3 stars 🌟
I absolutely LOVED the Scarlet Alchemist! I was so excited to receive this ARC but I ended up being quite disappointed. Maybe because there were 7 months between reading each book, I felt super detached from the plot and characters. To start with the characters, I really liked them them, particularly Zheng and durian 🤣. It was the plot that was the most disappointing for me. We are essentially just following the fmc try and find this island for the first 75%, which was very repetitive and slow. Then the ending was very rushed and I wish we had more of the aftermath. Overall, I recommend it if you enjoyed the first book but it definitely wasn’t as good!

Rating - 4.5 stars

I was very satisfied with how this duology concluded!

Firstly, I absolutely admire the work Kylie Lee Baker put into creating one of the best villains I’ve ever read in any book. The villain in this duology terrified me so much because she was so cunning, strategic and worst of all, unpredictable. I could never guess what despicable things she would do next.

I had fun going on the journey with all of the characters. Zheng Sili is my new favourite addition to the crew. I loved the banter and camaraderie between all the characters, especially during any moments between Zilan, Wenshu and Zheng Sili.

The romance between Zilan and Hong was so sweet. All of their interactions with each other are so heartwarming because you can tell they truly love each other so much.

I loved the first book of this series so much, I was super excited to dive into this one!
I enjoyed this one just as much, and it was a very satisfying conclusion to the story overall.
I very much look forward to reading more from this author!

<i>I received this ARC thanks to the Publisher and NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.</i>

WARNING - this review contains heavy spoilers if you haven't read the first installment of this series called 'The Scarlet Alchemist'. If you indeed read it, I encourage you to check out <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5158644493">my review of it</a> before reading this one, simply to get familiar with the fact that I'm obsessed with Zilan & co :p

<b>"Is he dead?"
"Shut up," I said. "He's clearly not."
"Nothing is ever clear with you."</b>
TSA was my book of the year in 2023, and The Blood Orchid is definitely a nominee (as there are some teeny tiny details I would've rewritten, but not enough to not make this book a solid 6 stars) for 2024. Why? Let me tell you a story about a broken heroine (tbt my fav kind), prince in distress (also my fav kind, what can I say, Kylie Lee Baker simply knows how to hit all my jackpots!) and a duck named Durian.

<img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/26d1051143a6b27ed74e12a6d3bd78cb/6890fbed73a0d8d6-39/s540x810/7973999a6d831935be7cdae703acca9cfdc762b1.gif" width="auto" height="auto" alt="description"/>
<b>I had made too many mistakes to be the hero that I'd once wanted to be. Maybe it was time that I stopped seeing myself as anything but a curse. Alchemists had to destroy in order to rebuild, after all. I would save them all in time, but my hands hadn't been clean for ages, and I might as well stop pretending they were.</b>
As I assume you're already familiar with the cast (if not - seriously go read The Scarlet Alchemist right now or else you gotta regret your life choices) let me tell you - I was as heartbroken as you were finishing TSA. And actually pretty mad at the Fan siblings. And the author herself - WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ENDING (tho to be honest it's my favourite kind of one - let's say Allegiant ending but for book one, not the last one, which means a lot of shenanigans to bring my beloved character back in a sequel). So I knew I'll be simply suffering till TBO arc drop - and the moment it did, I felt alive once again, tho it did take some time for my heart to beat again. If you think the author would be merciful enough to make us at ease in the first 100 pages, nah, most of the book, I don't think you remember we're talking about Kylie - once you dive in, the game of uneasiness begins.

<img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/f2598325822b82b5ae2dddb1203d9cf2/2cc9f3e5bc28d8d7-8a/s540x810/edea3d790da8108d33c3ea353a6d83ff5065a406.gif" width="auto" height="auto" alt="description"/>
<b>They still believed in the Scarlet Alchemist who had seized her dream at all costs, and I couldn't bear to tell them that she was dead.</b>
Fans trio is f*cked, literally. They got a broken kingdom on their shoulders, and a personal tab of people to revive growing every few chapters. So they decide to leave so-called empress Yufei to keep their sh*t together in the palace once the other two embark on a journey to actually learn how to bring body-less people back to life. If only their task would be this easy - without an uneasy feeling that there's a shadow of the past following their every step, that might actually not be just a shadow in the end. At least they have Durian - their lucky alchemic duck coming to their rescue with a bunch of sus looking golden eggs.

<img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/8aa4ab8b0f45be6727abb5211cfe137b/a4ff7ba1e6afdc1c-6e/s540x810/2aa6e96c85446f3139f7aa7edf67edc600aa4162.gif" width="auto" height="auto" alt="description"/>
<b>"What comes after the river plane?"
"The end."
"That sounds... perfect," I said at last.</b>
Let me tell you, at this point I have a very special cry saved for this series, once that makes me feel like I'm tearing my own heart out of my chest with claws covered in alchemy rings with pretty stones. So even though I wasn't a fan of the first half or so part of the book (because it simply didn't feature my fav cast - imagine going through a book of Triss Prior, Caleb Prior and Peter Hayes of Divergent going on an adventure together for the most of the book - as a fan of Four I'd feel like something's simply missing and I'm left mostly with characters that are annoying me - so is the feeling I had with this part) once more and more characters of book one were appearing I;ve started to remember what was so strong about TSA. And I'm not talking just about the romance with oblivious princeling (as for obvious reasons it was a bit cut out of this sequel) - it's the epicness of how Kylie Lee Baker is able to spin conclusions to her stories. The way I was gagged several times, with simply vavavoom-ness of a moment (there's for example a sudden change of POV, which had me speechless for how well it was executed), or the way the plot is still making sense by the end (which tbt is kinda lacking in books nowadays) not in a cheesy way, but like 'well deserved ending for everyone'. So yeah, even though it doesn't scream 'you won't read any better book this year' like The Scarlet Alchemist did, I'm still amazed with this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read of mine and I know it's a strong candidate for my BOTY nonetheless.

Kylie - thank you for making my heart finally at peace (after having it in your clutches for the past year) - now I'll happily get into The Keeper of Night waiting for Bat Eater to drop, Authors who're able to end their books so well are hard to find gems that need to be treasured!

4.5 stars - a quest filled adventure trying to find a mythical island.

The Scarlet Alchemist was one of my favourite reads of last year, so I highly anticipated the Blood Orchid being just as good.

I enjoyed the quest aspect of the story and the setting of China as we travelled through different villages.

The family bonds from the first, stay with us throughout the story as we spend more time with Wenshu, as he helps Zilan on her quest to find Penglai Island. I really felt for Zilan having to interact with Wenshu in Hongs body but also Wenshu thinking Zilan was saddened by his presence.

The inclusion of Zheng Sili in the cousins adventures kept the plot flowing nicely but I kept expecting him to start a relationship with Yufei so I was partly disappointed in that. Dorian the duck also kept me amused especially the eggs of his.

The only reason why I didn’t rate it a full 5 stars was due to pacing. We spend around 80% trying to work out a way to get to Penglai Island then last 20% is a very quick visit to the island and the remainder of the book. I felt it quite rushed and would have liked to have seen more of the island and more time showing Zilan and Hong living their new lives.

That being said I did like how the story concluded with Zilans sacrifice and so overall a very good sequel / duology.