After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine Vol. 1 by Liu Gou Hua: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

After the Disabled God of War Became my Concubine vol. 1 by Liu Gou Hua

Continuing with my streak of most recent danmei publications in English. Liu Gou Hua is also a new author to me and they turned out to be a very good writer. The narrative flows without repetition and the plot seems to be actually leading somewhere.

After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine is a transmigration danmei novel with a historical setting. History professor, Jiang Suizhou, has just finished rebuking a thesis by his student that seems to be based on imagination, only to find himself transported to a world that is exactly like the thesis described. He’s Prince of Jing, whom history doesn’t know much about, as he was a frail, chronically ill person who died young. His older brother, Jiang Shunheng, is an emperor in exile, and the last emperor of Jing dynasty. And Prince of Jing is just about to take a captured and tortured enemy general, Huo Wujiu, as his concubine, forced by the emperor to humiliate Prince of Jing and Huo Wujiu both.

Having studied the era for years, Jiang Suizhou is well-versed in who is who and how things work, but now his most important guideline is the thesis, which is based on the marriage that history knows nothing about. And according to it, Prince of Jing will die in three years at the hands of General Huo as a retaliation for the suffering in his household.

Jiang Suizhou’s objective is clear: avoid dying. He needs to treat Huo Wujiu, now Madame Huo, so well the general won’t want to kill him. That’s easier said than done. Prince of Jing has a reputation of a cruel man and compassion is out of character. The emperor is a foolish brute controlled by his uncle and enjoys nothing more than tormenting Prince of Jing and Huo Wujiu both. Jiang Suizhou knows that the empire will fall in three years when Huo Wujiu returns to north, but he can’t just hide and wait it out. But he’s almost powerless in the court and every little thing he tries leads to other people suffering.

On the home front, he needs to help Huo Wujiu heal from the torture without rousing suspicions. Outwardly, Madame Huo doesn’t seem to warm up to the prince, but the reader knows he’s taken an unexpected view of the frail prince and thinks he’s in need of protecting. And that has made him regard the prince’s two male concubines with hostility. He’s jealous even, when the prince spends many nights with them. Little does he know that the concubines are Prince of Jing’s advisors. The volume ends with a tiny cliffhanger of them giving advice that will likely infuriate Huo Wujiu and wipe away the goodwill Jiang Suizhou has managed to build.

This was a very good start for the story. It was a bit slow at first, and the pace didn’t really pick up much, but there was nothing unnecessary, the court intrigue was good, and everything happened in a logical order. Jiang Suizhou was a good character in a tight spot balancing between the emperor’s wrath and Huo Wujiu. The latter didn’t have a large role in the first volume, but he managed to make a difference in Jiang Suizhou’s life already. Despite Huo Wujiu’s budding jealousy, the romance didn’t really go anywhere yet, but it has a good foundation here. Prince of Jing’s head eunuch, Meng Qianshan, was a good comical addition with his constant misunderstandings and good-natured meddling.

I think there might be revelations in the future about a deeper connection between the past and the future. Jiang Suizhou looks exactly like Prince of Jing, he shares family name with the emperor, and Prince of Jing’s real name wasn’t revealed. Jiang Suizhou doesn’t know it, as it’s one of the things archives never mention. I’m looking forward to reading more to see where all this leads to.

The Villain’s White Halo (Novel) Vol. 1 by Hao Da Yi Juan Wei Sheng Zhi: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

The Villain's White Halo by Hao Da Juan Wei Sheng Zhi

This is a new Chinese BL author to me, and there doesn’t seem to be other books by them translated to English yet. The Villain’s White Halo is a transmigration novel and takes place in a historical fantasy cultivation world with its own geography and timelines of hundreds of thousands of years, so not a secondary earth.

The Villain emerges as a soul into a Rebirth Company of the in-between space, a business that caters to the needs of souls that want to transmigrate or reborn. The Villain has been transmigrating for so long that he doesn’t remember his original name or world, but in all of them he’s been a two-bit background henchman of the main villain, dying after a couple of lines, only to transmigrate again. This time, he wants to be the final boss.

The employee at the company is eager to help and sells The Villain an ultimate final boss packet and a fiend halo that activates at certain triggers, like glaring or saying “I was never good to begin with,” and other villainy lines. The Villain gets to choose the world, but then he’s sucked into it so fast that he forgets the halo. The employee throws one after him, only to realise he sent the wrong one. Unfortunately, the world seals before he can correct the mistake.

The Villain emerges as Yin Biyue, a 19-year-old cultivator. Turns out, he’s in a jail for trying to kill Luo Mingchuan, a fellow cultivator a few years older, and the protagonist for whom The Villain chose this world in the first place. Things look bad for Yin Biyue, but the fiend halo, which is in fact the opposite, though still activated by the villainy triggers, comes to a help, and makes Luo Mingchuan take the blame for the incident. Both go free.

The beginning is a bit confusing, and rather slow. The pace doesn’t pick up much from there, but the story becomes more straightforward and fairly interesting. Yin Biyue settles into his new life as a cultivator. Thanks to all his previous lives, he knows what that entails, and he has a soul much stronger than the OG, so cultivation isn’t a problem for him. His sword is. It won’t recognise his qi energy, a huge handicap for a cultivator and a potential for a disaster, because other cultivators might find out he’s not the original Yin Biyue.

The story leads Yin Biyue, a fellow disciple Duan Chongxuan, who has secrets of his own, and Luo Mingchuan to a cultivation tournament. The plot of the first volume is about the journey there and the tournament, which doesn’t end before the first volume does. There are small conflicts every now and then, but nothing that the protagonist couldn’t overcome.

Yin Biyue is a good and interesting character, but he isn’t much of a villain. The OG was filled with hate, which may have led to him trying to kill Luo Mingchuan, but it doesn’t affect Yin Biyue. But because he’s decided to be a villain, that’s what he sees himself as, but the malfunctioning halo complicates things. At first, he decides that the storyline is the villain befriending the hero, only to backstab him, but as the story progresses, he becomes more and more aware that he might not want to be a villain anymore. And on the side, his friendship with Luo Mingchuan starts to turn into something more.

Despite the rather straightforward storyline, it’s not boring. The author has a great way to describe cultivation process from within, and make fight scenes lively and like the reader is part of it. The tone is fairly cozy and the plot low-key, and not very emotional. Scenes at the Rebirth Company make it a little different from other stories, and I kept waiting for them to intervene with the real halo. Maybe that’ll happen later. This wasn’t the most exciting danmei, but I’m interested in reading more.

The White Cat's Divine Scratching Post (Novel) Vol. 1 by Lv Ye Qian He: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

The White Cat's Divine Scratching Post by Lv Ye Qian He

Since I liked The Wife Comes First, I started immediately another book by Lv Ye Qian He that has been recently published too. The White Cat's Divine Scratching Post is very different from the first book. It’s set in an ancient cultivation world instead of a historical setting, and has fantasy elements to it. But it’s equally delightful and a bit better even.

Mo Tianliao is a follower of the unorthodox cultivation path and a renown maker of artifacts, but now he’s made one that can destroy the world. So, the cultivation world has teamed up to kill him before he can complete the artifact. Mo Tianliao has one more ace in his sleeve, however, a trap that destroys everyone hunting him, including him. He only manages to save his spirit beast, Pawpaw, a little white cat who has been his sole companion for centuries.

He doesn’t completely die, however. To his surprise, he finds his spirit protected by a strange force, and so he wanders around the world for centuries in search for a body for himself. He tricks a divine tree into accepting him, and forges himself a body much like his old one of it, only he’s a little younger looking and without his previous cultivation level.

Since he needs to be strong in case his enemies are still around, he joins a remote sect to start training anew. It’s a curious sect though, that only accepts beautiful disciples. And no one is as beautiful as Qingtong, a divine looking master who chooses Mo Tianliao as his personal disciple, much to the other disciples’ dismay. Mo Tianliao is stronger than he looks though, with knowledge of his first life helping him. Which comes in handy, because his shizun’s teaching method is ‘figure it out yourself.’

To his absolute joy, Mo Tianliao finds Pawpaw there too. But he’s smaller than he should be for his age, and he’s always sleeping, which worries Mo Tianliao. The cat isn’t the only one worrying him. His shizun is also in poor health. As Mo Tianliao settles into his new life, he starts noticing curious things about the sect. And he starts noticing that his new shizun and Pawpaw share remarkable similarities.

This was a delightful start to a story. Because of the title, some comparisons has been made with The Husky and His White Cat Shizun by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou, but the similarities end with the title. This one is fairly cozy, the conflicts small and easily dealt with, and fight scenes are short, though there are actual casualties. Mo Tianliao, despite hailing from an unorthodox cultivation path, isn’t evil or in need of reconciling his past, and his love for his cat is absolute. Pawpaw is an actual cat, self-esteemed and with a tendency to scratch Mo Tianlio for slightest things, which the latter suffers calmly, and more easily now that he can turn parts of his body into a tree. Qingtong is exactly like a cat, capricious and a bit selfish, but affectionate in his own way. The main side characters are funny and all with a secret that I won’t reveal here, because it brought me so much joy.

The plot goes on in a steady pace and gives a notion that the original work wasn’t published as a web novel, because there are no side quests or unnecessary scenes, and the narrative doesn’t repeat itself. It’s not a highly emotional plot, although the romance starts budding here, but it has high stakes, because it turns out that the only way to heal Qingtong is by completing the artifact Mo Tianlio died for in the first place. I’m looking forward to reading how that turns out.

The Wife Comes First: Qi Wei Shang (Novel) Vol. 1 by Lv Ye Qian He: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

The Wife Comes First by Lv Ye Qian He

My first review of the year is a Chinese historical danmei by a new author to me, Lv Ye Qian He, who is very popular in China according to the back copy introduction. And her work turned out to be delightful, so hopefully there will be more books by her translated to English. 

Prince Cheng is the third prince, he and the second prince being by the empress, with the first prince being by a maid and the fourth prince by the empress consort. All this leads to a muddy succession and any one of them could become the next emperor. As the empress is dead, the empress consort pulls the strings. And she’s made it so that Prince Cheng has to marry a man to make him ineligible to become the emperor. Having male wives for this reason is very typical in the book’s world.

Prince Cheng rebels violently against this, treating his male wife badly and spending most of his life fighting wars. But the scheming empress consort isn’t satisfied and ten years later, Prince Cheng finds himself facing death, accused of many crimes, some of which are made up. And the only person by his side is his male wife, Mu Hanzhang. Moved by this loyalty by the very person who should hate him, he wishes at his death to make amends to him.

Prince Cheng is granted his wish and he finds himself returned to the morning after his wedding night with Mu Hanzhang. It’s inauspicious, because his anger had made him treat Mu Hanzhang very badly in bed and the wife is now very afraid of him. But he sets out to make things better. Armed with the knowledge of how things turned out, he teams with the second prince, who also had turned out to be more loyal in his first life than he’d realised before death. Together they work to remove the people who schemed against them, and to make sure Mu Hanzhang has a loving and supporting husband by his side.

This was a very well written, mostly plot-driven opening to an interesting story. The tone is fairly light, but not comical, and obstacles are relatively easily dealt with, but not so easily that the reader would lose interest. Both main characters are interesting and easy to root for.

There’s a lot of palace intrigue and scheming, not only against Prince Cheng but Mu Hanzhang too. The latter turns out to be a great asset to the prince, and little by little, Prince Cheng’s need to make amends turns into love. Mu Hanzhang takes more time to warm to him. But a war is inevitable. The volume ends as Prince Cheng prepares to leave, maybe for years. I’ll definitely read more.

My reading year 2025

I had an excellent reading year. I set out an ambitious goal of 250 books on Goodreads Reading Challenge and ended up reading 260 books. Of those, 47 were novels and 209 were manga that I actually finished, on top of which I reviewed four novels that I didn’t completely finish, for whatever reason, which brings the total to 260 for the challenge, 256 for my personal tally.

A little over half of my reading was reviewing copies, 138 titles in total. Manga came mostly from Edelweiss and novels from NetGalley. Much of the rest was manga too, mostly online, and the rest were novels either from a library or purchases. I’ve reviewed the novels on this blog, with monthly recaps of the rest, until September when publishing of Season to Be Witched took my attention and I didn’t pick up the habit later.

Most of my reading for pleasure was Chinese BL romances, which there are finally plenty of on offer, and I’m woefully behind on them. But there were other novels too that made an impact. There were two new additions to Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor world, a surprise novella The Orb of Cairado and The Tomb of Dragons. Both were excellent like always.

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki’s Conjecture by Mikage Sawamura, light novels and manga both, kept delighting me as well. There was a new series starter from Anne Bishop, Turns of Fate, which might be my new favourite from her, and a great historical crime novel with gay romance from KJ Charles, The Copper Script. But the true gems were missing from my reading this year.

From the abundance of manga rises some titles, like Sanctify by Godsstation, which was in three volumes; Otaku Vampire’s Love Bite by Julietta Suzuki, of which I read vols 2-6 this year, the excellent Solo Leveling by Chugong & Dubu, of which I read everything from vol. 4 onwards online, and also binged the anime on Crunchyroll. I binged the entire I Ship My Rival x Me by Pepa online, which is good, because the official publication keeps pushing back. 

There were vols 5-10 of The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity by Saka Mikami, which is always delightful—and now also an anime on Netflix. I also binged Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun by Izumi Tsubaki, 13 vols so far. The whole long series is silly and fun. But my absolute favourite manga this year was The Apothecary Diaries by Nekokurage and Natsu Hyuuga, 15 volumes so far. Also available as an anime on Crunchyroll. On top of these come the numerous review copies and online series I didn’t have energy to review.

I’m trying to read a bit less next year, especially review copies, mostly because the deadlines keep stressing me out, and I’m always behind. But I’ll be definitely reading for pleasure. That’ll never change. And I’ll try to keep you up to date of my reading on this blog.