A review by beulah_devaney
My Beautiful Enemy by Sherry Thomas

adventurous emotional medium-paced

4.25

Such a bizarre cover for such an action-packed book. 

Ying-ying is a Chinese-English woman, born and raised in 19th century China and now coming to England for the first time. Within the first chapter she battles an intruder on a boat, in a lightning storm, and defeats him through a combination of magical martial arts prowess and throwing a door at him. It's a great start to the book and the pace keeps up as Ying-ying is stalked through London by a mysterious man known as The Centipede. Oh, and she also runs into the love of her life, the man she thought was dead but who is very much alive and very much still in love with her.

The romance between Ying-ying and Leighton began 8 years prior in China and it's beautifully built in a series of flashbacks that add even more angst and yearning to the present day. While their relationship is fully front-and-centre, it never interrupts the action and the whole book had a kind of Mulanesq vibe that I didn't know I was craving.