Ann Liang writes beautifully. I loved the lyrical language to this, and the heartbreaking story we followed truly got to me! I wish the characters had been a little more fleshed out and that the romance had moved a bit slower -- but then again, I'm a big fan of the slow burn yearning kinds of romances. A very lovely read and I look forward to reading more of Ann Liang's books in the future.

Beautiful bittersweet romance. The retelling is so beautiful done. I couldn’t put down this book and after reading this book in digital form I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy

Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC.

Firstly, it's kind of unexpected to hear Ann Liang, my favourite contemporary romance author write a book with a fantasy-historical setting. However, as expected from her, it turned out to be good!

Among the fantasy books with SMUT, the romance here is a slow-burn type—just like how I love. The yearning and pining, ugh. It's perfect.

DNF

I tried multiple time to engage with this book but nothing particularly captured and kept my attention which leaves me so disappointed considering the source for the book! It’s historical romance fantasy read and while it sounds interesting in theory, the execution wasn’t there. However I will commend it for having beautiful writing

True rating: 4.25⭐️

This was a beautiful tale of love, deception and treachery.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much this captivated me throughout. The writing in its gentle style flowed effortlessly, and the simplicity of it was beautiful. .

Though pitched as an ‘adult’ book, what I will say is that it did read more YA to me, but I didn’t mind. The yearning, forbidden romance was gorgeous, and I loved the main character. She had wonderful development throughout.

This isn’t a showy fantasy at all, but I loved it all the same, and I found the ending surprisingly emotional and unique.

Ann Liang has crafter yet another wonderfully written story, but this time it's a historical fiction.
Having read all of her YA Contemporary/Romance books I'd fallen in love with Ann's stories. When I heard that Ann was wiring a historical fiction based on Chinese folklore I was very excited and let me tell you that it did not disappoint.
It is beautifully written and heart wrenching, you will not be disappointed.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher Pan Macmillan/Tor for the digital ARC, it has not affected my honest review. 


TW: death, war, violence, blood, child death, grief


Ever since she was born, Xishi’s extraordinary beauty has been seen as a blessing even in a time of great upheaval and violence for her country Yue. The people of her village see her as a gift to be given to a man as a wife but Xishi doesn’t want that. She still mourns for her little sister, murdered during the war, and wishes for revenge on the kingdom of Wu. When Xishi meets Fanli, the young and deeply talented advisor to the conquered leader of Yue, he offers her a chance to use her beauty as a weapon. All she has to do is enter the world of nobility, seduce the other king and collapse his regime from the inside. Xishi jumps at the chance, and alongside her friend Zhengdan, she is trained in concealing her emotions, musical instruments and everything she’ll need to succeed in her mission. Soon enough she is a perfect weapon but her growing attraction to Fanli and his ability to see through her disguise proves a problem. Sent into the enemy palace, Xishi finds herself under the gaze of the Wu king and the rest of his court. The closer she gets to him, the more his gentleness becomes apparent- but he is Yue’s enemy, and so Xishi refuses to let her guard down. As she rises in the eyes of the Wu court and the king, her relationship with Fanli becomes part of a deadly game that could lead to everyone’s ruin if she’s ever caught. 


One thing I really liked about this book is that although it’s got romance, that isn’t the whole story. Everything is much bigger and it’s always emphasised why Xishi is doing this. In some ways it reminds me of Joan He’s brilliant books ‘Strike the Zither’ and Sound the Gong’ though they’re very different stories. There’s a certain tragedy to the relationship between Xishi and Fanli, because in a better world they would have more time- they wouldn’t have met during this and I found that to really impact all of their scenes (which I loved). I loved Xishi's methods of seducing the King and how she had to keep reminding herself of what he'd done once she came to know him. The politics and deadly situation that she found herself in had some great moments of tension, especially as the blame for the King's failings came to fall on Xishi because she's a woman. I wish we'd had longer with certain characters to better develop but overall I enjoyed this a lot. The ending wrecked me.

DNF
Malheureusement ça ne l'a pas fait. On m'en avait parlé comme d'un Radiant Emperor mais ça ne fut pas du tout le cas ! On est plus sur une romantasy qu'une Fantasy Historique

To be honest, those three stars were for the last 20% of the book. The rest of it was extremely unforgettable which is such a shame considering the source reference. How does so little happen yet this book felt like forever to read? I almost contemplated DNF because I had to re read the first few chapters 4 times before I managed to feel compelled enough to continue.

This was absolutely fantastic! I'm honestly struggling to describe the effect this book has had on me. Ann Liang has an immense skill for creating a rich, interesting world and a plot that was as suspenseful as it was moving. I couldn't stop turning the page for this one, and I'm so glad I got a chance to read it. The characters, particularly Xishi, are phenomenal, the worldbuilding so prolific, and the dynamics and relationships so beautiful. No one is perfect, everyone has flaws, and there's no such thing as an emphatic truth as to peoples' motivations and agendas and morals, even for the main character. In particular, I appreciated how Liang specifically deals with the juxtaposition of 'war is bad and results in atrocities, no matter against whom it's waged and no matter what justification you have' with 'sometimes we need to do bad things for something good to come out of it', which I thought had an exceptional nuance. There are moments that will make you reach for the tissue box, and moments that will tug at your heartstrings, as well as moments that will make you want to throw the book against the wall in sheer frustration, but all of that just makes this a great read!

A Song to Drown Rivers is a beautifully written story filled with love and intrigue. I found the plot captivating, even though it moves at a slow pace most of the time. The characters are complex and fascinating to follow. The romantic subplot is heartbreakingly beautiful in this book.

There is vast sadness or nostalgia in this story, which I found overwhelming. Still, I loved the writing style and will definitely look into the other books.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of A Song to Drown Rivers. I really enjoyed reading this book, especially the political aspects that are built into the retelling. The characters were really likeable, although I would have liked to see more development and backstory to accompany this. Additionally, I’m not sure that ‘romantasy’ and ‘adult’ is the correct categorisation of this book as the romance is quite limited (which I don’t mind at all) and the fantasy is very low level, with the story also reading at a more Teen/older YA level. That being said I love retellings and it was definitely still worth reading, I really enjoyed it overall - loved the story of espionage, betrayal, revenge, and I was definitely caught off guard by that ending!

This is the first time reading something by Ann Liang, and I definitely enjoyed the ride!

Set in Ancient China and based on the legend of Xishi.
This is a story of unrequited love, tragic loss and the rise and fall of Kingdoms.

The story follows Xishi who is from a poor village in the conquered Kingdom of Yue. Overthrown by the ruthless Kingdom of Wu. Both Kingdoms plots and schemes to keep or regain power.

Xishi is the most beautiful girl in her village and for her safety her mother has her hide her face.

After a brief encounter with a beautiful sword wielding stranger, Xishi’s life is about to be turned upside down.

Can Xishi save Yue?
Can beauty overthrow a Kingdom?

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for this eARC

A gorgeous tale, beautifully told, from start to finish. I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in Ancient China. I loved Ann Liang’s writing and I hope she produces more work in this vein. I especially liked the audiobook narration by Natalie Naudus. She does male voices so well!!! Truly wonderful book (and audio) and one that I would highly recommend.

Sadly this book was a letdown. I found the main character to be a shadow of what she could have been and the story overall quite predictable. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC.

A wonderful and magical adventure full of adventure, intrigue and so much action. I was fully invested right until the last page.

This was such a beautifully written retelling of the Chinese tale of Xishi - but this isn't fantasy. It becomes slightly fantastical in the epilogue, but before that, it's really purely historical fiction. It's not a bad thing at all; I loved this a lot, I think Ann Liang writes historical fiction so well, it felt so fresh and I found it so interesting to read, but this is being marketed all wrong, because it's just not a fantasy.

Anyway, other than that, I liked the characters, I REALLY liked Xishi and Fanli together, and this really broke me at times. I also felt like it was really interesting to bring in how at first she hated Fuchai, but given the proximity and time she spent with him, how she came to have warring emotions within her. I was able to read this really quickly, and I felt that it was paced well considering it's set over about three years.

But it's just not a fantasy! Why is it being marketed as one, I don't get it.

I wanted to enjoy this a lot more than I did. It had a lot of emotion in the tragedy of Xishi and Fanli’s romance and the way it ended. It had heart. But for a lot of the book, the lack of action let it down.

There was plenty of political scheming from Xishi, but though I enjoyed that, it just wasn’t enough to excite me. It also left a whole big part of the book where Xishi was being trained where there just wasn’t much happening.

I liked how well thought out the characters were. The fleshed out, well roundedness of the spoilt king really went to show how pointless it all was for Xishi to be seducing him at all. The way she learnt, over the course of the novel, that there are two sides to this war and her side was hurting just as many people as the other. There was a poignance to it that the author captured really well.

Overall, it wasn’t a book for me. But I’m glad to have read it. It gave a message that I really enjoyed.

👩🏻 Beauty leads to wars. The story is based on the legend of Xishi, so if you're familiar with it, you know how it ends.

👩🏻 A flawed king. Not gonna lie, I've enjoyed Fucai and despite his many negative traits, I liked him. I felt pretty bad for him though. I certainly disliked the other king. Although I understand his actions (man, the ego is definitely a big issue, isn't it?), and the setting, I still disliked him.

👩🏻 Why are you in a rush? There were quite a few moments when the plot was rushed. I wished Ann Liang explored the palace dynamics and angst more deeply.

👩🏻 It's too easy. Considering the story takes place during ancient China, I found Sushi got everything way too easy. There wasn't much struggle from her side. The fight she had with the other concubine was also too surface level.

👩🏻 Of ghosts and wails. The ending was a bit too over the top. I feel like the author could have stopped earlier. Also, I wouldn't quite consider the story a fantasy just because of the ending. I think this one is more of a romance/historical fiction book. Even though the romance was kind of dry from my perspective. Maybe the ending would have made a bit more sense if the story was told from a third person point of view. Although, I'd still like to keep my original thought: it would have been better if it ended right at the scene with the bag.

👩🏻 Writing style. As I mentioned previously, I believe the story would have been better if the narration was done from a third person perspective. Another point I wasn't entirely content with was the overall way of expression. It seemed too modern. I'd have liked to see the speech and overall vibe of the era shine through. After all, this is set in the ancient Wu kingdom.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

There is so much tension and emotion woven through this story that I couldn't resist handing my heart over to it. It is beautifully written with every page offering up nuggets to mull over and treasure. The love story was full of yearning and a sense of the forbidden but the cost of revenge and war is never far from the reader's mind and it felt bittersweet from start to finish. The characters were easy to get along with and I felt real compassion for each and every one - even the enemy King was written as a vulnerable character and I found myself sympathetic towards him. And though the ending felt somewhat inevitable, the way it played out was wholly unexpected and it hit me hard. A great read.