A fantasy duology filled with excellent nuance, incredible lore and world building, with character who you will become strongly attached to- a must read for fantasy lovers!

A new favourite fantasy duology! I simply adored being thrust into this Chinese mythology inspired fantasy book. I felt that this book gave me everything I loved in fantasy these days- a strong heroine, a solid plot, great world building and the right amount of romance. I enjoyed the accurate portrayal of the fight scenes, moments where the heroine froze due to her fear, things went awry due to her panic but naturally, things did work themselves out. I also enjoyed the reality of the romance throughout, I shall say no more for fear of spoilers! There was a moment during the book where I was completely thrown, so shocked, and I felt the author did a really fantastic job of portraying the emotions of Xingyin following this moment (they were similar to my own). The book felt complete upon reading so I was unsure what to expect from book two- turns out I didn’t need to hold off reading this book because it ended with such finality (or so I thought). I will say at various points of the book the plot felt slightly unrealistic as every man seemed to fall at her feet- but this didn’t bother me too much, I was like 98% here for it.