These Shattered Spires by Cassidy Ellis Salter: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

These Shattered Spires by Cassidy Ellis Salter

These Shattered Spires is the author’s debut novel and it’s wonderfully well-formed and mature for one. It’s not an easy read and it doesn’t aim to be one. It’s also not YA, despite the publisher advertising it as such. The main characters may be in their late teens, but the themes aren’t YA and the characters don’t behave or think of themselves as people on the cusp of adulthood. They’re survivors who know they’ll die at any moment. The atmosphere reminds me of Gormenghast, and the world that of Gideon the Ninth.

It’s seldom that a book stands so firmly on its unique world, but here it’s almost its own character. Fourspires Castle is the whole world to its residents. It has always existed at the brink of destruction by a daily apocalypse that has to be stopped with spells every morning by the four head arcanists that inhabit its four towers: black, red, green and grey, corresponding with the magic they wield: bone, blood, botany, and stone. Even with this ceaseless spellcasting, the castle slowly sinks and rots, disappearing piece by piece, diminishing the world. The rot and decay of the castle is described vividly, down to smells and tastes.

The fifth castle at the centre is occupied by the Thaumaturge, the most powerful of the arcanists. He’s centuries old, and his position is coveted by all the arcanists. Then the unthinkable happens and he’s assassinated, which triggers a battle for succession among the arcanists, the Slaughter. It’s a race to the top of the fifth tower, and as the name suggests, deadly, especially so for the familiars of the arcanists.

The familiars are humans trained to wrest, to pull arcania to power the arcanists spells. It’s incredibly painful for them and wears them out bodily. They’re treated badly (they’re not allowed to speak, they’re barely fed, and sleep on floors and filth) and used until they die, usually very young.

The main point of view characters are familiars of different disciplines. Tarenteeno (Taro) is the familiar of the bone arcanist; Nixeen (Nixie), the familiar of the botany arcanist; Elliot, the familiar of a lesser blood arcanist, and Alis/Alix, a disgraced stone familiar. Taro and Nixie have been plotting an escape, but the death of the Thaumaturge ruins their plans. The familiars are instantly marked as participants of the Slaughter and to escape is to die. To participate is to die too, because the new Thaumaturge will instantly kill all familiars but their own.

However, Taro and Nixie learn that the permanent apocalypse of their world isn’t the natural state of things and that there might be a way to stop it and flee. They can’t do it alone though, so they talk the other two into taking part. It’s not an easy alliance or an easy task to pull off, but neither is the Slaughter.

The relationships of the four are complicated. They’ve all trained at the same time in the Pit, the academy for familiars. Taro and Nixie used to date, and Taro still thinks they’re romantically involved. Nixie hates her guts for a betrayal, but is using Taro to escape. Alis used to be Nixie’s best friend before Taro showed up, so she hates Taro, but she also hates Nixie for leaving her. But she loves her too. Elliot is the odd man out, but seems to be coveted and hated in equal measures by the others for his looks.

The characters aren’t nice or easy to root for. They’re selfish and brought down by their harsh life. Elliot is suffering from a curse that makes him especially irritable, Alis is having a gender crisis, Nixie is filled with hate, and Taro isn’t entirely sane. They ally and betray each other, sometimes within the same chapter, and none of them is very likeable. But little by little, reader becomes attached to them, which isn’t wise when people casually and constantly die.

This isn’t an easy book to read. There is pain and suffering inflicted on the main characters, blood and gore, broken body parts and death. It’s not a splatter though, the narrative doesn’t dwell on the gory details, or even a grimdark as such. Suffering is a natural part of the characters’ lives and the narrative treats it so naturally that the reader doesn’t even blink an eye when a character cuts into their own flesh to power a spell. Nonetheless, it does make this a heavy read, and I had to pace myself a lot.

But there is also an undercurrent of hope for something better, an escape that is worth all the pain. This current carried the story against all odds and the harsh reality. Sometimes it paid off, sometimes it plunged the characters even deeper.

A countdown to the Slaughter at the beginning of every chapter keeps the tension rising as the four try to break the curse. And then it begins—and turns out to be something completely different from what everyone believed, as is the end of the curse. For a first book in a trilogy, the ending is fairly conclusive. It sets the stage for the next book, but the story can be left here as well. I’d read more though.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Entwined by H.M. Long: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Entwined by H. M. Long

Entwined is set in a secondary world that resembles the early 20th century with its technology, with two kinds of people: humans and Entwined, people genetically capable of magic who aren’t considered human. The Entwined used to rule Harrow where the events take place, but after a revolution of sorts, humans are now in charge and it means trouble for the Entwined that humans hate. Only the Entwined bound to the Guild can operate freely. But the Guild is a gilded cage that’s not for everyone.

Ottilie is an Entwined who has escaped the Guild. The Guild forces marriages between the Entwined in order to produce offspring capable of magic, and she and her pretend fiancé, Lewis, have fled to avoid it. She’s hiding under a false name from both the Guild and humans in Harrow. She works as a secretary to a private investigator, saving money to flee the country to where Lewis is waiting. He’s a goal to work towards, and maybe a crush she doesn’t want to admit.

Ottilie’s boss has unearthed an artefact a client wants, which should bring in so much money that Ottilie can finally leave. But before the transaction is complete, both the artefact and her boss disappear. The client wants the artefact back and since Ottilie is the only one left, she’s forced to find it. She has a good notion who took it: her sister Pretoria, who has also left the Guild, and become a thief.

The artefact isn’t the only thing bringing Ottilie trouble. Humans are turning against the Entwined and it’s getting more difficult to hide what she is. Human zealots and Entwined terrorists are clashing and creating political upheaval, it could be that the artefact she has to find is a key to destroying the Entwined for good, and man she’s interested in might be a terrorist. On top of this, her other sister shows up too, and she wants to take Ottilie back to the Guild. Things soon get out of hands and Ottilie finds herself in the middle of events she has no way out of.

This was an interesting first book in a duology. The magic powered by different lights (sun, moon, twilight etc.) was unique, and the political situation was complex. It was a bit too complex, to be honest, and I found it confusing a lot of time. The narrative was rich and pulled the reader into the world and the magic effortlessly. The story was a bit slow though, and not as engaging as the events would merit.

The narrative is from Ottilie’s POV. She’s a good character with a lot of baggage, but not as compelling as, for example, Hessa with her rage in Long’s Four Pillars series. I couldn’t quite fathom why she’d come to Harrow where she knew she’d be trapped and why she hadn’t left sooner, as she had the money for it. Many of the events just happened to her and she accepted everything. Her waffling between suitors was very characteristic. It wasn’t until the end that she took a stance and even then, others made the decisions. The side characters, especially the sisters, had good backstories too, but the reader didn’t have similar insight into them as Ottilie, though the epilogue gave a good glimpse.

The book ends at a natural turning point, setting the stage for the second book. Good though this was, the storyline I was most interested in concluded here and nothing particularly compels me to read more. I’m not sure I’ll read the conclusion.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

How (Not) to Conjure a Boyfriend by Jordon Greene: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads

How (Not) to Conjure a Boyfriend by Jordon Greene

This is a queer YA retelling of Sandra Bullock-Bill Pullman movie While You Were Sleeping from 1995, which I loved back in the day, but which probably isn’t well known among the YA target (unless they’re middle-aged women like me.) Knowing the plot, I read this mostly to find out how or if the story would differ from the original. There weren’t any surprises, but the story worked well.

Mackenzie is 17, nonbinary semi-orphan with a chronically depressed mother and a one-sided crush on Hayden, 18, a client at the café Kenzie works at. One night, Hayden slips, hits his head, and falls into coma. To get to see him in the hospital, Kenzie lies that they’re his enbyfirend, which the nurse tells to Hayden’s family. To Kenzie’s surprise, everyone is so delighted that Kenzie doesn’t want to reveal the truth. Especially when they’re invited into the kind of loving, warm family they don’t have at home.

The only person who doesn’t believe Kenzie is Zach, 17, Hayden’s equally gorgeous brother. He and Kenzie end up spending time together, and to their horror, Kenzie realises they’re falling for Zach. But instead of coming clean, they double down on the lie. All sorts of misunderstandings and missed opportunities to tell the truth take place, until Hayden wakes up, bringing an end to the lie.

This was a cute, feelgood queer romance, but it never rose to the level of the themes it introduced: gender identity, queerness, or mental health. All characters were understanding and sympathetic, no one was judgemental some misgendering notwithstanding, and no bad things happened. Kenzie’s mother roused from her depression to show some warmth, and even clearing up the lie went without complications. The ending was a bit abrupt, but conclusive and good.

Kenzie was a good character, with a lot going on in their life. I don’t know how well they represented an NB person, and they never reflect on their gender identity. We get more about them being a witch. Mostly they came across as a very typical YA heroine with their inner monologue—all their behaviour or self-expression was fairly feminine—or a Twinkie gay man. The narrative was from Kenzie’s POV, so side characters, Zach included, weren’t terribly well fleshed out. The bestie existed to show sympathy and support. Zach and Hayden’s parents were inspired by Bullock and Pullman. The witchy stuff was also inspired by Bullock’s Practical Magic (1998).

The plot followed the beats of the original. There was no conflict beyond the lie, so the mid-part of the book felt a bit long with filler events where Kenzie and Zach got to know each other. For a YA novel, school didn’t feature except for a couple of mentions, which was both refreshing and odd. All in all, this was an easy read that paid nice homage to the original without rising above it or introducing anything new.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett

I really liked Fawcett’s Emily Wilde series, so I was eager to read Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter. It’s set in 1920s Montreal, a location that isn’t exactly overused in fantasy, in a world where a handful of people have ability for magic. Magicians aren’t outlawed, but they’re not entirely tolerated, because they’re careless with their magic, hurting people for fun. And none are more reviled than Havelock Renard, the Witch King, who has almost ended the world with his spell three years earlier.

Agnes Aubert is in her mid-thirties, a widow and an owner of a cat shelter in a town where people don’t really understand the need to shelter cats. A random magic battle on the street outside her shop has left it inhabitable, and she’s searching for a new place before winter comes. Unfortunately, the potential landlords all balk when they hear about the cats.

Out of options, she rents a shop everyone tells her she should stay away from. Even she knows it, sensing something odd about the place, but she’s been inexplicably drawn to it. Everything goes well at first, even if odd people she knows are magicians show up regularly and disappear into the back room where she’s been instructed not to explore.

But then she’s attacked in her shop by a magician who demands an artefact she has no idea about—and a man emerges to defend her. He turns out to be no other than Havelock Renard himself, who is keeping a secret magic artefact shop in her cellar. The magician attacking them is his sister, Valérie.

Havelock is sure he doesn’t have the artefact, but Agnes has a different notion. She has her cats to protect, so she starts unearthing the item from Havelock’s collections. But Valérie isn’t the only person causing the shop trouble. The police are after Havelock too. And to her surprise, Agnes finds she’s not willing to hand him over.

This was a delightful cozy fantasy. In its centre are two sets of siblings with very different dynamics. Agnes has a loving, supporting sister Élise, who goes to battles with her on all fronts. Havelock has a more complicated relationship with his sister who has turned maniac with power. He knows he needs to defeat her, but all he sees is the person who used to take care of him. Magical system is interesting and I’d love to explore the origin world more. And always, everywhere, there are cats getting into places they shouldn’t be, with proper roles and characters.

There’s also a romance of sorts. Agnes is still healing from losing her husband, though it’s been long enough that’s she’s willing to consider a new love. Havelock isn’t really a people person—or not entirely a person anymore, as magic eats away people—so romance is a mystery to him. In the end, it really doesn’t go anywhere, so I hope there’s a follow-up book. The ending is open enough on that front.

However, the book is a bit small in scope, as befits a cozy fantasy. Montreal barely features except in street names that are in French (though I don’t know if they’re real streets) and the fact that people speak French and occasionally English both. The historical setting doesn’t entirely come alive, as everything basically takes place in one location. Side characters seldom have direct dialogue, so they seem like props. A lot seems to be happening on the background that affects the plot—Élise’s husband is a politician fighting for re-election; mages are causing havoc; the police are hunting magicians—but they solve themselves rather easily. Agnes is more concerned about her cats, which stalls the plot in the middle.

But in the end, it’s human ingenuity that wins the day, the ending is conclusive and good, and though the romance didn’t really happen, it leaves Agnes and Havelock in a good place. All cats found homes. I’d read more.

Jitterbug by Gareth L. Powell: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads

Jitterbug by Gareth L. Powell

Jitterbug is set in near future of our solar system that’s been drastically altered. All the outer planets have vanished one by one by invisible forces, with Mars being currently devoured. It’s only a matter of time before the Earth is gone. In their place has appeared a ring of artificial planetoids shaped like wedges of orange that curve towards the sun with nothing on the backside towards the outer space. The humanity has inhabited the insides of these planetoids.

Criminals, too, like to hide in the vastness of these new habitats, and to capture them, a system of bounty hunters has emerged. Copernicus Brown and his three-person crew (two women and a man) are bounty hunters on Jitterbug, a former freight ship he has inherited from his father. A distress call brings them to a scene of a pirate attack, from which they save a woman, Amber Roth. Things go sideways from there.

Roth is carrying a message that people are willing to kill for. It brings the crew to the attention of a leading politician, and together, they go to the outside of the spheres to find the origin of the message—only to learn that the humanity is about to come under attack by alien forces. Are they the same who created the sphere in the first place or is something else going on? Whatever it is, Jitterbug and her crew has to deal with it and fast.

This was a competent sci-fi adventure, a small-scale space opera. Told by four first-person point of view characters, one of which is Jitterbug herself, it brings the humanity to the brink of extinction and offers an out of space and time solution to it. It wasn’t entirely engaging though. It was mostly narrated to the reader, and apart from the first chapters, the first-person narrators didn’t manage to bring the reader in the story with them. The intimacy of first-person wasn’t there, and the reader didn’t learn anything about the characters except what was necessary for the scene. The inevitable romance especially suffered from this, when neither narrator even hinted at romantic feelings before it was already a reality.

The ending twisted this readers brain, but I’m not going to question the time-bending solution. It brings the story to a full circle, the prologue finally getting an explanation in the epilogue. It’s a satisfying ending for this standalone story. No need for more.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Library of Amorlin by Kalyn Josephson: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads

The Library of Amorlin by Kalyn Josephson

The Library of Amorlin starts The Age of Beasts fantasy, and it was one of my anticipated reads for the start of the year. The beginning was promising, but unfortunately, the book didn’t deliver.

The setting is interesting. A world of several kingdoms around a neutral zone of a magical library that bends time and space within its limits. The library is in charge of protecting magical beasts and mediating between kingdoms. Unfortunately, Kalthos, one of the kingdoms, is ruled by a religion that sees the beasts as embodiments of sins, and systematically destroys them. As beasts die, magic becomes more unpredictable and the natural order of things begin to unravel. So, Kalthos and the library are at direct odds.

The premise is good too. Kasira, in her late twenties, is a con-artist who grew up on the streets of Kalthos until she was captured. She was held imprisoned in inhuman conditions for four years, after which the sentence was commuted to hunting and killing beasts as part of elite killing units, which she’s been doing for the past three years. And then she’s offered a chance for freedom by Vera, the Kalthos ambassador to Amorlin: con her way into the library and bring it under Kalthos’s rule. She has three months. Fail and it’s back to prison.

Kasira sets out to convince the librarian, Allaster, that she’s not a Kalthos spy. He doesn’t believe her. He’s right. She pulls off a couple of cons and manages to change his mind. And then a twist happens, which changes things for Kasira, sort of but not. And then another twist, upping the stakes but not. And then the final con that brings the book to a satisfying conclusion with no cliffhanger ending.

Technically, this all should’ve made for an interesting book. Problem is, there’s no plot. There are events that spring out of nowhere and end as fast, with no aftermath or consequences. The events include cons that Kasira pulls, but how she does them isn’t shown on the page. What readers see is her reading books, tending to beasts, and training with Allaster. The plot that affects them both happens elsewhere. There is a war brewing and a possible coup taking place in Kalthos, on top of the battle for the library, and on the background, Vera is pulling strings.

The final continues the same. The reader is shown one thing, only to learn that Kasira has pulled something on the background. On the surface, it’s interesting, but not as interesting as following her along it would’ve been. The end result is satisfying and clever, but it leaves the reader cold.

From the reader’s point of view, Kasira has no agency in her own story. There are the cons, but the reader isn’t shown them, and the small wins she creates are made void by an outside influence that always trumps her efforts, forcing her to react instead of being in charge. We’re only seemingly following Kasira’s story, but what we get is Vera’s efforts on the background.

When the protagonist is a con-artist, I expect to be shown how they plan the cons, and whether they can pull them off, especially since some here seemed a bit impossible. I don’t want a smug admission after the fact that “I made this happen,” without being shown—or even told—how. The surprise factor isn’t interesting. Kasira comes off as useless, boring and smug on the page. That she makes things work in the end is fine, but doesn’t feel like a win when we’ve not seen her do it.

Allastair, who also has point of view chapters, isn’t any better. He’s grabbling with a magical condition that already killed his predecessor. He’s 130 years old and he still hasn’t found the solution. All we ever see him doing, when he’s not mistrusting Kasira, is reading. He comes off as waffling and useless. The same goes with the few side characters. They all have issues on the background that affect how they act, with some surprises, but again, it’s not shown on the page.

Without a plot, the author is forced to use the out of the blue twists to make the story more interesting. All it would’ve taken is to give the main characters something proactive to do and show it to the reader. Anything that would take the reader along the ride, anticipate and fear with them. The events of the ending especially suffered from this. Kasira is clever, but we get nothing but the aftermath. There wasn’t even a proper romance yet to make things exciting.

All this is to say that this was a boring book. There’s no reason to read it; just skip to the end. It took me ages to finish, and that’s not including the couple of days after the second twist around 60% mark when I stopped reading completely. I almost didn’t pick it up again, but forced myself to finish. The ending was more conclusive than I expected, and it was good enough to leave the story here.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die by Greer Stothers: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die by Greer Stothers

Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die is a cozy fantasy, of sorts. In a world not our own, or maybe it is, mad sorcerer Merulo—not called mad yet—declares in front of the entire court that he’s going to kill the god and put an end to magic. Forty years later, he’s still at it, only now he’s also at war with the church, which obviously doesn’t want their god to be killed.

The war isn’t going well for the church, but the Elder comes up with a prophecy for which she sacrificed the heart of last dragon, a great source of magic in a world where magic isn’t unlimited. Sir Cameron, a knight of church, needs to be killed by a specific method at a specific spot to bring the downfall of Merulo.

Cameron has coasted being a knight by avoiding battles when possible. His greatest fear is dying, which is very probable when fighting the sorcerer. So, when he learns about the prophecy, he doesn’t choose a noble self-sacrifice like the church assumes, but flees. The only place he can flee to is Merulo.

The sorcerer isn’t happy that he’s there, but since Cameron not dying is in his interests, he takes him in. Thing is, the prophecy is very specific and Cameron needs to die as he is, a beautiful blond man. Transforming him into a vulture isn’t a problem, then. Merulo prefers him being a vulture even, because Cameron has a very specific bodily reaction to being threatened and intimidated. Cameron doesn’t mind being a vulture as such, but having a human body would be better, so he sets out to cajole Merulo, until he has his body back, by way of being turned a woman.

At this point, the story had been a fairly amusing romp of Cameron’s attempts to survive by seducing Merulo. The young man is conceited and a bit obtuse, but good-natured and willing to help Merulo, even though he doesn’t understand Merulo’s need to kill the god when he’ll lose not only his magic but probably his life too. However, the joke was growing stale and it wasn’t even mid-point yet. Not even the attempts of Cameron’s former elf squire Glenda to hunt Cameron to kill him personally amused.

I was ready to put the book down, but then a couple of twists in short succession switched the story to a new gear. The tone changed too from a sex comedy to more mellow search for connection and family. Merulo gets help in his endeavour, and after forty years, he’s finally ready to kill the god and change the world forever. Cameron isn’t happy about it, because he’s learned to love the cantankerous old sorcerer and doesn’t want him to die, but since that’s what Merulo wants, he’ll be there to the end.

And then there was another twist, which quite frankly didn’t work very well. There had been many hints, but it completely switched the tone for the rest of the book from a secondary world fantasy to something opposite. The book should’ve ended before that; it would’ve been a good ending. With the twist, the book would’ve needed much more story than we got to make it work. The epilogue is fairly open ended though, so maybe there will be a sequel exploring what comes after. I’d definitely want to know how the world will fare, and have answers to a few questions that were ignored, like Glenda’s lack of emotions, and why Cameron’s father hated him, because it wasn’t solely for being gay. And what happened to the chancellor?

The story had potential, but it was much too long for the plot. The world felt constantly off, but that was deliberate, considering its origins—which also turned out to be a small let-down. Cameron was a fun character and easy to root for despite being conceited—and he had an upsetting awakening regarding that. Merulo stayed true to his character throughout even after learning to love too. Glenda’s POV chapters promised more than they gave and, in the end, she was pushed aside for another character. I’m especially disappointed in the latter, a half-dragon witch. The way she was presented gave to understand she would have a compassionate impact on the characters. 

The story had its fun moments, but never more than a chuckle. Cameron pestering Merulo for sex was constant, but when the other finally gave in, the scenes ended and were never mentioned again. Not even when Cameron was a woman to compare matters. There were hints about Cameron’s preferred gender, but nothing was made of that either, even though he got to experience being woman, only to want to be a man again. The pace was fast and light-hearted almost throughout. Chapter headings were fun and worth reading, but they too often promised insights that were never shown on the page.

All in all, this is a difficult book to rate. I’m dithering between three and four stars, but since it was well-written, the author managed to bring the rather impossible story to a satisfying end, the characters were good, and the twists interesting, I will give it four stars.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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.