A review by dustilane
Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim

adventurous emotional hopeful slow-paced

4.0

Shiori is a princess but she has a secret. She has magic, even though magic is forbidden in her kingdom. But even her magic cannot stop a curse from being placed on her and her brothers, changing their lives forever. A tale based on The Wild Swans and other Asian folklore.

Whew. This book was a rollercoaster ride for me. Like many others have mentioned, I had a hard time getting into it. Also like many others, at about the halfway mark, I really wanted to switch to the audiobook version to give it a better chance. However, I could not get my hands on the audiobook version so I continued to trudge along. At about the 60% mark, it really started to pick up for me and I enjoyed it a lot more. 

I think I really struggled with this one for a few reasons, including the fact I have an obsession with Daughter of the Forest, another book that is based on The Wild Swans. Because of this, I kept comparing them. However, once I got over that, it was much more enjoyable. 

Shiori is such a fun main character. It was interesting to watch her develop over the course of the story. My favorite character has to be Takkan though. He is just everything to me and the kind of male protagonist I am always on the lookout for. There were also plenty of characters I HATED, but this is a compliment to the author as they were so well written, it was hard to not despise them. 

I love how the story ended and I will definitely be reading the sequel... though maybe this time I will try and get the audiobook!