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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
This was a great read. I have liked everything I have read by Sue Lynn Tan. Liyen was a character you can really get behind and root for. I love the world Sue Lynn took us to. She creates such beautiful places for us. This keeps you guessing through so much of it, I never did figure any of it out until it was revealed to us. I would love to be in Zhangwei's head. I'm hoping we get a novella or full book from his perspective. He was such an enigma throughout so much of this book. I loved his and Liyen's banter. I highly recommend this book.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
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:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
3.5 ⭐️’s, while this wasn’t one of my favorite reads, I still thought that this book was well written and a beautiful story. It gets bonus points because I totally thought I had predicted the whole plot, was annoyed at how easy it was to predict, then completely thrown through a loop with one of the major plot twists!
I just... I could see the whole plot laid out in front of me, as if I'd read this book a hundred times before with just different character names and attributes and I just couldn't do it again. Maybe it would have surprised me if I'd kept going but I couldn't bear to.
The actual story itself was interesting!
It definitely took me a while to get into it and at first, I wasn't sure if it was for me - that is nothing against the book or the writing- just sometimes don't vibe. However, the more I got into it, the pace picked up a tad and I was turning every page, wondering what was going to happen next!
And... The absolute plot twist 2/3 of the way through. Definitely was not something I expected!
The development between Liyen and Zhangwei was definitely a slowwwww burn but worth it ❤️
I'd give this a 3.75 ⭐
I'm looking forward to reading more from Sue Lynn Tan!
It definitely took me a while to get into it and at first, I wasn't sure if it was for me - that is nothing against the book or the writing- just sometimes don't vibe. However, the more I got into it, the pace picked up a tad and I was turning every page, wondering what was going to happen next!
And... The absolute plot twist 2/3 of the way through. Definitely was not something I expected!
The development between Liyen and Zhangwei was definitely a slowwwww burn but worth it ❤️
I'd give this a 3.75 ⭐
I'm looking forward to reading more from Sue Lynn Tan!
and well to the surprise of exactly 0 people this book completely and utterly wrecked me while also making me believe in love. so i think i am going to kill myself. this woman could write her shopping list down and i would still read it with tears in my eyes i can't believe that love is real
fast-paced
DNF at 50%...
Today I'm sad to say I'm bringing you a #dnf #review 🥲
Unfortunately, #immortal by #suelynntan wasn't for me.🫣
Soo..it's likely I'll #unhaul it as soon as possible 🥹. Please feel free to enjoy these photos of the gorgeous #fairyloot #specialedition and despair as I did...
General info: this is a #yafantasy ( or #adultfantasy, depends on who you ask 🤷🏼♀️) with a very strong #romantic subplot ( you can say #romantasy) ; the #highfantasy setting is inspired by #chinesemythology, with a little #historicalfantasy in the way Tianxia is constructed as a country; political intrigue us central to the plot.😅
CW: violence, some light gore, misogyny, classism
#bookthoughts
I must confess, I started this #book with very high expectations. I heard a lot of good things about this #title specifically, and this author in general...and, to my surprise, I was deeply disappointed in what I found here. 🫣🥹
Let me backtrack...we follow Liyen as she's forced to take over her kingdom sooner than she thought. Due to her health, her grandfather decided to cross the powerful Immortal and risk Tianxia to be once again punished and at the Gods mercy. She's saved, but her new situation puts her in a very difficult position...swear allegiance to the Gods and continue Tianxia isolation from the rest of the world, or challenge them and risk retribution.
This is a romantasy, but, in my opinion, not the good kind.🫠
We have some notable issues and very few good things to recommend this #fantasybook.
I don't really know how to separate the good from the bad, so I'll categorize by criteria ...
First, we have the writing...😢
My MAJOR ISSUE with this book is the writing...I'm not sure if this is present in other works by this author, but, in my opinion, the way in which dialog and inner monologues are done is at best jarring to read. You can see this from the first thoughts our MC has, but her conversations with the love interest are the true examples...it's like Liyen is calm, collected, wants to appear even a little bit wise for her age, to suddenly ( and I mean the next answer she gives to Zhangwei / The God of War's question/ statement ) became some banshee that doesn't care about the consequences her words have both on herself and her people. 🫠😅😕
It's like she's bipolar : she's understanding one moment, to transitioning to complete antagonist in the next one.😅
Please tell me I'm not the only one who sees this.🙏
This absolutely affects both pacing and the character's chemistry...and for a romance, we need the chemistry for us to care about our protagonists.😕
Next : the world building is minimal, and not even all that clear for the reader...we have 3 major places : the human kingdom which is a little described and we have a vague idea how things work, the Netherworld - with the bad guys 🤷🏼♀️ ( no actual info on this besides who's there at the 50% mark where I DNF-ed) and the Golden Desert ( where the specific group of immortals we interact with live; we have 3 places described from there)
I'll give credit when credit is due, and say that the author knows how to write a nice static scene with palace grounds and some landscapes, but fails to make them alive. She also has some interesting ideas ( that's why I gave up so late into the book), even though the plotholes were everywhere. 🫠 To give context, for me each new situation presented new info that wasn't possible to predict at all, like some twists we need to keep us interested.😅
The characters:
We have just a handful of those that really matter : Liyen- our bipolar girl; Zhangwei - the God of War and love interest who's the strong, silent type🙄; Queen Caihong - Zhangwei's leader and master of the Golden Deserts, with a terrible disposition;Chengyin - Liyen's cousin and only person she can trust.
We also have the Winged Demons and the bad guys, the Wuxin, but these characters don't really have something of theirs.🥲
As you can see by my brief words, we don't really have complex people we want to root for, just a little more than useful tools to move up the plot/ romance.
Another good thing I just remembered..the atmosphere is well done, the tension is there when it has to be, and the dreamy feel associated with description or the world 's myths.
Plot : I believe one of the best parts of the book, despite relaying on twists and surprises. The story has a simple plot, the humans want to escape the Gods 's influence and live alongside the other kingdoms, and our MC has decided to accomplish that. Obviously, first we must defeat some bad guys,fall in love and then, the happy ending is here.
I don't want to appear jaded, but the reading experience wasn't the best ; I was disappointed in the juvenile writing and characterization, the MC's motivation for the bipolar way of life was also very weak, and to all that, add a simple storyline with lots of gaps in logic. 🥶
I really hope others will enjoy this book, but I don't really see how.🤷🏼♀️
I guess if you just want a romantasy in an Asian inspired world, you can try this.😕 I bet some can describe this as a popcorn read 🤔.
Other than that, I'm sure this book won't be deprived of sales, especially as it got such beautiful editions. I just wished for more...
Today I'm sad to say I'm bringing you a #dnf #review 🥲
Unfortunately, #immortal by #suelynntan wasn't for me.🫣
Soo..it's likely I'll #unhaul it as soon as possible 🥹. Please feel free to enjoy these photos of the gorgeous #fairyloot #specialedition and despair as I did...
General info: this is a #yafantasy ( or #adultfantasy, depends on who you ask 🤷🏼♀️) with a very strong #romantic subplot ( you can say #romantasy) ; the #highfantasy setting is inspired by #chinesemythology, with a little #historicalfantasy in the way Tianxia is constructed as a country; political intrigue us central to the plot.😅
CW: violence, some light gore, misogyny, classism
#bookthoughts
I must confess, I started this #book with very high expectations. I heard a lot of good things about this #title specifically, and this author in general...and, to my surprise, I was deeply disappointed in what I found here. 🫣🥹
Let me backtrack...we follow Liyen as she's forced to take over her kingdom sooner than she thought. Due to her health, her grandfather decided to cross the powerful Immortal and risk Tianxia to be once again punished and at the Gods mercy. She's saved, but her new situation puts her in a very difficult position...swear allegiance to the Gods and continue Tianxia isolation from the rest of the world, or challenge them and risk retribution.
This is a romantasy, but, in my opinion, not the good kind.🫠
We have some notable issues and very few good things to recommend this #fantasybook.
I don't really know how to separate the good from the bad, so I'll categorize by criteria ...
First, we have the writing...😢
My MAJOR ISSUE with this book is the writing...I'm not sure if this is present in other works by this author, but, in my opinion, the way in which dialog and inner monologues are done is at best jarring to read. You can see this from the first thoughts our MC has, but her conversations with the love interest are the true examples...it's like Liyen is calm, collected, wants to appear even a little bit wise for her age, to suddenly ( and I mean the next answer she gives to Zhangwei / The God of War's question/ statement ) became some banshee that doesn't care about the consequences her words have both on herself and her people. 🫠😅😕
It's like she's bipolar : she's understanding one moment, to transitioning to complete antagonist in the next one.😅
Please tell me I'm not the only one who sees this.🙏
This absolutely affects both pacing and the character's chemistry...and for a romance, we need the chemistry for us to care about our protagonists.😕
Next : the world building is minimal, and not even all that clear for the reader...we have 3 major places : the human kingdom which is a little described and we have a vague idea how things work, the Netherworld - with the bad guys 🤷🏼♀️ ( no actual info on this besides who's there at the 50% mark where I DNF-ed) and the Golden Desert ( where the specific group of immortals we interact with live; we have 3 places described from there)
I'll give credit when credit is due, and say that the author knows how to write a nice static scene with palace grounds and some landscapes, but fails to make them alive. She also has some interesting ideas ( that's why I gave up so late into the book), even though the plotholes were everywhere. 🫠 To give context, for me each new situation presented new info that wasn't possible to predict at all, like some twists we need to keep us interested.😅
The characters:
We have just a handful of those that really matter : Liyen- our bipolar girl; Zhangwei - the God of War and love interest who's the strong, silent type🙄; Queen Caihong - Zhangwei's leader and master of the Golden Deserts, with a terrible disposition;Chengyin - Liyen's cousin and only person she can trust.
We also have the Winged Demons and the bad guys, the Wuxin, but these characters don't really have something of theirs.🥲
As you can see by my brief words, we don't really have complex people we want to root for, just a little more than useful tools to move up the plot/ romance.
Another good thing I just remembered..the atmosphere is well done, the tension is there when it has to be, and the dreamy feel associated with description or the world 's myths.
Plot : I believe one of the best parts of the book, despite relaying on twists and surprises. The story has a simple plot, the humans want to escape the Gods 's influence and live alongside the other kingdoms, and our MC has decided to accomplish that. Obviously, first we must defeat some bad guys,fall in love and then, the happy ending is here.
I don't want to appear jaded, but the reading experience wasn't the best ; I was disappointed in the juvenile writing and characterization, the MC's motivation for the bipolar way of life was also very weak, and to all that, add a simple storyline with lots of gaps in logic. 🥶
I really hope others will enjoy this book, but I don't really see how.🤷🏼♀️
I guess if you just want a romantasy in an Asian inspired world, you can try this.😕 I bet some can describe this as a popcorn read 🤔.
Other than that, I'm sure this book won't be deprived of sales, especially as it got such beautiful editions. I just wished for more...
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny, Classism
Minor: Gore, Violence
i've seen a few chinese dramas but never have i READ one... what an experience! i loved the fast-paced nature of this book, and having to read between the lines at what the characters were thinking. the build-up was cinematic. i'm so happy to own a physical copy of the first edition (!!!) of this gorgeous hardcover and can't wait to read it over and over.