lizm98 's review for:

A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang

3.75

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I don’t know how to feel about this book. On one hand I listened to the audiobook is one sitting and was engrossed. On the other hand I also think the plot was a bit generic. 

I haven’t read that many fantasy books so maybe this is just the normal set up. Girl must help kingdom and become spy. She is so clever she is able to deceive the enemy. At the same time she has a flirtation with someone powerful. She defeats evil kingdom. It felt like we were just hitting certain generic beats. I also had to suspend my belief a lot. Was Xishi the only concubine that ever tried to play hard to get for her own gain? I get he was young but he couldn’t pick up on that? None of the other concubines suspect her? At the end Xishi can’t figure out what Fanli is warning her about when she hears how the new king just killed a spy… she literally a spy! The note says meet me by the river but be careful of blank and when she goes down to the river she doesn’t stop at any of the red flags. This was the mastermind that took down an empire? Also the new king killing her doesn’t make much sense didn’t he just hail her as a hero to everyone? Like yes she is a spy but what does that say about him that he’s killing his allies? There are too many of these moments for me to bump this to a 4 so I’m sticking with a 3.75 rating /