Reviews

The Concubine by Jade Lee

heidenkind's review

4.0

Yay! This book was delightful.
Read the review on Truth Beauty Freedom and Books>>>

rachelnevada's review

 A historical romance between a young woman competing to become a concubine for the Emperor and the Emperor's best friend, who has been placed in charge of the ceremony.

This was fine, a quick read that satisfied my craving for a historical romance. It would have been better without a few problematic aspects. Namely, a decision to villainize eunuchs and older women (something something non-normative gender presentation something something), somewhat iffy consent

(mitigated somewhat by the genius use of a plate)

, the implied legitimacy of virginity examinations, and a few too many comparisons between the hero and the heroine's father. The ending also was very much a deus ex machina

(the bratty emperor decides to oh so generously cede his claim over the heroine)

, but as long as it's a HEA I'm not too picky. 

caligirlrae's review

3.0

I'm always jazzed to see Harlequin feature different cultures especially in their historicals (which isn't very many times, sadly). Although this was a short book, the story was interesting and I loved the tension between the hero and heroine. There were some genuine suspenseful scenes in the book and I found myself pretty shocked towards the end at how far some would go to test the potential brides of the Emperor. I wish there were more descriptions of the customs and scenery so I can fully immerse myself in the world of imperial China but perhaps if it was not a category romance, more time and pages would allow for deeper exploration. Overall, I'd like to see more offerings in this vein from Harlequin and I hope they stretch their historicals to include other time periods and cultures.

I'll have to check out some single titles of this author's work and I hope to find more like this one.