I hesitated to give my review because I ended up DNF-ing this book. I tried multiple times to read it, but I wasn't able to get into it. The writing was difficult to follow and confusing. I felt like there was a lot of into dump in the early chapters, but also not enough actual information I needed to really understand what was going on. I wanted to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding something, and saw there were many reviews that felt similarly to me, so I decided not to continue with the book.

To be honest, I stopped fully reading this book 50% of the way through. I wasn't enjoying where the story was going, so I started skimming after that to see how the plot might progress and how this first book would end. The main reason I didn't like this book is the romance - Beauty and the Beast, but insert a colonizer for the Beast. Don't get me wrong, I love an enemies-to-lovers book, but this just wasn't it for me; some lines shouldn't be crossed and it seems that our FMC forgets about those lines when she develops a heavy case of Stockholm Syndrome. Ruying was rarely faced with an easy set of decisions, but in her panic, she rarely chose the least bad of the two - not until the end of book 1. I struggled quite a bit with this book as the world-building was minimal (at least in the first half of the book), the self-loathing was all I was taking in from Ruying, and the morally grey characters were outright terrible people, clearly far from the grey zone between right and wrong. I likely will not continue on to the second book.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Bellantine, Molly X. Chang, and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review - I truly do appreciate it.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC, my opinions are my own. I was hesitant to read this after seeing others say it was a colonizer romance, but after reading I'm not sure that's the case. I'm definitely intrigued to read more and see where this goes and if there's a bigger statement being made here. This is one to read for yourself and not fully trust the masses who just repeat each other.

I absolutely loved this book! From start to finish it had me on the edge of my seat. The action, the angst, the tension... all amazing! I can't wait for the next book!

I have this five stars and a heartfelt review.

This book held personal meaning to me because I am the grandchild of many missing and murdered indigenous people.

Molly X. Chang did an excellent job of weaving a survivors story of love lost, love gained and the love that remained. Self love, self loathing- the things we do for survival, the things we do when we believe in someone so sincerely and often it is borne of political value. The limitless love we have for someone who has only done their best.

While a fantasy genre, this was so raw and so real! It brought tears to my eyes, it made me angry. Happy. Sad. Fulfilled. Torn in two pieces.

Over all an excellent piece of literature that touches on so many subjects but still allows the reader to engage in a different world entirely. Still brutal, yes. But also beautiful.

Thank you to Molly X. Chang and the publisher Del Rey for an advanced readers copy. This one will go on my favorites shelf and I’ll never let it go.

The words herein are my own.
Trigger warnings:
Genocide, torture, death of a good friend, child neglect, drugs.

A debut fantasy about the Roman invasion of Er-Lang (inspired by<a href="https://www.pacificatrocities.org/human-experimentation.html">the Second Sino-Japanese war when Japan invaded Manchuria in China and the horrors of Unit 731</a>), rich in cultural detail and prose, but also pensive on the costs we're willing to pay to survive and protect our loved ones, the moral lines we cross, and what it means to fight for our people. The first in the Gods Beyond the Skies series by [author:Molly X. Chang|23053455], the narrative focuses largely on Ruying's internal conflict as a Xianling (one who has magic) trapped in her circumstances in Roman-invaded Jing City, having witnessed firsthand what the Romans have done to her family and her people, the Pangulings.

There's some romance involving the enemies-to-lovers trope, but I wouldn't really call it a romantasy - it reminded me a lot of [book:Fathomfolk|173404001]. Also woven into this part of the plot are themes of ambition, politics, and greed.

Personally, I like the premise/themes and the world and the prose, but I'm not quite attached to the characters yet.

It's a bit slow-paced as the world and the characters are built, and I thought a lot more will happen in this first book, but I think it will pay off - at the risk of turning away a lot of readers at this point.

I'm definitely looking forward to reading the rest of the series - book 2, [book:To Kill a Monstrous Prince|63347409], is slated to come in 2025! I'm excited to see a little more plot development there!

This book was just okay for me. It is being marketed as an adult fantasy in the US and a YA fantasy in the UK. It definitely read more YA, and if I had know that I wouldn’t have requested the Netgalley arc.

I won’t go into a detailed synopsis because this book doesn’t really bring anything new to the table. It’s a pretty typical YA fantasy. There’s a girl with a special power and she falls for the enemy prince, but she also has a childhood best friend that could possibly become a love interest. That pretty much sums up the entire book. Not a lot happened, and the “enemies” fell for each other pretty quickly. I won’t be continuing the series.

I have to admit that what drew me in to this book was the gorgeous cover and its description. Reading the book was a different vibe entirely. If I could assign this book a color, it would be grey; it's all one volume, all one color, and repetitive to the point that I had to put it down about 60% of the way in. Nothing changes, the stakes aren't raised, everyone is just doing what they would usually do while stating on and on about the fragile peace or possible war. I also don't enjoy the "attraction to the oppressor" type love story, which is where this story seems to want to go.

You come into this story at the least interesting moment in the world's history! Give me a book about when the Romans first burst into this reality/plane of existence. The battles between science and magic! Without having any attachment to this universe, caring about anything that is going on in this book is very difficult - the writing implies that everything that will happen is already in motion, it made me feel like everyone involved was swimming against the current of the inevitable.

A lack of investment in the characters, the bland world-building, and the boring story were all reasons that I chose to place this title on my "Did Not Finish" shelf. It's a shame, that cover was very enticing and promising.

This book had so much potential when I read the synopsis I was so excited to have received the arc… but it didn’t live up to expectations due to two big reasons for me. First was the opian (opium) there was a lot of talk about addiction and how deadly it is.. I related to Ryuang a lot because I have a sister who was an addict and I know how hard that is but the fact there was no warnings about the drug addiction was a turn off for me. So if that’s a trigger for you now you are aware.. and second the colonizer/colonized relationship was an ick for me. Antony who is a Roman prince has so much power over Ryuang and has threatened to harm her family if she doesn’t do what he wants.. I wish there was no romance in this book that would have made it better rather than this almost Stockholm syndrome budding relationship.

Anything featuring Asian characters with a romantasy element instantly makes it to the top of my list of everything.

It has been a long time since I've been this confused about how to evaluate a book. I'm usually able to emerge out of a read with a clear rating like 99% of the time. This book is that 1%.
The ambiguity is mainly because I devoured this book so fast and I couldn't stop reading, but when you think about it after the fact, some things start popping up that are a bit of a question.

Touching on some of the good stuff, I loved the concept of this. There's so much potential with this plot, and the world-building was good enough that there will be plenty of material to continue with this series. Ruying wasn't the most likable main character, but I think that was the intention (morally grey boss women, yes), and the use of her power as a weapon was interesting to see develop. She made some questionable choices in this book, but I liked seeing her navigate the circumstances she was thrown into, while protecting her people from back home.

Her relationship with Antony was something I actually really liked throughout the book. Until the plot twist at the end, I thought they had a steady partnership that had grown into mutual care and protection, and I always enjoy the villain arc that Antony loosely fit into. I was eating up the way their dynamic was evolving, until I started to touch upon the fact that this was very resembling of romanticization of colonialism. A lot of the reviews with this book pointed out the clear power struggle here, because Antony wasn't just someone on the opposite side, he was in a ruling position. Direct colonization of Ruying's people. And he continues to exercise this even with Ruying by his side, using her own powers. The line there is so ambiguous that I'm not sure how to interpret that relationship and how it might build in the next books in this series.

I also didn't quite understand the existence of Ruying's sister to the story. She only showed up for one scene towards the end to badger Ruying about her choices. That didn't end up hindering Ruying at all, honestly, and the shift only happened when she saw everything with Taohua.

Barring the morality of the romance here and some plot holes, I think there is potential and I look forward to the next book!!

The magic system in this book was not as developed as I would have liked, and the actions of the characters were not round. The relationship dynamic did not grab me and was often disturbing at times, and the main character's justification for her actions for a family that repeatedly asks her not to continue what she is doing was hard to sympathize with. I would have liked more background on the world and the magic system, and there needed to be a stronger thematic stance on the horrors of Imperialism.

I guess I expected more with this. I expected a city with people who can do magic, and I expected multiple forms of that to be shown. It understandably focuses on the main character, but I just wanted more. I understand some didn’t like this one because it’s a “colonizer romance”, and I admit, it did feel weird to read. It’s an odd choice, to say the least, to have Ruying catching feelings for this guy when he’s willing to manipulate her the whole time. I usually finish a series that I start, so even though this was just “ok” for me, I’m curious enough to see how it goes.

A major fault of the book is that it's often jarring. Not so much in terms of content but temporally. We spend what feels like a lot of time with Ruying in the beginning seeing the pacing of her life, how her family has come on hard times. Then there's a raid and Ruying is brought to Antony and eventually becomes his personal assassin. Yes, we do get a couple of scenes with her acclimating to this we then jump to her having been in this role for a few months. Then later we jump again to her on this diplomatic mission and the fallout from that. In short it felt lik this book was speed running the plot points. There were glimpses of more nuanced takes and conversations that felt cut short so that we could continue to make the book feel more fast paced than it needed to be.

This review does contain minor spoilers.
To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods has a really interesting magic system that I would love to see more of. Unfortunately, this was the only thing I really found intriguing in the book. There was next to no world building, until towards the end when they visited Sihai. That city was described in great detail and I felt like I could see it in my head. The same could not be said about the rest of the book. I keep going back and forth in my feelings regarding Ruying. I liked her willingness to sacrifice everything for her grandmother and sister, but at times she was annoyingly indecisive about what to do. It felt like every other page she was having an internal debate about whether or not she was doing the right thing by agreeing to kill her people in exchange for the safety of her family. I understand the struggle, but at the same time it was used very repetitively. I think that this could be remedied in the sequel.
The romance in the book leaves a lot to
be desired. I really think that in this case the romantic subplot takes away from the book instead of adding to it. My hopes are that the next book steers clear of the current proposed love interest.
This book has the foundation of a really brilliant magic system, but for me everything else was lacking. I can still see myself reading the sequel so I can find out what happens to Ruying.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was not able to read this book in it’s entirety due to the heavy themes of colonialism and oppression, alongside a romance between two characters of opposite sides. This is not an enemies to lovers (or Zutara) romance. This is a book about how a young woman who hates another group of people for what they have done and are currently doing in her country, only to become complicit in it’s actions. On top of that, the writing is very simple, the characters are inconsistent, and the pacing skips over very important details in the timeline.

The book is beautifully written, and I’m hoping there’s a part two so we can see what happens now the mc has stepped into her power and is ready to defend her people .

I enjoyed the world building and characters in this book. I thought the clash between magic and science, as well as, Asian culture vs Roman, was different. I liked that the FMC was a twin and they had dueling magic. I liked that there was this tension of a pending revolution and what way was the best to peace. I thought the very slow burn of the romance was good for a book that is fantasy/adventure forward. I do feel that I was left with a lot of questions at the end. I also think that there were a lot of characters introduced and then nothing really came from them as I thought they would. I know that sometimes fantasy books start slow and the second book is where the story truly picks up.

My hope is that the story continues and more characters come into play. I'd like to see the FMC also self develop more, as she spent most of this book pouncing between a few emotional states.

If you like Asian cultures, large variety of magic, and environmental impact, I think you would enjoy this book. I found that the tempo is slow, but there was also a lot of world building.

I received an eARC this book from NetGalley and exchange for an honest review.

This book was painful to get through. I forced myself through it because I wanted it to get better. It just got worse. It started as a story of oppression and burgeoning war and turn into a colonizer romance, which made me wanna puke every step of the way. I could not relate to the main character because I saw no redeeming qualities in the man she was supposed to be falling in love with. The decisions she made were unfathomable to me. I will not be reading book 2 and will probably be forgetting this book. The author tried to show AND tell what was happening and as a result we had chapter upon chapter of being told the same thing over and over again. I made it to the 50% mark and nothing had happened at that point except to be told the same bits of information over and over again. Long story short: Romans colonizing Er-Lang, using the drug opian to subjugate the population, girl with death magic who’s afraid of her power allows colonizing prince to use her as a tool of war, girl is blind to everything everyone is saying and everything around her until the very end when they finally kill her best friend and she’s like oh. I could probably go on longer, but I want to be done with this book and this review.

Gorgeous cover. Writing could have been better. The novel is highly entertaining, and that's what made me finish the book because honestly the writing didn't fascinate me. I felt like I was being bombarded with info dump and the protagonist's monologue to explain a world that they could have shown us with actions or with more subtlety. The romance felt very forced, I really felt like the male lead was always deceiving the female lead. However, I understand where this naivety of the protagonist comes from, because as it is said in the book, he was the first guy who didn't treat her like she was a monster, the first to show feelings for her, and also "showed" her that he had a good side, that you had also suffered like her. When you don't have a good conception of yourself, you will look for affection even in the most narcissistic person.

well. i'm going to be honest, i don't think this book warranted all of the discourse. the prose isn't bad, if a bit over-confident for a debut, i don't care for most of the tropes the book is marketed on but. it's fine. it's literally just fine