Wow. Wow. Wow.

This is the book I have been waiting to read! This was seriously one of the best books I've ever read about the struggles of the people of China over the years and during war times. The love and endurance and bravery of a mother trying to protect her son was both brave and heart wrenching. I have read many books about the struggles the peoples of different nations went through over time and this was one of the best. I very rarely cry while reading a book, but parts of this one brought me to tears. I usually pass on my books to family and friends, but I am keeping this one to read again.

Thank you to the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

"To know a story is to stroke the silken surfaces of loss, to feel the weight of beauty in his hands. To know a story is to carry it always, etched in his bones, even if dormant for decades."

Peach Blossom Spring was a masterpiece of a multigenerational story of loss, family, and new beginnings. Inspired by her own father and his orchard, Melissa Fu spins a captivating tale about what it takes to survive and begin again. The book follows a family starting during Japan's invasion of China in 1938 and spans to life in America in 2005 as an immigrant. The story follows Meilin, a strong matriarch who is willing to do what it takes to survive alongside her son Renshu through their various moves from the countryside to Shanghai to Taiwan. Eventually, Renshu (now Henry) moves to America, but he finds himself distrustful of the Chinese community there and instead isolates himself until he finds his American wife Rachel. Together, the two have their daughter Lily, a girl who is desperate to find her heritage as she experiences exclusion from both sides of her mixed race.

This book does a great job exploring how trauma can be passed down through the generations and the different ways that can manifest, even in ostensible security. Fu also described the complicated history of China very well. Ultimately, I did find the book a little too slow at parts, but fans of Pachinko would do well to pick up this book.

"To have an orchard is to honor the generations that came before and will come after."

Spanning 70 years, Peach Blossom Spring follows three generations of a Chinese family that show the strength of family bonds as they survive a war, separated by continents, and try to hold parts of their past as they hope for a better future.

What I Loved:
✨Beautifully written - lyrical prose
✨Sweeping display of generational trauma that broke my heart.
✨Character development of Melin and Renshu showcases their resilience.
✨Chinese fables that provide whimsical history but also a more significant theme of what it means to be home.
✨Chinese history, starting in 1938 and spanning several decades.

My advise:
✨The audio was a little confusing initially because of the vast number of characters. I recommend starting with the physical book to get a good grasp of the story. But if you can balance the reading with the audiobook, you’ll thoroughly enjoy Eugenia Low, the narrator, as she pours love into the fable re-tellings.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with an eARC of this novel, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I’ll be honest I almost DNF’d this book in the first 30%. I was pretty bored and not at all invested until after the 40%. I think it is because I lived in China, I was familiar with the places and the history being discussed, and I had read books that did it better. The writing is more tell than show and as a result I was kept at an arms length from the characters and therefore feelings. However, as it progressed, and when the characters moved from China to Taiwan, I was onboard. I really enjoyed the last 60%. I know that puts me in the minority of readers, but I’m pretty used to that by now.

Honestly, what probably made me appreciate the second half more is that it is closer to the author’s actual experience. She says it isn’t memoir or biography, but that a lot of the characters took similar paths to those of her father’s family. She doesn’t go into exact details into the similarities and differences, but for me at least more feelings were generated in the second half.

Generally speaking, this is a compelling debut novel. It’s fairly well written and plotted, the characters are complex and the pacing is good. However, for me, there was too much telling and not enough showing for most of the book. I felt like an observer for the entire book and not a part of it. We are told a lot about what the characters are doing and things that are happening to them, but not in a way that awakens the senses. However, some of the time that is probably a blessing because there are some truly horrible experiences in this book.

Overall, I would recommend this for fans of family sagas like Pachinko or Homegoing. Readers interested in Chinese and Taiwanese history may find some parts of this interesting, also readers looking for some insight into the Chinese immigrant experience, as well as first generation experience. While it may not be my favorite book of all time, I think that certain aspects of it will stay with me for awhile.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is rare that I enjoy historical fiction books, however this one definitely captured my heart. I learned new things, like how WWII and the civil war affected China. Due to not knowing much about what was going on in China during this historical time, I did find this book a tad hard to read at times and struggled in the beginning to get into it. Once I did get into the book however, i couldn't put it down. The characters were very well developed and it wasn't hard to get attached to them. They were real and compelling and you could feel joy for them or cry when something happened to them. This is a book of new beginnings and of healing. I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in historical fiction.

Melissa Fu’s powerful novel, Peach Blossom Spring tells the story of a different war. Like Mila, Meilin has a young son. Meilin and Renshu are on the run in 1938 as Japan begins bombing China. Meilin’s husband is killed in war, and she and Renshu leave their home with her husband’s family to find safety.





They are refugees fleeing war, and the descriptions of people leaving everything behind, walking for days, resonates so deeply with what we see on the news today in Ukraine. Meilin will do anything to save her son and give him as normal a life as she can.



Renshu is an excellent student and receives an opportunity to study in the United States. Here the story of mother and son diverge- we see Renshu’s new life in America and Meilin building a new life for herself in Taiwan.



Fu’s story of the sacrifices a mother makes for her son, and the difficulties Renshu faces as an immigrant who looks very different from others is so beautifully told and creates such empathy in the reader for Meilin and Renshu. Peach Blossom Spring is one of the best books I have read in a long time.

I honestly don’t know how I’m supposed to critique this book.

Peach Blossom Spring is a historical fiction following one family through three generations, from the beginning of World War Two to the 1980s. It was beautifully written, emotional, and so perfectly representative of Chinese culture and Chinese experiences over time.

I feel like I can’t critique the characters or the plot, because it all felt so real. The characters felt like real people - for a second I actually thought this was nonfiction. The storyline, being one of those multi-generational family books, literally could not have a flaw the way a regular YA book could.

My main complaint is that it was slow in the beginning. It took me a hot second to really start reading the book and paying attention to what happened, and getting through the first half felt like a lot.

However, once I did start getting into the book, I was fully immersed.

This book was emotional. It told the story of a family quickly torn apart by war, of heirlooms and cultures lost or left behind, of relationships that couldn’t stand the test of time and distance.

Starting with Meilin in the first generation as she flees her home and the memory of her husband with her young son, Renshu, all the way through the marriage of Renshu’s daughter, Lily.

This book covered war, poverty, and tragedy. It was dark and gritty and harsh, because there’s no other way to tell these kinds of stories. It covered racism and political division and trauma. It covered the concept of home and the action of rebuilding. It went into culture and documentation and immigration.

I don’t know how to sum this book up, other than that it was a perfect summary of Chinese, and by extension Chinese-American and mixed-race experiences. It was beautiful and heartbreaking at once. I didn’t think I’d started getting attached to the events until some of the formerly important characters died, and I realized I was sad about it.

Overall, this isn’t a sweeping, epic, fast-paced story with amazingly perfect characters, and I would never want it to be. It’s furious, it’s dark, but it blooms so slowly that I didn’t appreciate its beauty until it was over and I was left with emotions.

This book was amazing for a group discussion. I discussed this with my bookclub and highly recommend for bookclub picks.

This was my first read from this author and I loved it. So well written and so well researched.

It was great finding an amazing historical fiction that was not based in Europe. I learned so much about the Asian culture and struggles during that period in time.

I loved that she named all the characters, even the secondary characters who were just briefly mentioned. I know others founds parts of it hard to remember because of this but I loved it.

Peach Blossom Spring, the debut novel by Melissa Fu, is a sweeping saga of a family that spans 70 years of China in the 20th century. The story begins in 1938, when Meilin, a young wife and mother, is forced to evacuate her husband's home with his family and her young son, Renshu. Over the years, she suffers through war, hardship, loss, and separation. Although I enjoyed this novel, I feel it might have been better as a dual timeline- one following Meilin and the other her son as an adult. Overall, I enjoyed learning about this part of history I know little about.

One of the best books I've read this decade! I love multigenerational stories and/or stories that allow me to learn about a culture different from my own. The characterization in this book was fantastic - I felt like I knew these characters and their histories in my soul. I was able to connect with Meilin as a Mother and her fierce sense of protection and love for Renshu was so authentic and raw. Renshu's character was also richly drawn and I felt his many emotions of fear, anxiety, the need to both honor his past and separate himself from it, as well as anger and shame. It was hard to believe this is a debut novel. I devoured it and felt sad when it ended, like saying goodbye to precious friends or family members. I believe this will become a classic we'll be talking about for generations. Highly recommend.

This was quite a heavy book, but written so beautifully and such a heartfelt story. I have a son and I could feel the desperation of Meilin to do anything to protect her son through such terribly atrocities being inflicted on the Chinese people. This book is like a saga, so many choices and so many dangerous times, taking different forms throughout Meilin and Renshu's lives. I can see how he wanted to escape his past and was still looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life. I can understand how he cannot just sit down and tell his story to his daughter because it's so fraught with different emotions and fear and not knowing who to trust, along with sadness for all he had lost and all he is missing. Also, the idea of figuring out your identity that so many of the characters feel in their own situations, no matter how different, was so poignant. It was also so interesting to learn about pieces of China's history that I hadn't read about before and how much change occurred in such a short span. It was an emotional read, but one that I didn't want to put down.

4 stars

A sweeping story that spans almost an entire century, Peach Blossom Spring offers a glimpse into the many heartbreaks, triumphs, and tribulations faced by a single Chinese family as they grapple with war, immigration, and love.

While the current trend tends toward the dual timeline approach for stories of this scope, Fu chooses to tackle this tale chronologically following three different perspectives from three generations. This choice allows Fu to really capture the peaks and valleys of life without bashing the reader over the head with constant action. Does it make some parts feel a bit slow? Yes. Does it make the story feel more true to life? Also yes. It forces the reader to slow down and really take in what they are reading, which is something that I have found myself struggling with recently. While the story is specific to the Chinese-American experience, the characters' carefully rendered humanity feel incredibly universal to the point where I found myself shedding a tear or two at points when the book hit a bit too close to my own experiences.

All in all, Peach Blossom Spring is a poignant debut novel that will surely delight many a lover of historical fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

I was lucky enough to get approved for this book AFTER I ordered it on book of the month. I am not complaining because I am so happy I have a physical copy to own as well.
SO many elements this one has that I adore in a book. This focuses on family dynamics, generational conflict, culture, identity and history.
The writing was nothing short of exceptional. This author has some real potential. It did feel raw and emotional but felt dry and depressing for most of the book.

I just reviewed Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu. #PeachBlossomSpring #NetGalley

I was quite captured by by this book and the family told through three generations. Not knowing much about Chinese culture and the wars and hardships they faced put in perspective that no matter where we a come from there is war and unrest—the level and degree of those things may be on varying levels but what is one and the same is our humanity. Our resilience. And our search for peace in this life and beyond. 🌸🌸🌸

This was a beautifully written book and will likely end up as one of my favorites for the year. A story of family, love, sacrifice and war taking place over 3 generations. The characters are endearing, the writing is beautiful and the historical context and location are interesting. I highly recommend this book and look forward to more from Melissa Fu!

Thank you, NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for a digital ARC!

I received an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Peach Blossom Spring is a multigenerational story at a turbulent time in China's history with the Japanese invasion and then communism.

We can see how the history effects Henry (Renshu) and goes on to change the next generation. However, his daughter, Lily, is haunted by Henry's past. She cannot understand that which he doesn't talk about.

This is a moving historical novel and shows how the past can stay with us. The feelings of not understanding the choices made by a previous generation is universal because how well do any of us know our parents? There are both great sorrows and joys through this work.

I recommend it for anyone who loves historical fiction, history, and multigenerational stories.

When Peach Blossom Spring opens in 1938, the Daos are a multigenerational family living in the Hunan Province of China. Two sons are off fighting the Japanese, leaving their father, their wives, and children behind. Years later only the oldest son, Longwei returns. The younger is missing, leaving his wife Meilin and their son Renshu alone and without answers. Further victories by the Japanese in eastern China force the family to flee west.

The unceasing violence, first from the Japanese and then from the Communists, pushes Longwei, his family, Meilin, and Renshu further west into Shanghai, but even that falls. As they’re forced onward, the family fractures into smaller and smaller pieces. By 1948 only Meilin and Renchu are precariously settled in Taiwan. They carry Peach Blossom Spring forward, from China to America where Renshu is ultimately accepted into an American university as an engineer and changes his name to Henry.

In America, Henry experiences professional success, marries, and has a daughter, but is never able to shake his fears of the past and the long reach of the Chinese government. In college, fellow Chinese have scholarships revoked or are stripped of their passports when returning home; all for possibly expressing inflammatory political views. This fear, curls Henry into himself and as the years pass he has only limited phone call with Meilin and shares none of his family history with his American wife and daughter. This creates a cold war of its own for his biracial daughter, who struggles to fit in with her Asian features, but American background.

Author Melissa Fu covers many of the traumas experienced by Chinese citizens in the decade before and after WWII. It’s hard to fathom being on the run, with few belongings, and no money for that long. All while being subjected to bombings and military campaigns. This part of Peach Blossom Spring is compelling, but as time and distance are put between Renshu and Henry, the novel loses some of its power. Henry’s fear might be understandable, but that crux of it is not explored or explained. It felt watered down. I felt the same way about several of the novel’s characters. Fu sketches them, but never fills them in with color. This is a good novel of an important time in Chinese history, but I would have preferred staying with the Chinese characters, like Meilin to read their perspective.

3.5 stars

In recent years, there has been much discussion about the saturation of World War II era books in the market. While this is definitely true, and with that, many people’s general weariness over reading yet another book set in this time period is absolutely understandable, part of me still hopes that people don’t give up on books set in this time period just yet, primarily because the fact remains that too few of these books tell about WWII from the less widespread perspective of the Asian nations that either participated in the war or were severely impacted by it. This is why I felt that Melissa Fu’s debut novel Peach Blossom Spring— despite falling a tad short of expectations for me (more on this later) — was still very much worth reading overall.

In this generational story that spans decades, Fu explores the impact of WWII (as well as its aftermath) through the experiences of the fictional Dao family. With the onset of the Japanese invasion of China, wealthy and shrewd patriarch Dao Hongtse, who owns a lucrative kerosene and antiques shop in Changsha, sees his family torn apart when his youngest son Xiaowen is killed in battle, leaving behind his young wife Meilin and their 4-year-old son Renshu. Devastated by the loss of his most beloved son, Hongtse withdraws into himself and turns most of his business over to eldest son Longwei, who has returned home after also fighting in the war. Not long after Longwei returns however, news breaks out about the Japanese army’s imminent advance into the city, forcing the family to leave nearly everything behind and flee their home. As they travel across their war-ravaged country seeking refuge and ultimately survival, Meilin and Renshu rely on the stories from an ancient scroll for solace. After the war, Meilin and Renshu settle in Taiwan, which eventually becomes “home” for them.

The second half of the story focuses primarily on Dao Renshu, who, as an adult, has settled in the United States. Having adopted the name Henry Dao, Renshu pursues his graduate studies and eventually meets Rachel, whom he marries and subsequently they have one daughter, Lily. As Henry becomes more immersed in his life as an American, he starts to distance himself from his past and his tumultuous childhood growing up during the war. Even though he continues to stay in constant communication with his mother Meilin in Taiwan, he feels more and more that his current life in the U.S. as Henry Dao is incongruous with the boy he was growing up in China and Taiwan. Believing that the only way to keep his family safe is to separate his past from his present, Henry refuses to reveal much about his childhood, despite his daughter Lily’s persistence in wanting to understand her heritage. Much of the second half of the story focuses on Henry’s struggles to reconcile his past life and experiences in China with his present one in America.

As I mentioned at the beginning of my review, this book ended up falling a bit short of expectations for me (though having said that, I’m still glad I decided to pick this one up). While there were many aspects of the story I really liked — such as the character of Meilin, the Chinese cultural elements referenced throughout, the fables revolving around the scroll, etc. — I felt that the writing was too uneven. The way this was written, I felt like it jumped back and forth too much between long descriptive sentences and short choppy ones, often describing relatively mundane things that I felt weren’t really important to the story. With that said though, the first half of the story, which covers Meilin’s story arc, was engaging enough that it was easier to overlook the inconsistencies in the writing - so much so in fact, that I was actually disappointed when Meilin didn’t feature as much in the second half of the story.

Speaking of which, that’s what didn’t work well for me — the second half of the book when the narrative shifted primarily to Renshu’s adult life in the U.S. I felt that these sections were too tedious to read, as there were too many unnecessary descriptions that bogged down the story (mundane things such as describing a character writing a letter, folding it up, putting it in an envelope, licking the flap, putting it in the mail — actions that could be described simply in one sentence were drawn out over several sentences). The other reason why the second half of the story (Renshu’s story arc) didn’t hold my interest as much as the first half (Meilin’s story arc) is because the latter half veered too much into the political tension between China and Taiwan — a topic that I’m already very familiar with having grown up surrounded by constant discussion about the potential fates of Hong Kong and Taiwan in relation to China. At times, I felt like I was reading an overly drawn out primer on China and Taiwan geopolitics that was geared more toward those who may not necessarily be familiar with the history and context behind it. There were also some parts that came across like the characters were reciting matter-of-fact historical tidbits rather than having actual conversations with each other. For me, this definitely detracted from the overall story, but not only that, it also made the story less emotionally resonant when it had the potential to be so much more.

Overall, I would say that this was a good story with a premise that had a lot of potential, but needed more refinement in terms of writing and execution. Because of this, deciding how to rate this book was agonizing for me, as the first half I felt was pretty strong (and I would probably rate 4 stars), but the second half was definitely a struggle that took me way longer to get through (and to be honest, I probably would’ve rated 2-3 stars on its own). In the end, I chose a happy medium of 3.5 stars, mostly because I truly did love and appreciate the first half of the story, despite some elements that didn’t quite work for me.

Received ARC from Little, Brown and Company via NetGalley.

There's so many parts of "Peach Blossom Spring" that hit so close to home for me; paring aside the personal influence, I still think this is a beautifully-written book.

The novel details the story of a family, starting in China in the 1930s when Meilin is married to the Xiaowen, the youngest son in his family, and gives birth to her first and only child, a son named Renshu. When her husband is forced to fight against the Japanese army and doesn't return home, she and her family are forced to flee for their lives. They move from place to place, trying to find a safe haven, until Meilin is able to find shelter for them and allows Renshu to grow. Eventually, he's able to garner acceptance into graduate school at Northwestern University, and must leave his mother behind while he tries to make a new life for himself. Renshu adopts a new name, Henry Dao, and is able to build a life and family for himself in America, but is eventually forced to confront the truths of his family's heritage and past after his daughter Lily is born.

I love these multi-generational family epics (I did see a few similarities to "Pachinko"!) and I think Melissa Fu has captured incredibly well the experience a number of Asian Americans have. For first generation immigrants like Henry/Renshu, it's incredibly jarring to have to start a new life in a brand new country and culture - many either hold onto their original life, refusing to accept or understand the new environment they are in, or simply discard it altogether. For their children, it's an even more difficult scenario; they're born in one country, but look different - and the expectations for what they do, how they live, and what they know get even more murky. What Fu has done here, however, is captured the importance of stories and storytelling, and how they shed light onto our past, present, and future. She's also incorporated the complicated history of China and its surrounding neighbors during this time, including the Japanese invasion during WWII as well as the animosities between China and Taiwan.

I did find Fu's writing style a little difficult to get used to; there are moments where sentences and phrases feel quite clipped and staccato, but I believe this is intentional on her part. Nonetheless, her descriptions and characterizations were beautifully crafted, and the overall story is one I'll cherish.

In this historical fiction novel, the contemporary history of China is reflected in the story of Meilin and her son, Renshu. Starting with the Japanese invasion and bombing in 1938, Merlin is widowed and travels with her son, brother-in-law and his family to escape the violence. This trip begins a long journey for Meilin and Renshu as they are constantly seeking peace and shelter through the years of bitter political disputes, ending up in Taiwan. Renshu leaves for graduate school in America, starting his own family, but is unable to tell the story of his past with all the terrible losses and memories. A well written debut, this novel reiterates the horrors of war and the hope that exists for new generations. Recommended. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.