This is a fantasy that sweeps you into another world so effortlessly that you feel as though you knew the world all along. This book is LUSH - Tan gives us every sensory detail without it ever feeling heavy-handed. The world-building is detailed, the plot paced well with action throughout and our heroine is 👏👏👏. Xingyin is determined and willful and bold and I LOVE it. She knows what she wants and what she deserves, she fights for her family and for herself. When the general expects her to accept a prestigious assignment with unquestioning gratitude, Xingyin tells us simply - "I would not." When Liwei tries to blur the lines between them and take more than he's willing to give, she holds fast, when she is pressured, repeatedly, to sacrifice herself for those who claim to love her, she refuses.

And SHE GETS IT FROM HER MOTHER. We all know that American stories often kill off mothers at the outset so that our orphan can "pull himself up by the bootstraps" (looking at you, Disney). Having grown up on those stories, I so admire a story foundation and mythology where the mother says NOT ME. Each time Xingyin's mother tells the story of drinking the immortal elixir to save herself in childbirth, she repeats that SHE wanted to live, that she wanted to save her own life in addition to her daughter's life. The entire story is then built from this foundation. And this, to me, felt significant - that Tan insists from the outset that a mother can save herself, too.

If you love fantasy, if you love romance, if you would love to be transported to a land of jade palaces where immortals travel on clouds and dragons swim in the sea, this is it.