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3.5 stars! This review will be spoiler free!
Synopsis:
Each year 8 girls are chosen to serve the king, specifically serve in his bed. This year however, there’s a ninth girl, Lei-zhi. She’s from the outskirts of the kingdom, from the lowest cast of humans, but she’s stolen to serve the king because of her golden eyes, an unusual trait for humans. She was placed in the palace to be trained as the king’s concubine, but the ties she makes among the other girls and the things she realizes about herself completely change the path she thought she was destined for.
Thoughts:
I enjoyed this book! I’m pretty sure this is a first in a series and so I think it’s a really good foundational book. Foundational books for me tend to be rated lower than the rest of the series because it’s only laying down the ground work and there’s so much more world and history and characters and even romance to explore. I can’t wait for that, I think this author really has the potential to create an even more rich and gripping story.
The world building was great. You can absolutely see how Ngan’s experience growing up in Malaysia contributed to the creation of this world. This world is rather vast and we don’t get to see all of it quite yet because a majority of the time is spent in the palace, but we do get to learn history and even a bit of culture/religion throughout. I never thought that the author was info dumpy in doing this which is a huge pet peeve of mine, so that I appreciate! Of course, I just wish we could have seen..
On the subject of writing, I think Ngan’s writing is B E A U T I F U L. There is something about her writing that flows so well and even though there are distinct chapters, I never felt that I wanted to pause my reading because there’s NO stopping point. You’re constantly learning about the characters, something is always happening, and especially during the suspenseful moments I was on the edge of my seat.
This plot, due to the uniqueness of the story (the main character is one of the king’s concubines), explores some interesting but dark avenues. I was very interested to see how the author would handle Lei’s interactions with the king and she did not disappoint on those accounts. Though this author did not take the most graphic route, she still got her points across in an elegant, but serious way.
Onto the characters, I like Lei a lot. She’s a great protagonist in that she grows into a stronger more complex person by the end of the book, but she did have her moments where I couldn’t help but say to myself, “what are you thinking girl…?” She just had these weird swings in her thoughts that made me cringe. I really like Aoki and Wren. Aoki because her character was genuine and adorable and a bit naïve, perfect for the role she had to play in the story. Wren because she’s a badass. Blue I HATED. I know we were meant to hate her, but GOSH. She was horrible. I’m not a fan of the mean girls trope, and this one was a rather terrible go at it.
The reasons why I didn’t give it a full 5 stars are because I feel like I was just left with too too too many questions at the end. I don’t want to give away anything, but there were certain aspects of the plot that were only hinted at (likely to be further explained later on in the series), but I wanted a little more. Some things were mentioned multiples times throughout the story, and I still don’t know what it is and that bothered me because I wanted more information. Secondly, though the romance had its lovely and its steamy moments, something about the love interest’s personality and secrets during the relationship just bothered me. Like I couldn’t fully believe in her love of Lei.
Neither of those things, however, detracted from my experience reading this book. It was exciting, and suspenseful, and unique. I can’t wait to see what else is to come.
Overall:
Again, THIS WAS A GREAT FOUNDATIONAL START TO A SERIES. So I am expecting much greater things from this author and will definitely pick up her next book. If you like Asian inspired fantasy stories with female/female romance, a hint of magic and great character growth, this would be a good one for you.