Overall, I enjoyed the book just fine. I found the politics and scheming interesting and it kept me feeling the tension, not knowing when or if Xishi would get caught. Without spoiling anything, I found the ending unique and surprising (this is coming from someone who has never read the material that inspired this book). However, there were some areas where the book fell flat for me, the main one being in characterization. I never got great feel for who the characters were, except maybe for Fuchai, which is not the best given he’s supposed to be the villain. As an extension of this, the romance between Xishi and Fanli didn’t feel very developed and felt extremely rushed, given it had to happen in the very first section of the book, since they wouldn’t see it each much after she began her spying. While I can appreciate an author not needlessly extending the length of a book or drawing it out into extra sequels in order to make more money, I think this book just needed to have more space to do some deep dives. They only have about a dozen weeks to train Xishi to become a spy, most of which is sped over so we don’t really see what all it entails. Xishi’s heart condition gets left behind as an afterthought. Speaking of, her friends who accompany her to Wu are never really developed, nor their relationships with Xishi. The climax and denouement were sped through so fast and it felt like a missed opportunity to explore a bit more of Fuchai’s character. And then, because of the way things ended, the major theme of the book never got fully fleshed out or resolved. Again, usually I find that authors could deal with trimming the fat on their books, but this was one that just needed more.