If this wasn't for a book club, I would have DNF'd. It was so self-insert, so predictable, so one note. The individual characters did not have distinct voices, and that really let this down. If you are going to write a retelling of a cultural folktale, respect the culture; that doesn't mean just throwing in some words in Mandarin and a name here and there. 

I don't know, dude. Something about this didn't sit right with me. It all felt white as hell. Everyone here is not diverse within the book's universe, so it really isn't a diverse book- especially since the focus is on rich people and their control issues. There is a queer subplot between two maids that is forced at best, flippant at worst, so it isn't even worth counting.

Let there be an editor strong enough to cut down a YA romantasy to about 300 pages, and maybe this genre will stop feeling like the checkout aisle straight-to-home-video bargain bin that it's turning in to. Start with this book! Because the bones here and the flow of the writing are excellent. But I can't see them for all the faffing about with "the chosen one" narrative yet again.