camomila_ 's review for:

Qiang Jin Jiu: Ballad of Sword and Wine [将进酒] by Tang Jiu Qing

4.5

emotional funny tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Rating this novel was a challenge for me. While I loved many aspects of it, there were also a couple of chapters I  disliked. I laughed, I cried and I got tired of it too. However, I had a great time reading it and it's one of the best novels I've ever read.

what I liked: 

• I really, really, really liked the MC and ML, Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye. They have my heart. Not only are they great separately, but they are also great together. I loved their personalities, their stories, and how they were both important to the story all the time. 
• I loved the romance. It was my favorite aspect of this novel. Cezhou became my favorite couple among all the other danmei couples of novels I’ve read before. A heavy continuous applause for the author for writing them. The enemies-to-lovers was delicious, the sexual and romantic tension, the love that was built, the trust, need, and partnership that they found within each other were so good, cute, and lovable. And I have to say, I don’t know if it was the translation or if the author actually has the ability to write smut scenes, but I didn’t feel any cringiness or awkwardness in those moments, so I salute you. 
• The F/F couple, Hua Xiangyi and Qi Zhuyin, I really wanted to see more of them. Such a beautiful couple. I just craved for it.
• The female characters are so good and so strong. One of the things that I dislike the most in danmei novels is the way women are usually represented: either as jealous or in love with either the ML or MC. So seeing strong women, who are actually powerful and cunning, that are independent and are not in the story to have servitude towards men, was really good. 
• The side couples!! Honestly, this novel had much more romance than what I was expecting, and they were cute. I actually have some that I wish were canon, but well.
• The characters in general were so interesting. The main characters and their side characters were captivating, and I liked their interactions. If I had to list all of them this review would be too long. 
• Lastly, I really liked the way that the motives of the characters were shown, and you don’t necessarily have the good or the bad. Most of them were people who were doing what was necessary to survive or their actions were just the results of what life made to them. To show a story in which you can empathize with the “bad guys” is refreshing. 

what I disliked: 

• The politics. I do think that the author made a plot so complex that they lost themselves in it. There were too many characters, plots, subplots, and twists and turns. It got tiring a lot of times to read all of that, not because of the complexity, but because the story kept going around and around, with bits that weren’t even important in the end. It took such a long time to arrive at the climax that the story lost its heat, and the end was a bit underwhelming. Because the politics were vital for the story, it made me slow to finish the novel, and for that, I can’t give it 5 stars.