This is the prequel to Thomas's historical romance, My Beautiful Enemy, and functions as a coming-of-age story for our eventual main characters, Ying Ying and Leighton. This was published prior to My Beautiful Enemy, but can be read either before or after, as I do feel like they each stand alone. I loved spending more time with these characters after falling in love with them in MBE, and appreciated how well-built this story was (with a tight page count and a story spanning multiple continents, no less). This has fascinating wuxia elements that build out our lightly fantastical world, and is high stakes, tense and action packed from start to finish. I highly recommend for those who enjoy historical fiction - we don't have a primary romance in this installment, but it delivers in MBE!