The Scarlet Alchemist is a YA fantasy story inspired by the Tang dynasty and creates a world where alchemy is real and immortality has been found. 

Fan Zilan is the daughter of a foreigner, with her Chinese mother dying early in her life. She lives in Southern China in a very impoverished town with her aunt and uncle, and her cousins. Zilan has been able to learn alchemy on her own, using the very illegal alchemy of raising the dead in order to make ends meet. She dreams of becoming a royal alchemist which she has to pass trials, while her cousins Wenfu and Yufei are studying to pass the scholars exams. Zilan gets wrapped up in the political machinations of the imperial court and starts to get close to the Crown Prince, Li Hong.

I found the first 50-100 pages to actually be very intriguing, we learn about alchemy and the magic system as well as understand the family dynamics. I find the magic system to be very unique and very well explained. The world-building was good, and the author did a good job of showing and not telling. I  enjoyed learning about the cousins (who are more like siblings to her) and Zilan's struggle with her identity and belonging with true family. In fact, I think I liked Yufei and Wenfu more throughout the story.

The pacing was very fast, which I enjoyed for the most part. Towards the 60% mark, it felt like everything was going so fast and seemed a bit repetitive. There were a couple characters we spent so little time with and their deaths weren't impactful for that reason. From what I understand, this is pitched as a darker fantasy, I almost wish this book was more adult and they leaned into the goriness and gruesome aspect of the alchemy and creatures. 

I think the romance also suffered from the fast-paced nature. There was a lot of banter, but I felt there was a lack of the tension and yearning that would have made the romance believable, especially since most of the time Zilan seemed annoyed with Li Hong and the romance developed rather quickly despite that.

The ending was a huge twist that I thought was done well, and it sets it up for an interesting sequel I am likely to pick it. I think this book had a lot of potential with its premise that it could have expanded on, but I did enjoy it overall. Unfortunately, it just didn't stick out to me, but I feel this is still a good choice to pick up if you like historical fantasy, trials, and political intrigue.

Thank you to Inkyard Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!