Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - The Emperor and the Endless Palace

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang

45 reviews

just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I got this book early from everywhere (Libro.fm and NetGalley). I was so hype for this book and so appreciative of all the formats I had access to. I used them all while reading and loved every second of the novel and the overall experience.

A reincarnation love story that spans lifetimes, this ambitious tale of connection and destiny and a true feeling follows three iterations of two men who are reborn over and over with a pull between them that cannot be denied. In the year 4 BCE, a young courtier is directed to seduce an emperor, and the two find that, despite the machinations that brought them together, they share something greater. In 1740, an innkeeper in a rural province helps a mysterious visitor, inadvertently releasing a supernatural power. In present day Los Angeles, a college student discovers his identity meets a beautiful stranger that he is inexplicably drawn to. Spanning centuries and settings (palaces, the wilderness, underground raves), these lovers find and refind each other, always looking for a different ending and to finally be fully together.

What a refreshing romantasy! This new subgenre has really been pigeonholed into a certain type of story by the publishing/marketing industry, and I loved this breath of something new/different from that higher industry level. As for me, I just loved it. It totally lived up to the hype I had built for it. The writing was great, in general. More specifically, the three individual stories were interwoven in a way that allowed them to swell and drop in unison, creating a grand scale show of the lasting-ness of this romance, while remaining completely unique and separate in their own character developments and plots. I'm very impressed with the way Huang was able to do both, simultaneously, without sacrificing one aspect in favor of the other.

I have to mention the sex. :-) It's a correctly-marketed romantasy, so...there was, predictably, a lot of it. It was great. Such a variety and jumping right in from the start! It was transactional, with deep emotional connection, casual, under the influence (a variety of them, across the stories), with a goal/aim, brash, manipulated, shy/hesitant, transcendent, and the kind that is deeply satisfying because it comes after longing for it through almost the whole book. Oh, and lest I forget, there was some terrifying sex - I have read a lot, but I have never before read a razor blade blow job! Eeek! Anyhoo, hats off to Huang for this piece as well.

And finally, I *must* highlight the overall vibes. This is like, take angst and bittersweet torment and make it romantic and iterary with a splash of the divine. The anguish was just....so good. And ever present in the best way. And the ending!! I don't know what I was anticipating, necessarily, but this was not it...it was so much more! It subverted *all* tropes and exceeded my expectations; drawing out that sweet agony (for eternity, maybe?!), but still somehow so satisfying! Perfect for the vibes of this story (these stories).

This was just such a mystical reading experience. The reincarnations were so different from each other, which made for a compelling and fast set of narratives. And they were all otherworldly and sublime in their own ways. I kinda loved them all and was left both fulfilled and yearning for more. So, basically, I can't speak enough about how much I loved Huang's debut and I recommend it so hard!

"As my mother once told me, there are few knots that strategic wine cannot unravel."

"Memories are already so immaterial that it only takes a nudge for them to dissipate away, like waking dreams."

"What if I told you, he begins, that the feeling we call love...is actually the feeling of metaphysical recognition, when your soul remembers someone from a previous life?"

"I had fallen asleep upon his prized heritage robe. And so he could leave without stirring me awake, the Emperor had cut off his sleeve." (Idk what it is about this line, but it gave me *feelings.* I cannot get over it. This is *romance.*)

"To Remember is a dubious gift, and a staggering burden."

"An ambitious courtier in an ancient palace. A humble innkeeper in the woods. An artist obsessed with a singular muse. A beautiful mystery to the very end."

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yuelianglong's review

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I think the question that sums up this book for me is, “what’s the point?, which is supremely disappointing. I was expecting an epic tale of love across lifetimes full of hope and heartache, but I just feel empty. This isn’t a tale of love but of lust and obsession, but not the interesting kind of lust and obsession where people do crazy, self-destructive things. I don’t want the main couple to be together because I don’t really have a reason to, but I also don’t care if they don’t end up together because they aren’t toxic. The narrative structure doesn’t help this problem because of the choice to to have a story in three parallel narratives with each cut up and then spliced together. In none of the three lifetimes do I feel a reason to root for the main couple because of

the betrayal in the first that started the supposed curse, infidelity, which felt unmotivated and dumb

, and the other two lifetimes only have the characters motivated by lust and obsession. It’s all so empty and boring by the end. If I feel anything it’s disappointment at that. I feel an interesting story could’ve been told, but it wasn’t. It’s wild to me that the story involving actual historical court intrigue and a time of instability in the Han dynasty was reduced to something so boring and fizzled out into nothing, as did the other two lifetimes. I just don’t care about anything, and I hate that because I wanted to like it. I can’t even despise the other guy in the love triangle (except in the middle lifetime where he truly is awful, but he gets brutally killed because of it yay!). One star given for some pretty imagery and language. I’m glad some people like this book, but I did not.

Content Warnings

happyeverabigail's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I went into this thinking it would be fantasy but it actually feels more historical fiction and fairytale with a caveat that one POV is in modern times which was such a fun voice to break things up. If you are unfamiliar with Chinese dynasties this never gets in the weeds with presumed background knowledge of details, I felt like everything was described well and the pace moved at a steady clip.

There is an overarching air of mystery. One of the POVs is more fairytale than the others so switching back and forth I could tell there was going to be some kind of connection but I really just had to sit back and let this book happen to me.

Some things that may be helpful to know going in: this is on page intimacy but this is not a romance, and there is consensual intimacy but several SAs or implied SA. I never felt that they were gratuitously written and most fade to black but it can be hard to read when you really care for these characters and feel that continued tension throughout this story. I understand their purpose just wanted to share the CW.

I felt like the author had such a control over their writing. I’m looking forward to future works by them! I looked forward to what was going to happen next on this journey and felt truly immersed every time I picked this book up.

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kay_rose's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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linnaboobooks's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

This can be considered one of my anticipated releases of the year. After putting it on hold months before it was released, this was a book I found myself so hopeful to enjoy but it fell flat. Flatter than a crepe.

The execution and development of the story was lacking still by the end - where it could very well have been a novella with amount of information it contained if you took out roughly half of the sexual content and drug usage.

And because of how much of the mentioned above existed, there was very little relationship explored outside of the sexual nature. Perhaps in the "first" lifetime and a little bit of the "second", yet nothing to grasp onto to feel any particular way about the couple when tragedy strikes. Rape was used to show us the readers that certain characters were the villains in that (first and second) timeline, when there were plenty of other ways to do that - such as their other actions. One of the times was extremely unexpectedly dropped into the second timeline that I was ready to throw the book if it weren't a library copy.

I love reincarnation / 'find you in another lifetime' kind of plots, they're usually intriguing with their mix of history between characters and the setting, emotions flooding through the characters when the past comes to meet the present. Tugging at readers' heartstrings. Sadly that didn't happen here for me.

The entirety of this book feels like a concept, a good one, but when put to execution, the author struggled or outright chose to keep it lacking in substance on purpose. For a debut author, I think he did alright with what he put out but I can't praise it the way I've seen other readers do.

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sayhar13's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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irisandfoxglove's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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parchmentandflour's review against another edition

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fast-paced

3.0

I really enjoyed the 3 intertwined timelines element of this novel. I think the first half of the book is the strongest and I read 150 pages in basically one sitting last night. Another good aspect of the book is that most of the twists and turns were fun too.

However, the ending felt incomplete and fell really flat for me, especially with all the build-up to it. I was really hoping for an ending I could bite my teeth into and instead I felt like I got a bag of chips that was just filled with air.

I never got to a point in their relationships to ever get the feeling of "ok yes, they're in love and all of this makes sense" for a never-ending love that lasts through lifetimes. There aren't any real explanations/tied loose ends, the love felt very surface level at best, and the "villains" never villained?

In my opinion, we needed the first two timelines to have been the main focus with more detail and story dedicated to it so that we could see this epic love story. The modern era was fun but it did not give what it needed to to further the thriller/intrigue of the story. It was just drugs, parties, and a bowl of nothing.

There's also heavy drug use in the book, which is not a problem for me - however our MC had smoked something that makes him very randy and then he gets basically SA'd by someone, only for later on them to say he was actually in love with that guy all along. HUH? Did my copy miss some pages? Any time he pops up he is a bad guy and the MC does not have real feelings for them but then suddenly, lol jk you loved him too in all of our timelines. Made no sense but it did make me mad :)

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jesshammons's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I was so entertained, turned on (it was barely 4% in and the horniness was going off the charts 🥵) and invested with this story! To me, this is a fantastic debut although some things could've been tweaked here and there like a bit further work on character development in a few characters to make pop even more, but overall there's mastery in Justinian Huang's writing and storytelling which made it such a worthwhile read to me regardless. There were some things I personally didn't vibe with the book re: the way hard drugs use is depicted, but it's totally a me thing, no judgement whatsoever to the author. But I really enjoyed this tale of lust, betrayals, revenge, unfinished love stories which turn into obsessions, past lives, and how being a greedy, opportunistic mf steals actual precious things from you.

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