This was without a doubt written with heart. The prose was beautiful, delicate, and somehow had a quiet feel to it. It was interesting to learn more about the subject, and as a fan of historical fiction, knowing more about a country's past is always a plus. It was difficult not to feel sympathy for the characters.

I was so glad to have picked this up. Novels like this remind me why I like this genre. Peach Blossom Spring spans 70 years and follows three generations. I love it when a book manages to be an eye-opener, which this one was undoubtedly. I knew close to nothing about WWII China, much more the Civil War. There were fables woven in the story which were somehow allegories as well, and the way the title was first used in text gave me chills. These provided an atmosphere all on its own and set the themes. I felt like Renshu myself when it was time for another fable. The book may jump years after a few pages or a chapter but I never once felt confused by the narrative or the sudden shift in perspective; I found the writing seamless.

As for the characters, they were all very realistic. Sometimes, I felt as tired as they did, and just as sad. When the focus started to shift towards Renshu, his unease leaked off the page and I genuinely wanted him to keep his head. The tension during his university days made me nervous I was unable to put the book down. This atmosphere wavered, then eventually eased in Lily's chapters. When her chapters increased, her relationship with her grandmother reminded me of my own (both Renshu and Lily's relationship to Meilin actually). Although Lily's chapters were those I wasn't much invested in, she was the one I understood the most. And though I am not Chinese, there were many lines in this book that resonated with me. The themes were so on point.

Peach Blossom Spring is a debut novel but it did not read like one to me. There's lots of things to think about here and whatever I was expecting prior to starting, it was not this (I mean this in a good way). I enjoyed this book a lot and would recommend!

Sweeping generational sagas are my favorite type of stories, especially ones that take place in a new (to me) setting or time.

Peach Blossom Spring follows one family as they navigate life during Japanese invasion in China in 1938 up until the early 2000’s in America. It’s a story riddled with loss, grief, courage and beautiful story telling. It’s a testament to the human will to persevere.

Rounded up from 4.5 on Goodreads because it would be an injustice to round down.

A sweeping novel set against the backdrop of the Japanese invasion of Chinese during World War II. Shui Meilin and her son Dao Renshu find themselves forced to flee from Changhsa, Hunan Province as the city is bombed by the Japanese. They can only take what they can carry and it is a perilous journey to the interior of China only a few steps ahead of the Japanese. They settle in Chongqing for now but know it is only a temporary respite. As the war drags on Meilin and Renshu begin to despair about finding a permanent place to live and struggle to be safe. Many novels cover World War II and the impact it had on Europeans and Americans, but few detail the monumental hardships the Chinese people faced. An evocative and highly emotional novel of love resourcefulness and triumph in the face of unrelenting danger. A brilliant first novel.

If you love Historical Fiction like I do, you will want to add this book to your ever-growing TBR list. Since this novel spans three generations, it covers quite a bit of history, shedding light on China's struggle between Communism and the people's desire for freedom. Through the lives of these rich characters, you will gain perspective on those conflicts as well as touch on issues facing Chinese Americans. This book was eye-opening, heart-wrenching, and poignant. The reason I didn't give it a 5-star review is because it had a slow start, but I was hooked midway through the book.

This is very very well done historical fiction. I learned a lot about something I was very unfamiliar with, I was captivated by the storytelling, and there were characters to really root for. I highly recommend Peach Blossom Spring!

Meilin, Renshu and Lily are three generations of a family. Meilin is a mother who is practical and strong and does everything to protect Renshu and give him a chance for survival and success despite a childhood lived through the Japanese occupation of China. The first part of the book follows their lives as refugees trying to outrun the war. They survive some harrowing moments and we see glimpses of different cities and cultures within China in the 1930s. They eventually land in Taiwan where we see the struggle to feel safe in a country where everyone is looking for freedom and yet that is threatened at every turn. We see Renshu separate from his mother and immerse himself in America, balancing his identity with his desire to assimilate in his new home. He goes on to have a daughter who wants desperately to identify with being Chinese and how her father's fears and expectations impact her life.

I love a sweeping generational story and this one has such resonant characters that are so easy to slip into and empathize with. I did miss Meilin when we moved on to Renshu and Renshu when we moved onto Lily but I really liked each character and the arc of their story. There are heartbreaking moments and hopeful ones mixed in with a great education on that era in Chinese history. My favorite part was the scroll held within the family that told ancient Chinese fairytales that resonated with the characters at many points in their lives.

If you loved Pachinko or Beasts of a Little Land, then this one is for you. 

Thanks to LibroFM and Netgalley for access to this novel. I went on to purchase it after I read/listened to it. All opinions above are my own.

Peach Blossom Spring is a beautiful story of resilience, identity, and migration.

It follows three generations of a Chinese family from 1938 to the 2000s. The story begins with Meilin, a young woman, forced to flee her home with her son Renshu when Japanese armies invade their village. Throughout many years of moving from place to place, fiercely independent Meilin uses her skills to support her small family.

The narrative transitions to Renshu’s perspective as he grows up and finds his place in the world, all the while trying to forget his past. Renshu shields his daughter from his traumatic childhood, even though she desperately wants to learn her heritage.

About sixty percent of this story takes place in China, another location, and the rest in America. The sections that focused on their lives in China were written in stunning and heart-wrenching detail. The ones set in America were still exquisitely told but were slightly less captivating.

This book explores belonging, identity, survival, and generational trauma.

The author was inspired to write this story based on her personal quest of learning her heritage.

This gorgeously written historical fiction account captivated me from its very first page. Before reading this, I knew little about the Second Sino-Japanese War, or the War of Aggression, as it’s called in this work. The story focuses on how the war affected civilians, mainly Meilin and Renshu. And later, how Nationalists and Communists fought for control over China and Taiwan.

Meilin, Renshu, and Lily are characters that will stick with me for some time to come.

Thank you to Little, Brown and Company for providing an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://booksandwheels.com

This beautifully-written, multi-generational story of a Chinese family hit me pretty hard emotionally. The story starts with Meilin and her son, Renshu. They try to find safety during the war with the Japanese, and later, during the Chinese Civil War. Then there's Renshu (later Henry) who grew up and eventually moved to the US. His experiences and struggles as an immigrant are very familiar and personal. Finally, we see Lily, Henry's daughter, as she tries to understand her heritage and understand this father who refuses to tell her anything about his past and family.
I find myself having to pause and stop several times while reading the book. Mostly because I had to keep myself from crying. I did cry though, as this story resonates with my own family history and experiences. It made me think of my grandparents and my father who lived in China during the Japanese occupation. While the details certainly are different, I can see them in the characters of Meilin and Renshu. However, ethnicity is not the only reason to like this book. After all, it's universal to long for home and to learn who we are from the experiences our families have gone through.

**Thank you to the publisher, Little, Brown, and Company and NetGalley for proving an ARC for an honest review!**

This is an incredible story that I think everyone should read. The writing is amazing! I can’t believe this is a debut.

You follow the lives of A mother, her son, and his daughter over the space of 70 years. I knew very little about China during WWII, the communist party, their civil war or Taiwan. The way it was written, it was factual and educating, instead of focusing on grief and despair. Convenient things happened a lot to the family, but it happened so you could learn the history. Really cool!

I loved the first half more than the second half, but the ending was perfect.

I am definitely going to recommend this one to everyone!

Melissa Fu’s Peach Blossom Spring is a powerful novel. The story begins in China in 1938. Fortunes, misfortunes, war, stories passed down, family responsibilities, racial issues and more fill the pages, Somehow the author made me feel like I was experiencing it along with her characters. This is a beautiful and compelling novel that needs to be savored and shared.

I received this novel as an advanced reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I love a multi generational saga involving love, war family, history and drama. I recommend this novel for anyone else who loves those things too. A quick and emotional read.

An epic multigenerational story that follows one Chinese family across decades as they flee China to Taiwan and later immigrate to America. This book is transporting and so well written! I found myself fully immersed in each character's particular struggles. Starting in 1938 China as the Japanese invade, Meilin is forced to flee to Taiwan with her young son. Once there she struggles to fit in, working hard and sacrificing much in order to give her son the opportunity at a better life.

Then the story switches to "Henry"'s perspective as he gets a scholarship to attend university in the Midwest with help from an estranged Uncle and adopts a new English name in an attempt to fit in. While there he struggles to adjust to life in 1960s America at the height of anti-communisim and anti-immigrant sentiments. He marries an white American woman and starts a family, largely eschewing his Chinese identity.

I enjoyed most when the story switched to Henry's daughter Lily as she starts university and tries to reconnect with her Chinese heritage and being half-Chinese. The story does circle back with Henry and Lily returning to Taiwan upon his mother's death. Overall this was one of the best stories I've read about the Chinese immigrant experience, capturing the various struggles felt by each generation. Highly recommended!! Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance review copies. This book hits shelves March 15th and it's one to watch. Plus what a stunning cover!!

This is an epic story of family love through war times, hardships and across the years, 70 to be precise.

Melissa Fu gives us the story of the newly widowed Dao Meilin, her struggles, hardships, sacrifices, and hopes for her only son, Renshu. It follows Renshu's immigration from Taiwan to the United States, his complicated transformation from Dao Renshu to Henry Dao, a transformation that is never entirely completed. And it tells us the story of his struggle to understand who he is, just as his daughter Lily later struggles with understanding who she is and who she wants to be. Always in the background is the sweeping history of China.

Melissa Fu is a good story teller and Peach Blossom Spring is an absorbing read. I fell in love with this mother and son dynamic while watching them each grow separately while always being together. I loved that the book also focuses on identity, relationships, family, immigration and culture. Those themes still ring true in 2022.

Those who love Lisa See’s books will enjoy this trip across time and into Taiwan, China and the US.

Many thanks to Melissa Fu and Little, Brown and Company for this ARC, a heartwarming historical fiction read. Days later, I am still relishing the people and cultures I lived via Fu’s magical words.

This book was just ok for me. I found it lagging a lot and would lose interest easily in the story. I also found it jumped around a lot which made things confusing in places. I did enjoy the first half of the book more than the second. I found the perspective of people within China from 1938-1960 to be the most interesting part of this book. I really enjoyed the first section of the book which took place in mainland China during the second Sino-Japanese war and really connected with the character of Meilin on her journey to keep her son Renshu safe following their refugee journey. This was well drawn out and I found the setting and the time period to be well created and could imagine it vividly. However, when the story moved on to the second and third generation (Henry, previously Renshu and his daughter Lily) I felt myself disconnecting. The author spent such effort building that bond with Meilin and then she just disappeared. I found both Henry and Lily to be infuriating and really struggled through the latter part of the book. I feel like the author was trying to build in the themes of heritage, but it felt clunky and contrived and I don't think it worked as well as the earlier section of the book. It was definitely an interesting read, and I learned a lot from it and found passages of the writing to be beautiful. But I felt let down by the latter parts which did not live up to the exceptional writing in the first sections. I'd still recommend reading it and would be interested to hear how you got on with the generational shift in the narrative. Thank you for my advanced copy!

Peach Blossom Spring is a tender work of historical fiction spanning three countries, three generations and three wars.

Melissa Fu takes readers deep into one family's experiences during the War of Resistance in China, followed by the civil war when the Nationalists and Communists fought for power, and their forced relocations as a result. This is followed by a period of relative peace and settled life in Taiwan, before the son immigrates to America for his Master's degree. There he disconnects from his past and offers his own daughter an American life.

Through it all, we witness how each of the characters is shaped by the realities forced upon them and the decisions they make, both of which lead to their bonds stretching, wearing thin and sometimes even breaking.

The novel offers insight into aspects of Chinese culture, history and heritage, and emotions and experiences that are entirely universal.

Highly recommended for all those interested in historical fiction, China, and stories of immigration.

4.5
This novel spans decades and follows the Dao family from China to Taiwan and eventually to the U.S. (through Renshu's story). Melissa Fu tells a long and emotional story about Meilin Dao and her son, Renshu (Henry). They endure heartbreak, terror and tragedy as they live through the war in China and separation from family and loved ones. The narrative is well crafted and I liked the story arc - following mother and son through multiple challenges and changes. The story shifts again when Renshu grows up and goes to the U.S. for University. Through the telling of his story, we see the traumatic effects of the past as he assumes the role of husband and father. Fu also explores issues of identity, family and ancestry as Lily struggles to understand her father's background and by extension herself. I appreciated the handling of the mixed race marriage and questions/struggles that arose from the union. At the heart of the novel is love, which transcends time and place. The love Meilin has for Renshu and other friends/family members carries her through the raising of her son and her independent life. The love of Henry and his family keeps them from drifting apart.

What a remarkable debut novel! This is the first historical fiction book I’ve read focused on China during WWII and immediately after. Reading this gave me a deeper understanding of the displacement and immigration experience, in addition to the perspective from the next generation grappling to understand their heritage. Great book. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC, in exchange for my honest review.

Melissa Fu has written a remarkable book in Peach Blossom Spring. Equal parts uplifting and devastating- this is for you if you long for a slow-paced, challenging, story that takes over your whole imaginative life.

This was an amazing story and a debut at that!

This story may be labeled as historical fiction but it would also fall under the sub-genre of family saga/generational saga. This is a slow read and character driven rather than plot driven. The story focuses on Meilin and Renshu as they try to navigate life while the world around them falls apart at times. There are parts where you will sigh with content and parts where you feel your heart twinge.

I fell in love with this mother and son dynamic while watching them each grow separately plus together. This book also focuses on many themes- identity, relationships, family, immigration, culture, etc. I pictured this book as a steak dinner- you don't rush through trying to clear your plate to get to the next thing. You take your time, savor every bite, then sit back afterwards in contentment. Also, this will one of those rare books that will stay with me for a long time later.

This is perfect for fans of- Pachinko, Homegoing, family sagas, generational linear timeline, historical fiction, slower reads, and character driven.

Historical fiction has become a favorite of mine over the years and the story told here flowed so well. I haven't read anything about the 30s/40s with Chinese American but found it enthralling. I couldn't put it down.