throughout the book. I can understand her wanting to prove that a woman could be powerful and "the best", though. So I was a bit divided on the protagonist 😅 Her relationship with the sea dragon was an interesting one - I liked reading about its complicated development and the intricacies of accepting his power.

Meilin gets quite close to two rival princes - one commanding the battalion she is a part of, and an enemy prince who holds her prisoner but appears to really value her intellect and military skills. The two princes are both quite intriguing characters, at odds with their respective fathers and/or their beliefs. I particularly liked the enemy prince and hope to read more about him in the sequel!

The book was beautifully written and the pacing was quite fast, especially once the dragon "awakened". I got confused a few times by explanations of situations or by who was speaking/acting at some points. However, the book kept me guessing about characters' motives and who would turn out to be trustworthy, so I really liked that!

I'd recommend this to lovers of fantasy and retellings.

This book was provided by Hodder & Stoughton through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a fun read, I did not get bored one minute, and the end was very surprising. I can't wait for book two ! Which I will probably have to wait for a long time, since book one is not officially out yet.

The Night Ends With Fire is a Mulan retelling, if Mulan's father was awful, Mulan was good at both magic and at kung fu, and Mushu was powerful and untrustworthy. I really like all the nods to the original story and the Disney movie, which is one of my favourite.

This is absolutely not historically accurate, since it's definitely a retelling of the Disney movie, not of the original legend. And it's a fantasy, there are dragons, magic, seers. It's amazing !

At first, I was afraid that the main character, would be "not like other girls", or too strong too fast. But she is such an incredibly good main character ! I love her, I could read a 10 book long series about her ! I liked seeing her grow as a person, and I hope we can see her evolve even more in the next book.

I also surprisingly really liked the main enemy, I sort of wish he would have won, haha !

One thing I didn't like though, was the use of Chinese words where English would have made more sense. When Meilin insults people of being "baichi idiots", it feels as cringe as when anime fans say "baka" IRL. Also, I'm probably not the only reader who doesn't know much about China (all I know is what is depicted in Zhang Yimou movies), so it would have been nice to have some footnotes explaining some things, translating some words, and maybe a pronunciation guide.

Meilin has spent her whole life hoping for freedom. Freedom from her father, her duties as a daughter, her duties as a woman. When she is promised to an old man whose previous wives have mysteriously died after they failed to produce sons, she decides to take matters into her own hands. She sneaks off into the night and joins the military in her degenerate father's stead. You will find the storyline similar to Disney's Mulan at the beginning and less so at the end. Yes, it is loosely based on a true story. No, I haven't researched it to find out which parts are true or not. There is a blurb at the end of this book that tells you a little bit about the real Mulan, but I didn't really read it and it's very short.

This is not exactly 3⭐. It's more accurately 2.5⭐ rounded up. This book had no business being as long as it was. This heifer must have been kidnapped and held hostage 8 times. It is astounding. Truly. And if she was so pretty that she had multiple princes simping after her, how the hell did she pull off being a dude for so long? I don't get it. The words....so many words..... Ugh. I got fed up with this at about 40%. At 60%, I wanted to quit. At 70%, I thought I saw the end coming. At 80%, I felt sure that there had to be a sequel because the author had wasted SO MUCH BOOK on nonsense that there was no way it could be wrapped up in the last 20%. At 98%, I was wondering what the crap just happened. At 100%, I resisted the urge to throw my Kindle because I still don't know if it is over. Is there a sequel? Is there not? Frankly, don't care.

Firstly, i'd like to thank Netgalley and Hodder Books for allowing me to read an e-arc for an honest review.

This was a book that sounded interesting to me so i was happy that i was approved an early copy. It is inspired by Mulan and had me sucked into the adventure. Meilin is someone who knows what she wants and doesn't want to be trapped in a life which isn't fit for her. I was glad she fought for her freedom and became a stronger person than what she was in the beginning. The pacing was great and the characters intrigued me. Especially, Lei. I'm excited for book two and if you're someone who loves strong female characters, love triangles and adventure then this is a book for you.

Thanks so much to Hodderscape and Netgalley for an eARC of this book.


I loved this so much, it was such a fresh take on the Mulan story. Think Mulan but with a twist?

I was gripped the entire time and couldn't wait to keep reading it! I absolutely loved Lei, he was my favourite character and so much fun. I can't wait for the next one because that ending had me choking.

The world building was incredible, the character growth was impeccable and the action scenes were so realistic. It was like I could see the training montage in my head.

I don't what else to say apart from this book made me feel things and now I need the next one now, please??

Actual rating: 4,5 stars

It initially took me a bit to get into the story because I was a bit worried that it would take a bunch of different stories and weave them together without really becoming its own thing, but luckily that did not turn out to be the case. It reminded me of Mulan x The Poppy War x Song of Silver, Flame Like Night, but with a fresh feel.

I really loved how it combined Chinese mythology and legends with an almost grimdark atmosphere. The book certainly has darker themes and felt a bit heavier at times. I never had to put the book down or anything (in fact, I barely put the book down at all because I was so zoned in), but it was a bit challenging in certain scenes.
The writing fit the mood well and I enjoyed it.

I liked the setting and worldbuilding a lot, with the contrast between the two main kingdoms that we see in the book, one despising black magic, the other embracing it. I always like it when the worldbuilding complements other aspects of the story, and in this case, there was a nice synergy with the FMC's character development.

Speaking of the FMC: I love her. I think she and her character arc are incredibly well-written, and much of her personality is a consequence of the society she grew up in and the beliefs that had been ingrained in her. I also really appreciated that her finding her strength and power truly came only from her (and maybe the dragon), without outside forces like romantic partners kickstarting this. Not that there is anything wrong with that when it's done well, but I truly liked that she challenged herself and her beliefs because she wanted something more for herself.

Misogyny and sexism are big themes of this book. I usually prefer feminist worlds/worlds where gender is a non-issue, but when it is done well, I also appreciate the opposite. I'm very interested in how it will play out in book 2, and I wish I could say more but that would be too big of a spoiler.

I found the cast of characters incredibly interesting, as most of them are men who believe that women are inferior, so even though I liked them, I struggled with these beliefs, while also acknowledging that they are acting in accordance with what they've been told and is the prevalent opinion.
I'm also curious how the slight love triangle will be resolved. I'm certainly leaning one way and I hope it's going to end up going in that direction. The romance is not a big focus of the book, but I personally liked the way the love triangle was done (I do enjoy them in general though so if you're a love triangle hater, take my opinion with a grain of salt).

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this and even though I always say I'm excited for the sequel, I don't often mean it quite as strongly as I do with this one. I truly cannot wait to see how this story continues. I have a feeling it is going to be a 2025 favorite! (I'm certainly hoping the sequel will be out next year)

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get used to the writing style, and I just came out of a reading slump that I didn't want to push through and attempt to finish the book and put myself back in one.

I did not know that this book was based on the Disney movie and couldn't get away from the film Mulan whilst reading the book.
I thought that the book went on and on for far too long. The story dragged and I only finished reading it out of pure curiosity.
I didnt think that the author had too much research to do with it being a book 'copied'. I didnt understand what the point of the proverbs/news releases were at the beginning of each paragraph and had forgotten what they were by the time I'd started reading the chapter because they didnt make sense to me.

An intricate tale of power, greed and magic, The Night Ends with fire is a brilliant fantasy book of war, lost, love and womanhood.

I loved this book! It felt like a f-you to the patriarchal roles of a woman, giving Meilin the power of choice, greed and love. Even if her character is morally grey the way K. X. Song wrote Meilin is beautiful and shows her will to resist and to survive. The writing of this book is easy to read, and the story gives Mulan vibes. I think my main problem was that it felt like the love interests were a bit two dimensional with their story not being very developed in either case. With that being said I still really enjoyed this book and cannot wait to read the next book in this story.

Summary: With the Three Kingdoms at war, Meilin disguises herself as a boy and enlists, seeking friendship, recognition, and unexpected love.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book, all thoughts are my own.

2.5⭐️ - 𝙸𝚝'𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞, 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚖𝚎.

This book gives off strong Mulan vibes, which is my all-time favorite Disney film, while offering a completely original story. I was really excited at first because it was like rediscovering everything I loved about Mulan, but in a brand-new setting with captivating magical elements. The concept of animal spirits manipulating and influencing people through their seals was absolutely fascinating.

However, as the story progressed, I found myself less invested due to some of Meilin's choices, which the author pushed the reader to interpret as greed rather than a desire for freedom for a young woman in a world where she had no control over her own life. This, along with the narrative being mostly telling and not showing, didn't help me connect with the characters.

Nonetheless, I feel other readers may enjoy this action-packed book with a touch of romance and a very intriguing magical system.

The Night Ends with Fire
4.5 ⭐
1 🌶
1st person single POV
Mulan inspired
Love Triangle
Enemies to Lovers

Mulan has always been my favourite Disney film growing up and still is to this day. There were themes and some similar parts but no it isn't like the Disney Mulan - and I'm so glad for that and this story was amazing!

Meilin's father sends her to a matchmaker, he needs her dowry to pay for his gambling and opium debts but Meilin refuses and she enlists in the army under pretence she's her fathers bastard son as Ren.
Meilin is determined to prove she's just as strong as the men she's there with, and she gain Prince Lui Sky attention with her abilities but she needs to keep her real identity a secret.

I loved the character development throughout, she was strong at the start but by the end she had such an unstoppable force.

The ending I didn't see coming (I thought it was a standalone) and my jaw was on the floor, and I can't wait to see what Meilin does next.

Thank you for the eARC Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton

Unfortunately I ended up DNFing this book at 30%.

The writing style is easy to read and I was able to fly through all 30% in one sitting. The problem is, once I put it down I had absolutely no desire to pick it back up.

This feels very YA, despite being marketed as Adult, and that is not really to my personal taste. Meilin was so unlikable but it was not in an interesting way that made me want to keep reading. All the other characters were very flat and I honestly just didn’t care what happened to them.