Release Date: April 28th, 2009
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Pages: 338
Rating:
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Series: Kingdom of Xia #1
Summary:

No one wanted Ai Ling. And deep down she is relieved—despite the dishonor she has brought upon her family—to be unbetrothed and free, not some stranger's subservient bride banished to the inner quarters.

But now, something is after her. Something terrifying—a force she cannot comprehend. And as pieces of the puzzle start to fit together, Ai Ling begins to understand that her journey to the Palace of Fragrant Dreams isn't only a quest to find her beloved father but a venture with stakes larger than she could have imagined.

Bravery, intelligence, the will to fight and fight hard . . . she will need all of these things. Just as she will need the new and mysterious power growing within her. She will also need help.

It is Chen Yong who finds her partly submerged and barely breathing at the edge of a deep lake. There is something of unspeakable evil trying to drag her under. On a quest of his own, Chen Yong offers that help . . . and perhaps more.

Blurb: LOVE! Beautiful setting, beautiful characters, beautiful book.

Review: I LOVED this book! Thanks so much to Megan for being such a big fan and getting me to read it.

First of all, what I ADORED was the setting. I loved how everything in Ai Ling's world balanced on the tip of "normal" and magical. She would only occasionally see creatures that we would think of as "fantastic" and sometimes she reacted calmly, and other times it was clearly a shock. It really made me want to dive into this world and discover its secrets. Is magic common? What kind of creatures roam the land? And a map! I need a map! You know I love a setting if I need a map. The only things I strugged with were names. They were all like Ai Ling, Li Rong, Wai Pen, etc. I actually can't tell you from memory what the love interest's name was because my brain just couldn't wrap itself around that kind of names. Doesn't mean I didn't like it; it just confused me.

Even though I couldn't grasp their names, the characters in this book were GREAT! I found the romantic and friendship relationships completely authentic. I really was invested in these characters. When bad things happened to them my heart broke. When marvelous things happened, I felt my eyes widen in wonder. I loved them! It was them interacting with that wonderful setting that made this book truly amazing.

My ONLY complaint is that it seemed to go by really fast. Every time we're introduced to something fantastic we only see it for a few pages, then the characters move on! TAKE A MINUTE! Yes, I know that monster is trying to kill you, but can you just hold still a minute so I can examine it? There was one time where these "worm demons" attack and they were only there for like, two pages! The characters were like "oh, run away!" And then when they escaped they simply said "those were worm demons," and moved on. I WANT TO KNOW MORE! Seriously. If I could have had an illustrated encyclopedia of all things Xia I would be happy.

As a note: there is A LOT of sexual content in this book. At least, a lot for me. None of it is very graphic, but it is all VERY plainly stated.

Other Reviews:

• Candace's Book Blog (Loved it!)
• Chachic's Book Nook (It was okay)
• One Librarian's Book Reviews (Didn't like it)

*I am an amazon affiliate. If you purchase this book using my link, I will get a tiny fraction of the purchase, which goes toward contests.