Week 40 Review: A Song to Drown Rivers

From Goodreads:

Inspired by the legend of Xishi, one of the famous Four Beauties of Ancient China, A Song to Drown Rivers is an epic historical fantasy about womanhood, war, sacrifice, and love against all odds.

Her beauty hides a deadly purpose.

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.

My Review:
Oh, this was such a lovely read! I've really enjoyed her YA book, and this one sounded really engaging, and it was such a captivating story, I was rooting for Xishi, using her beauty as a weapon, infiltrating this court, to try and take it down from the inside!

Characters really came to life in this book, Xishi and Fanli were such incredible leads. They both had their reasons for doing this, and caring about them made it harder when they were in such an impossible situation. I adored them, and their story, and I'm glad that they did find a bit of happiness in the midst of such turmoil. 

The intricacies of the plot, both of the story itself, and what the characters were dealing with, was so thrilling to read! The tension of infiltrating this court, kept up along as her position kept rising. I was rooting for her to succeed, and I was on the edge of my seat, hoping that she wouldn't fail.

That ending though? That was more on the bitter side of bittersweet. Once past a certain point, it was inevitable, but that was still hard to read. Though there was that last little bit that added a bit of joy, but still, not quite enough after all that they went through. 

This was a spectacular read, and I can't wait to read more by Ann Liang!  

Author: Ann Liang

Read: September 30th, 2024
Source: NetGalley 
Reason Why: Love her writing and it sounded really great, and it's a 2024 Retelling Reading Challenge Book, Historical Fiction 2024 Book, SAC 2024 Book and a WoW Book! 
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Expected Publication: October 8th 2024

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars