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A review by looseleafellie
Song of the Crimson Flower by Julie C. Dao
5.0
Song of the Crimson Flower is a companion novel to Julie C. Dao’s Rise of the Empress duology — which I haven’t read, so I was concerned I wouldn’t understand a lot of stuff. Luckily, it turns out the main characters are completely new, and any relevant backstory is clearly explained. Lan is such an interesting protagonist for me — she sees herself as a good person, but she sometimes does mean things because she’s kind of an inexperienced and sheltered rich kid. It was so great to see her character develop over the story. And I totally adored Bao, who is the sweetest cinnamon roll ever and is basically just a good boy trying his best. Their romance is super cute, and I got so many warm fuzzy feelings from it!
The lush setting totally captivated my attention, and I loved the moral dilemmas in the plot. The main one is that there’s this drug called black spice that’s highly addictive, but may have medicinal properties, and it was really interesting to see the characters’ different perspectives on how to deal with the problem. I found the villain to be a great, complex character who truly believes she’s doing the right thing, which I’m a total sucker for.
In the end, I loved the world of Feng Lu so much that I’ll be diving into my copy of Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (Julie C. Dao’s debut novel) at the first opportunity!
The lush setting totally captivated my attention, and I loved the moral dilemmas in the plot. The main one is that there’s this drug called black spice that’s highly addictive, but may have medicinal properties, and it was really interesting to see the characters’ different perspectives on how to deal with the problem. I found the villain to be a great, complex character who truly believes she’s doing the right thing, which I’m a total sucker for.
In the end, I loved the world of Feng Lu so much that I’ll be diving into my copy of Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (Julie C. Dao’s debut novel) at the first opportunity!