“Xishi’s beauty is seen as a blessing to the villagers of Yue—convinced that the best fate for a girl is to marry well and support her family. When Xishi draws the attention of the famous young military advisor, Fanli, he presents her with a rare opportunity: to use her beauty as a weapon. One that could topple the rival neighboring kingdom of Wu, improve the lives of her people, and avenge her sister’s murder. All she has to do is infiltrate the enemy palace as a spy, seduce their immoral king, and weaken them from within.

Trained by Fanli in everything from classical instruments to concealing emotion, Xishi hones her beauty into the perfect blade. But she knows Fanli can see through every deception she masters, the attraction between them burning away any falsehoods.

Once inside the enemy palace, Xishi finds herself under the hungry gaze of the king’s advisors while the king himself shows her great affection. Despite his gentleness, a brutality lurks and Xishi knows she can never let her guard down. But the higher Xishi climbs in the Wu court, the farther she and Fanli have to fall—and if she is unmasked as a traitor, she will bring both kingdoms down.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on ebook through Kindle Unlimited

Thoughts: This was beautifully written, engaging, and easy to read. I enjoyed the historical fantasy aspects of the story and some of the discussion about how no one wins in war. I did feel like the characters were a bit undeveloped and that the romance was odd. The ending is a bit strange as well.

Xishi is a renowned beauty in the small village of Yue. She draws the attention of the Yue military advisor, Fanli. Fanli wants her to seduce the king, infiltrate the Wu court and help the Yue king overthrow the Wu king. Xishi agrees if her parents are kept safe.

This is beautifully written, easy to read, and engaging. I read this very quickly and struggled to put it down. Xishi goes from naive farm girl to seductress spy, and along with her best friend, has to navigate the Wu court and win the trust of the king. It is a classic type of story that kept you guessing and pulled you in.

There were some things I found very odd about this book that kept me from giving it 5 stars. First and foremost, Xishi is one of the Wu king’s concubines. He comes and sleeps next to her. Never is there any mention of the king having sex with his concubines or of the children that would be produced. It seemed a bizarre omission to me. I assume maybe the author was trying to keep this very young adult? However, the Wu king is known for his debauchery, and yet he never actually has sex with his concubines. The whole thing felt peculiar and contrived to me. I mean the children of these unions were a big part of history and of a king’s power. I am not asking for explicit sex scenes but some mention of what concubines do and their roll in court seems merited.

The romance going on here was odd too. It felt like the two characters were very drawn to each other over a very short amount of time, and the lengths they went to for each other felt odd because they really never got to spend time together or know each other that well.

I actually thought the story of Xishi’s best friend was the more compelling story. I found it strange that Xishi’s best friend was removed from the story so abruptly and quickly. The ending here was just downright weird. I am not sure why the author chose to end it that way. I would have preferred a happier ending, or even a less weird ending in general. Oddly though I should have found the ending really poignant and sad, but I just kind of rolled my eyes and was like of course we had to have a weird, melancholy ending…god forbid we let some happiness come out of this story.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I liked this book. It was engaging, beautifully written, and easy to read. I struggled to put it down and was quickly pulled into Xishi’s life and her spying at court. I was confused by some things in the story, like having concubines around but no sex and no children. I was confused by the odd ending. I also wished that the story had focused a bit more on Xishi’s friend, who was way more intriguing than Xishi. While I found this engaging and easy to read, I also found it a bit weird. I liked the historical fiction aspect of it and liked the revelations around how useless war is. Will I be running out to read more books by Liang? Probably not. However, I am not sad I read this.

Review – A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang (4/5 stars)

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