Sadly, this did not work out for me. I attempted to try immersive reading approach with this one by listening to the audiobook and reading the eARC at the same time but it was excruciatingly boring. The narrator had a dull voice too.

The most tragic book of 2024 is here and I am not okey. Ann Liang ripped my heart out, stomped on it and squeezed it thru a meat grinder. The last 10% I was thinking 'It can't be all, surely it won't end this way', but it did and it was so tragic and beautiful, I'm drowning in my tears rn.

"Her beauty hides a deadly purpose."

Xishi has a mission - she must go to enemy kingdom, seduce their king and get revange on her people. It is no way easy task, court games are so tricky and dangerous, one wrong move can be a death sentence. I'm in awe how she navigated this and plots she came up with.

First, she must be trained. While she is travelling from her village with Fanli, Yue king most trusted advisor, he teaches her everything she must know to survive in Wu kingdom. But he can't help the attraction that's sizzling between them.

I need this book injected in my veins, it was everything I wanted and more. Xishi and Fanli are so dear to me, I don't know how I'll ever recover. This book is unlike any other I have read, I have gazillion quotes highlighted and already can't wait for my physical copy to arrive so I could annotate it and go thru that emotional damage again. Ann Liang literally shattered me and I'm like 'thanks, let's do this again'😀

Thank you Netgalley for providing digital advanced copy in exchange for honest review.

This was absolutely STUNNING!!!! I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did- wow !!! The characters were great, the amount of complexity in each character let alone their relationships was phenomenal especially considering this is a standalone!
The story was GUT WRENCHING! The way good and bad was blurred and it was,, my god it was so good, so devastating, so completely heartbreaking. They won but did they? The plan succeeded but at what cost?? My god- I’ll be thinking about this book for such a long time, and the narrator was FANTASTIC!!

A Book to Drown Feelings.

Xishi’s unnatural beauty sees her recruited by a mysterious, beautiful stranger to become the warring kingdom’s King’s concubine. The King who had brought blood, destruction, tears, and death to her very door. She is to be a spy, glinting and shining like a treasure, but only truly because she was a weapon.

Only thing is, the stranger is Fanli, her kingdom’s political and military advisor and her heart seems to beat easier in his presence. And all the stories tell that heroes only have tragic endings.

I cannot believe how beautiful the writing is.how much gut wrenching, evocative emotion and imagery packed into the standalone that had me holding my breath from page one.

Not to mention, the slow burn, the angst, the rage, the description… all fit into one fairly short fantasy book whilst never feeling rushed?! Liang is truly magical.

The contrast of the two kingdoms are less clear as Xishi had first thought and who was truly an enemy or deserves to be named such becomes twisted and confused.

I had imagined empty, crooked streets squeezing in together like dungeons, and houses with jutting roofs like teeth, swords and skeletons lining the yards.

You may know Liang from her contemporary romances like: You Could See the Sun and I Hope this Finds You Well, but this book made me pine for the romance and the characters with a longing unable to be captured in contemporary books.

When it came down to it, the choice was this: a kingdom, or my happiness. And how many people under Heaven were really fortunate enough to know happiness? Happiness was a side dish, like the sweet, sticky rice cakes Mother made during the festivals, or the glutinous balls stuffed with rich sesame paste. But revenge that was the salt of life.
Necessary. Essential.

This book was just beautiful. In writing, content, and delivering gut-wrenching emotions!

Thank you to Tor for providing me an arc in exchange for a review!