I really wanted to love this one, but sadly it fell a bit short for me. It's perfect if you're after one of those sweeping historical C-dramas where everyone is young and gorgeous, except the people you're not supposed to like, and there's bits of intrigue and some dark moment mixed with tender glances and wistful bittersweet emotions. It's certainly enjoyable enough to read.

But there were bits I just didn't connect with and wanted more character development that didn't end up feeling like a YA, and I don't mean from any sort of spice etc. It is marketed as an adult book but the characters themselves feel younger than they're meant to be, and we don't see a lot of real relationship development between Fanli and Xishi. I really preferred Fuchai overall, though I can see how it would create a great love dilemma in a visual drama.

I understand that it follows the legend of Xishi and why the ending was the way it was, and I do love that Chinese myths often follow a different path & have unexpected outcomes compared to what Anglo-European readers may expect. However, the ended did feel like a let down because of how much build up there was and how little the main pair really got to experience together. I'm really torn by it and just could decide if I loved or hated it, perhaps just both!

I did zoom through it - it was a quick read and there were many bits I enjoyed, but there are a lot of unanswered questions. What was the point of Xishi's heart issue? What about her sister? Why did it take so long to get to the training phase, but then we saw no actual training other than her on a bit of guqin (which I don't remember her touching after that?). It just felt like so many bits that seemed important never got revisited. So I'm just stuck in the middle on this one.

I would still say people should try it if they enjoy Chinese myths and that C-drama style romance & palace politics plot, but for me I'm on the fence.

With breathtaking world-building rooted in Chinese mythology, 𝑨 𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝑫𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝑹𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒃𝒚 𝑨𝒏𝒏 𝑳𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒈 delivered an unforgettable blend of espionage, romance, and the power dynamics of kingdoms. The layers of political intrigue, power struggles, and secret motives had me hooked, but it was the characters that truly made this book shine.

Fanli, with his heart-wrenching sacrifice, stole the show for me. His quiet strength and willingness to let go of his love for the kingdom’s greater good made his story both tragic and compelling. Watching him navigate the emotional turmoil of giving up Xishi for the sake of his people had me in tears. Xishi, too, is a brilliantly complex character. She’s a woman burdened by beauty, wielding it like a weapon, but beneath it all is her vulnerability and desire to protect her family and kingdom. The tension between her mission and her growing feelings for the enemy had me on the edge of my seat.

The romance between Xishi and Fanli was tender and bittersweet, though I wished for more time with them together. That being said, their story of longing and unspoken glances made every scene between them all the more poignant. On the other hand, the potential romance with Fuchai, the supposed villain, blew me away. His character development was exceptional, and I would’ve loved to see more between him and Xishi. His obsession with her and willingness to sacrifice everything was heartbreaking, making him one of my favorite characters in the novel. I understand that his character deserved more complex layers and there should have been more light on his king-ly and evil side. But I still loved the fact that the author could make me feel for him more than Fanli.

Overall, this book is a perfect storm of stunning world-building, intense emotion, and beautiful characters.

“The mind destroys; the heart devours”
It has been one of the books that has made me shed some tears this year and has left me devastated. I was expecting a sweet mythological romance, but I was surprised with this heart-wrenching, precious and delicate story with some kind of star-crossed love (or more like duty comes first). However, it goes beyond that. This beautifully written prose inspired by the legend of Xishi, one of the famous Ancient China's Four Beauties, retells the story of a beautiful young woman, who, through espionage, will play a pivotal role in the fate of two kingdoms. This storytelling stunningly weaves into womanhood, conflict, betrayal, and yearning at its finest.
The pacing of the book was perfect for me. I can say that the setting was good, with a really fascinating imagery. Regarding world-building, I would have liked it to be deeper. I know that being a book with individual pov in did not allow us to see more of the political/war aspects of it, but I think it could have been better used. The characters in general were quite interesting (some with better development than others). Xishi was a genuine character with such as bravery and strength that made me proud with her growth through the book. Fanli was bounded by his honor and duty, but he was so handsomely pure and devoted (kinda wish we got more of him). Fuchai was an enthralled character indeed, he made me doubt truly (even rooted for him) but also was expecting him to be more morally gray. The sequence of the last chapters and the ending were painfully breathtaking. Overall, this exquisite tragic novel bewitched you with its pages patched with war, sacrifice, revenge, and love.

Thanks Netgalley for this ARC

The writing style is good but unfortunately it took too long to get to the place, especially since we know this from the blurb. All the Training could've been skipped and unfortunately I lost interest along the way.

A Song to Drown Rivers was an unexpected favourite. I don't why but I didn't expect to love it as much as I did. I like that it's a standalone, as much as I enjoy a good series, it nice sometimes to have a whole story in one.

The main character Xishi, and her love interest, Fanli, were well both well rounded and layered. Both were interesting and not cardboard cut outs. I was rooting for Xishi from the get go. Plus, the romance between them was so good. If you like slow burn romances that brim with tension and yearning then this is the book for you.

The imagery the author painted was so vivid, like I could imagine everything playing out in front of me. The plot was well executed as well. I was hooked to my kindle from start to finish. Such a compelling and additive story.

The ending had me torn. On one hand I thought it was perfect, on the other I was kind of heart broken. Still, A Song to Drown Rivers is definitely one of my favourite books of the year.

I loved the cover design instantly, and when I saw that the audiobook is read by Natalie Naudus, one of my favourite narrators, I knew that this must be a fantastic book. And it is exactly that. Scheming, spying, political manoeuvrings in the royal palace and romance of course. The ending left me quite sad but I will remember to read everything from Ann Liang in the future.

Love is neither black nor white, which this book explores brilliantly.

A Song to Drown Rivers is a story of vengeance, love and loyalty.

I was confused what to make of the complex relationships in the book. For Xishi, the line between enmity and loyalty was blurring as she spent more time with King Fuchai.

Up to a certain point, I was sure the plot was going in a predictable direction, but the second-half of the book threw me off my course.

It was a heartrending story of a girl who chooses vengeance over her heart. But the heart is a complex organ, and the characters in this story is testament to that.

Thanks to the publisher for the free reader’s copy of the book!!

Love the cover, but the pacing leaned a bit slow for me. I feel like I’ve seen this same storytelling play out in lots of YA Fantasy in the past decade. Sweet village girl meets brooding warrior. Still, enjoyable with a good romance and immersive setting.

A massive thank you to the Netgalley team for letting me read and review this book!

A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang is inspired by the story of one of the four legendary beauties of China, Xishi. It tells the story of a girl from a rural village that had extraordinary beauty. It also plays out during a time of unrest in China when there were multiple states that were constantly invaded by each other.

The story shows Xishi's living conditions and character right from the start. One day while washing silk in the river she saves a girl from a soldier and in turn gets saved by a handsome stranger. The stranger turns out to be the advisor to the king, looking for an extraordinary beauty for a mission the king appointed to him - one that will save their people.

When confronted with the opportunity to save her country, Xishi agrees to go with the advisor. The mission would be to train her to be a concubine sent to the enemy king. She is to win his trust, make him waste as many resources as possible and open a path for her people to take back their land.

This book was written with a lot of care. You can't help but like the main character, even though there were a few of the secondary characters that were absolutely amazing. I was nervous about the story since it tackles such a delicate subject and also such a big story from Chinese history. Although a lot of the happenings were glossed over, and some events were dealt with very lightly, I still believe that this book did a great job of making this story known and accessible to modern readers.

I am very excited to see what the author brings out after this, and I will be reading more of her work from now on!

Guess I am going to be the minority here, but I just couldn't bring myself to give this book a higher rating. My disappointment can be attributed in part to the high expectations I held when I requested an eARC from NetGalley. And what did I get? An embellished replica of the Wikipedia page.
Since the novel is based on the legend of Xishi, one of the four renowned beauties of ancient China, I did some background research to get a better idea. As someone who brought down the kingdom of Wu through her sexpionage operation, her story intrigued me. So could you fault me for expecting a story full of court politics, palace intrigue and unexpected twists? Unfortunately, this novel delivered none.
The characters, particularly Xishi and Fanli, are bland and failed to capture my interest. Unsurprisingly their doomed fate didn't create any ripples in my heart. The character that stood out the most and displayed some semblance of growth was the villain, Fuchai. Even Xishi herself comes to realize that not all individuals from Wu are inherently evil. Beyond this, I struggle to find any noteworthy aspects to comment on. The overall reading experience felt like flipping through a history book with some random dialogues thrown in, featuring characters that just didn't resonate with me.

thank you NetGalley & Pan Macmillan for the free e-ARC in exchange for a honest review!💙

this book has been in my wishlist way before it was released, since it is written by ann liang, who singlehandedly led me to rediscover my long buried dreams of being an author this year. plus, the angst promised by the book seemed like my cup of tea; which is why i was overjoyed to have been able to get my hands on its ARC 🥹❤️

as it turned out, this book was truly a masterpiece. from the ethereal description of the scenes, to the slow-rising romantic tension that grips on my heart, to the characterization that made me weep for each of the characters, to the beautiful dialogues that made me want to highlight every single line — ann liang surely have brought the legend of xishi to another level with her genius wordplay. and since i am a sucker for books about action with romance on top (something like The Hunger Games), this book hits right on the spot for me. in fact, i can testament that it has a similar effect — it keeps you agitated throughout the journey & left you feeling empty afterwards:')

despite the fact that it is heavily advertised as romance, i like the fact that the book actually makes us contemplate about deeper themes, like war — and what nationalism should truly mean. the book indeed had such a profound ending for me.

thank you, ann, for the rollercoaster, & i'm looking forward to see more masterpieces coming from you 🥹🙏

Elegantly written, rendered with effortless, sweeping prose and a piercing eye for detail. Loved it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor for the eARC of this book in exchange for a review.

Xishi is an extremely complex and troubled character, all people see is her beauty but she is so much more than that. The story was an absolutely gorgeous piece of writing and it made me cry ugly tears. I loved this book so much, and now I’ve had time to think on it too.

I’ve read a couple of books from Ann Liang before, and I really enjoy her writing. I am definitely keen to read more from this author. I am likely to purchase this book soon too.

Gorgeous book. I’ll be sending my therapy bill to you haha

Back in the summer, when I had a bit more free time to read, I ploughed my way through a load of books I'd received as ARC from Netgalley - sadly, many of them left minimal impression on me, so I'm having to go back to the blurbs to try and remind myself about the ones which passed me by.

A Song to Drown Rivers was one of those I had to look up. Girl from small village is recruited by mysterious organisation to infiltrate the palace of the neighbouring kingdom as a spy, naturally there's a romance sub-plot between her and the man who recruits her (he's young and handsome, if a bit two-dimensional) and then she's off to the king after the requisite training montage.

There's not much new here, to be honest, and I probably wouldn't have carried on reading if I hadn't got it from Netgalley. If you're a c-drama fan like me, I'd say this is basically the book equivalent of those palace intrigue dramas full of idol actors, all very pretty but much not much actual plotline since the writers aren't quite up to 3-d characters. It also has a very typical c-drama ending (if you know, you know).

Although it's being touted as the adult historical debut of a YA writer, it still feels very YA in a lot of ways - the big time jump partway through doesn't help with the pacing issues. Not someone who's books I'll look to pick up, based on this outing.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, via Netgalley. This is my honest review of the book in question.

🐱 Favourite Quote:

"In a world where everyone will demand some thing from you, it requires a certain degree of selfishness to be happy, you know.”

🐈 My thoughts:

The cover and title of this book drew my attention. I went in blindly, without reading the blurb and fully expecting a fantasy book... it's not! 😅 I'm glad that I didn't realize that this was historical fiction, because I tend to avoid them, and this turned out to be a very good read.

I have never read a book based in ancient China before, so this grabbed my attention right away. It left me super curious about the legend the story is based on.

The romance is a slow burn, but I never lost interest. And the end is just... heartbreaking 💔

I really enjoyed this and will keep an eye on the writer and look for more books set in ancient China.

As someone who typically enjoys Ann Liang's YA romances, I was so excited when I heard about this book - it sounded exactly up my alley.

I felt the over descriptive writing a bit much at times - which is strange, because that usually doesn't bother me, and I love poetic sounding writing. But I think for all the descriptions, the book could've used more depth in the pacing and the characters.

The main love interest fell completely flat for me, mainly because he was barely in the story. Even during the 10 week training we barely got a glimpse into the characters falling for each other, but since most of it was skipped over with a time jump, it wasn't explored as much as I would've preferred. Because of this, I didn't really feel connected to the couple as a whole.

In terms of the pacing, the first 20% was quite slow, but then all the time jumps in the middle also felt quite out of place - next thing you know, Xishi has been in the palace for 2 years!

I don't often say this, but I really felt like the story could've been a duology to give more depth to the characters and the plot.

I did end up enjoying the story, and Fuchai's character especially was very intriguing - just wish it could've been explored more!

Ann Liang's writing overall is beautiful, and there were definitely some highlight worthy lines in this.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan for the free digital copy of this book!

──★ ˙ ₊ 3.5 stars

thank you to netgalley, pan macmillan and the author, ann liang, for providing me with this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

review.
this is my first ann liang book, and i was super excited when i found out i got the arc for this. this started off strong, minus the insta-love portion of the story, and i was hooked from the very beginning, but towards the end everything just kind of fell flat, and i noticed many plot holes in the story. there were multiple storylines that could've been expanded on, but it didn't give anything. the characters did not have any development whatsoever, and their potential was wasted. however, i did enjoy how powerful xishi was portrayed, but i wish it was more realistic. i also loved the side actors; they definitely gave more depth to the story, and everything between fanli and xishi was written beautifully.

I love anything that Ann Liang writes and this was a such a delight to read. I was hesitant since I only read Romance by her, but this proved me otherwise.

Rating: 4.5

Ann Liang's writing beautifully reflects the immense journey of a deep undercover mission, with its outcome being a life or death for the people of its nation. This is not a simple love story, but one that revolves around lies, manipulation and betrayal.

Xishi is a commoner but with immense beauty. With this beauty, she becomes a pawn in a dangerous game of deceit. Her character is pretty straightforward - for the sake of her family and the greater good of her nation, she will use her wiles and beauty to distract and manipulate, alongside her dearest and feisty friend, Zhengdan. She has flaws and isn't perfect, yet she cannot let this reflect on the surface.

The intense yearning between Xishi and Fanli was almost torturous, a forbidden love between the two with no expectations it will ever come to fruition. The relationship with Fuchai was also complicated, and I wish his character was developed more, despite his place in actual history.

A short but concise retelling of the Legend of Xishi, one of the Four Beauties of Ancient China. Beauty can be underestimated, and in this instance it was used to its fullest.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book!

the mind destroys, the heart devours

A stunning, heart-rending feat of a story. A Song to Drown Rivers retells ancient legend with phenomenal voice, bringing a truly worthwhile addition to the historical fiction genre.

This was a beautiful but tragic tale of the most beautiful woman from a distant village made to seduce and betray the king of a neighbouring kingdom who ruthlessly took over hers. The slowburn and yearning between xishi and fanli was insane, Ann Liang. debut adult novel is as promising as her heartfelt YA fiction works that I truly adored. I was impressed with the writing, as there were very poetic lines and felt very true to the time period/genre, but there was also a simplicity and pacing to it where I never felt bogged down.