4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It’s been a while since I have devoured a book so quickly! I was captivated from start to finish by this story full of twists and turns! I found all three of the timelines equally as interesting!

The story wasn’t quite what I expected, it was more bittersweet than I thought it would be! I am not the greatest fan of open endings so I was not entirely satisfied on that point, but again that is simply my own preference!

I found the author style to flow very well and I am looking forward to more from Justinian Huang! Can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy, what a gorgeous cover!

(Thanks NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing this EArc)

I am a big fan of east asian reincarnation xinxia/donghua like novels or manga. I read the back of the expecting it to be like that and I am not disappointed. Like everyone has said in the reviews here, it happens over three timelines, lots of magic/beasts/fantasy/smutty elements involve in the book. like page 15 widened my eyes, like girl i didn't expect it would go that tangent. The world building is nice in this book. the setting doesn't only focus on east asia but south east asia as well, like Thailand was mentioned. LA is also the setting in the present day. It is pretty easy to follow the different time lines as it is indicated in the first page of every chapter. There are some things that i don't like about this story is how history repeats itself even after three timelines like River tells Joey how "they are still stuck in the Endless Palace him, Joey and Winston."

I like how everytime Dong Xian makes a promise it will end up not coming true again. Like Liu Xin asks him that they will trust each other and ofc. we know Dong Xian's affair with JunJun. like even up to the present day, you still hurt Liu Xin's feelings.

I really like the pacing and how the story is not so much info dump but leave room for world building and have a chance to enjoy its magic and fantasy.

I got a copy of this book as an ARC, and I have been putting up reading this book for months since I have received it but didn't expect myself to enjoy it. I mentioned that I didn't like some things in the book I meant more improvements in the world building though I understand that it is a debut novel, the author nonetheless made a really good debut novel (the suggestion is just in case he wants to write a series). I also wish we could've spent more time in the first timeline (preference since I enjoyed reading a lot of xinxia and donghua novels set in ancient china).

I like the cover, can't wait to get my hands on the hardcover.

I adored this interwoven Asian-based story with all my heart. It follows three different timelines of two men whose lives have been intertwined for centuries. We follow them through 4 BCE, 1740, and present-day Los Angeles. Slowly, along with the characters, we learn how they are connected to each other. Their romance was both beautiful and heartbreaking. It was quite hard to read at times because their love is quite destructive and painful. I’m a sucker for a tragic love affair, especially ones that make me cry. Add stunning writing and fantastical aspects to make a book I couldn’t get enough of.

Reincarnation stories have always drawn me in, and I knew I had to read this beauty as soon as I found it. It was intriguing trying to figure out who was who in the different time periods. I’m glad we kept going back and forth between each of them, and loved seeing how all the pieces fit together to tell their story. It felt like a puzzle, and I enjoyed how their identities were not always obvious.

There were times I did not want one of the perspectives to switch to the next time period. I wanted to continue with what was happening next instead of going to another time. Then, I would get completely hooked on the next one. It became a cycle I enjoyed every minute of.

This book will not be for everybody, but it has everything I could have wanted from this type of story. It took me about fifty pages to get into it, and then I didn’t want it to end. Also, I enjoyed looking into the historical aspects of this story. The emperor and Dong Xian are based on historical figures from Chinese history, and I like how the sleeve is a part of their story. So interesting.

I highly recommend picking up Justinian Huang’s The Emperor and the Endless Palace. I will be adding it to my home library. Huang’s writing was beautiful, and I cannot wait to pick up more of his work in the future. Here’s hoping for more from this world.

The Emperor and the Endless Palace is honestly one of the most unique fantasy romance’s I have ever read! Not only is the writing beautiful, but the plot of each storyline kept me excited to see where we were going next. I think it is hard to pull off a reincarnation story and Justinian Huang did it very well. I could feel the epic timeline without feeling like it was too much at any given point. Each storyline kept me guessing on who was who and I was thoroughly surprised by the end. Throughout the novel, I was interested in each point of view and wanted to know more. When it was time to switch at the end of each chapter, I was eager to learn more about the timeline I was going into and whatever was next in store for our characters. I also thoroughly enjoyed the mix of Chinese history and mythological elements. My only complaint is that I wish it was longer. I wanted to know more about our characters, their lives, and see these romances bloom for a bit longer. I think that’s just a testament to how much I enjoyed reading this book. I can’t wait to see what comes next for Justinian Huang, and I will definitely be reading whatever it is!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this ARC e-copy of The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang.

Spanning three sweeping timelines, The Emperor and the Endless Palace follows a narrator and his lover, who find each other in seemingly every universe.

This was… a lot. It wasn’t so much plot as it was a bunch of scenes I felt compelled to skip over. By the halfway point, I was content with giving up on the book. I don’t actually feel as if I wasted my time, only because I think that this author can write something truly valuable with time.

☆ ☆ ☆ - DNF

Given that it's a bit of a genre bender, this one was a bit much for me personally. I think there will be people who pick this up and immediately love it. It just wasn't that for me sadly.

Thank you to Netgalley and MIRA for the e-ARC!

I was ready to love this book. In the end, it leaves me a bit at a loss for a goos rating. I think I didn't quite delve into it with the right expectations and was then surprised.
Discovering and following our characters through three lifetimes was interesting, even if I found the past time lines more interesting because of the Fox-Spirit presence. The machinations in the Endless Palace gave a good tension until it died suddenly when one character seemed to stop intervening, despite what was given to glimpse about its nature. The present timeline was harder to grasp and care for.
I admit I have trouble considering this book a romantic book. One of the character has such character's trait and behavior that made it hard for me to believe he had true feelings. I also had some trouble understanding how both characters could be in love so quickly, since it felt more like desire or infatuation than love to me. There is a whole other thing with a third character that is portrayed in a certain way and... I can't accept the name put on these feelings when there is so much manipulation around. But again, it is probably saying more about me as a romantic reader than about the book.
The biggest let down for me the resolution that didn't fulfilled what I thought to be the main obstacle. It is an open ending (which I don't usually mind if there is a sense of closure), with a lot of doors still open through the different timelines and more importantly, the current one. I guess it can be a good ending but it doesn't work for me, it feels like the end of a first book in a serie.
This review might seem quite negative, but I enjoyed some part of the book! It was quick to read, the writing was nice. Maybe a bit too much of smut sometimes, but nothing too bothering.
I think this was simply not the right fit for me, but I'm sure it will be a great read for other readers! It is a love story more than a romance, spanning centuries with a drama background.

I was engrossed in one of the time periods and really wanted the whole book to be about that time period. The second part that really had my attention was with the fox spirit but that was more slow placed. The present day storyline was the hardest and most underdeveloped part of the story. I could have read 500 more pages within this world. I look forward to more from this author.

Historical fantasies are my JAM! I absolutly love every moment in the love story, it's sweet and heartfelt, but also has a fierce streak that will keep you flipping the pages. PICK THIS UP!

This was the quickest book I decided to dnf, it isnt that bad, i think the book just not for me. BUT everyone who love Asian-based fantasy. Please give it a chance to dive in.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and Justinian Huang for my ARC copy,

i love books about soulmates. gimme any of those vibes and i'll eat it up. and i definitely did, here. it was captivating seeing the main characters battle for each other and seeing all their lifetimes together.

i did wish, however, that this wasn't as hard to get into as it was. the writing didn't suit how this book should've been written, to me. since this is historical fiction, i would've expected writing that flows better and is prettier, somehow. i enjoyed how the timelines flowed though and how everything came together! such a wonderful read.

I really enjoyed this story and following the MCs. I liked the reincarnation aspects and how we get to see them together each time and how their stories evolve. I enjoy learning about other cultures and their values in books like this. It’s not a history book but a story with those cultures in twined into them. There are some triggers that you should look up first if you have any thing that bothers you while reading.

This book gave me so much happiness when I started it. The world we are immersed into is so magical and beautiful I never wanted to leave. Hopefully there will be more stories added to the series.

Welp, this is a DNF. The writing style really didn't agree with me - too plain, when I prefer my prose pretty and lyrical to the point of purple-ness. No thank you! The story/stories also felt very bleak, and I was spoilered that there wasn't going to be a HEA??? That killed any motivation I had to keep pushing through this book. I'm just not getting the hype.

Not gonna lie: this is particularly heartbreaking. I was so looking forward to this book! But it’s just a case of, wrong book, wrong reader. I don’t think it’s objectively bad, but it’s not the kind of book I want to read – it’s written in a very Literary Fiction style, and the prose is…fine? But I was hoping for lush gorgeousness, and this isn’t that. Nor did any of the narrators (who are probably all the same soul reincarnated in different time periods) grip me – I didn’t care about their stories, their goals.

I’m shallow as hell; I like my fantasy pretty, and a) I’m not sure this qualifies as strict fantasy at all, and b) the characters are all tangled up in messes that felt cynical and/or sad and/or pointless. I don’t care about the gay club scene; all the backstabbing and viciousness of the imperial Chinese court just made me feel horrified and sad; the inn plotline was the one that most interested me, but that’s not saying much.

I wanted more magic; I didn’t enjoy the writing style; and I’m just…too raw for something this gritty and…realistic, I guess?

I think the right reader could enjoy this fine, if they go in with the right expectations, ie, not expecting a fantasy novel. For that reason, I can’t rate it too low; the problem is that I misunderstood what this book was going to be, and that’s not the book’s fault. But I did find it so dull that by 25% of the way through, I was having a hard time keeping myself awake, despite all the ScandalousTM stuff that was happening and all the Obviously Important plotlines that were just getting started - so not rating it too highly, either!

This was a very quick DNF for me. I did not jive with the writing style from the first page, and I couldn't force myself to continue.

The style is heavily narrative, which I don’t generally enjoy. The writing is somewhat clunky. I stopped after the first chapter/section (2%), but three stars for the target audience/right readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin for the ARC.

Thanks to the publisher for the e-arc! I was super excited to read this because I loved the premise of two lovers finding each other in different lifetimes. The prose was beautiful; the author definitely has a talent for writing. However, I went into this book expecting something completely different than what it was. The synopsis intrigued me, but it didn’t live up to what it promised. I was expecting an epic, romantic love story spanning centuries. This only *kind of* delivered on that promise, as there are only three lifetimes explored in the book, and I felt like I just needed *more* from each one of them.

There are three main timelines, two in the past and one in present day. I thought that the stories unfolding in the timelines would build up to something, but the ending was anticlimactic and just fell flat for me. Nothing was truly resolved and it just left me with even more questions. I tried so hard to emotionally connect with these characters and I just couldn’t. Also I was NOT expecting so much sexual content. It didn’t ruin the book for me but it was a bit much at times, and some of the language made me cringe a bit. The ending left me feeling really unsatisfied; I wanted something more to tie it all together. I think if the book had been a bit longer I would have enjoyed it more, as there would have been more time to flesh out the characters and their stories.

This was a really interesting book. I have never read a book about reincarnation before, so I didn't really know what to expect but I did enjoy this book as a whole. I really liked how their story takes them across three very different time periods. This is part of what made this book so interesting. I will say though, that at first I was a little confused with the switching between time periods, but that might've just been me. I really liked the author's writing style, though. They did an amazing job world building and describing everything. I felt as though I was watching a movie at some points since I felt as though I could physically see what was being written.

This book. I definitely didn't know what I was getting into at first. I may have jidge the book on title and cover and a few sentences about what was between the pages. It was weird. But brilliantly so. Beautifully so. The type of weird I love and will read over and over again.

Puzzling out the three timelines and how the connected kept me turning the pages. I thought I had it all figured out but then those last pages.

This was weird. Beautiful. Heartbreaking. A love story. A story of betrayl.

It was perfect.