This was a great debut from Chow that delves into “mirror realms” and a romance with high stakes. The creepiness of the figures in the mirror really captivates your attention at the beginning and keeps you intrigued as you question which prince you really trust. A fun read that also has elements of eastern mythology!

Thank you Net gallery for the advanced copy of this book. This book is full of fantasy, adventure and so much anticipation I would definitely recommend.

1.5/5 stars rounded down to 1

DNF at 42%

I struggled HARD with this one. After a promising and atmospheric opening, I was severely disappointed that the rest of what I read was a slog, so much so that I did what I never do - jumped to the end of the book to read the last chapter.

It did not inspire me to continue.

I wish the book had leaned more into the horror aspect seen at the beginning; the author did a great job of subtly unnerving me in bits and pieces, but the effect was ruined by the overall pacing, and by the questionable decisions made by main character Ying Yue.

I did learn partway through my reading that this was meant to be a duology, but was bought by the publisher as a standalone. Had the author been allowed two books to flesh out the characters and story fully, I really think this could have been great. As it stands though, because of the rushed story, the plot became predictable, the main character became massively annoying, and the relationship between the main character and her love interest jumped immediately into instalove (one of my least favorite tropes).

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free digital ARC for my honest review!

This is a delightful and imaginative romantic story with compelling characters and a familiar-yet-strange world! Keshe's descriptions are lush and detailed, and the characters were so vivid I started dreaming about them! I enjoyed this book immensely and would look forward to more works set in the real/mirror worlds.

This book reads a little bit on the younger side of YA, but not so much that it detracted from my reading experience as an adult.

The Girl with No Reflection is a YA fantasy romance from author Keshe Chow.

I was immediately drawn into this lush world as Princess Ying Yue feels conflicted about her upcoming marriage to the Prince. Then we are introduced to the creepy mirror world and those who live inside. This was a really interesting concept and I liked how everything played out.

I'm not a big fan of insta-love and love triangles, but overall I enjoyed the journey Princess Ying took and the choices she made.

I have rounded this up from 3.5 stars. What bothered me the most about the book was the instant love. Not so much with the Mirror Prince as that could be explained away with her lack of experience with romance, but with the real Prince. For the time that it happened in it would have made more sense for it to end in something less than total love. The plot was interesting, but some of it seemed a bit shallow. I do like how not everything ended happy. It overall lacked a bit of depth for me.

This book started out intriguing, but it quickly went downhill for me.

Instead of the story following the rules of the world, it was more like rules were made up when they were convenient. Very little of what was going on made sense.

And the main character's choices made even less sense. She was all over the place with her two insta-loves. And whenever things were particularly desperate or important, that was always when she would choose to either get distracted or destructively stubborn.

It was also confusing because this is categorized as YA, but things vacillated between too immature for the target audience and very mature (dubcon, graphic violence and murder, and sexual assault, to name a few).

This book was not it for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's for the ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

DNF at 27%

I loved the concept, and honestly the world was interesting...but I was several chapters in and I hated the main characters, found the plot predictable, and found myself more frustrated than engaged.

This had such a unique premise. I really liked this idea of things following you on the other side of the mirror. The book opened and the first couple of chapters had such a creepy feeling to them.

My consistent issue with this book is it felt rushed. I felt like the main character fell in love waaay too fast. I think she was betrayed by the mirror version of herself too quickly. The world and the premise were so strong but a lot of emotional beats were missed because everything was happening too quickly.

That being said. This book is good. It feels YA when you read it, and I would have preferred a more complex development of characters, but I think a lot of people would enjoy this almost bite sized fantasy. It’s very interesting and totally engrossing, just not as complex as I need my fantasy.

3.5/5 stars

3.5 stars.

This book started off and immediately pulled me in. This is a great combo of eastern mythology and newer ya fantasy. I really enjoyed the concept of this book. There's a race to beat the reflections in the mirror who you find out area actual people on the other side. I thought it was super interesting and really enjoyed how dark the author got with them and their back story.

I also really enjoyed the scenery and how well it's described. The castle and gardens surrounding it would be gorgeous in real life and I desperately want to see it. In addition we get examples of mystical beasts and creatures that are so vivid they would be genuinely terrifying to see in real life. I couldn't imagine how horrifying they are, especially the serpent water monster. No, thank you!

Now, the downfalls...I really didn't like the romance in this book. It was insufferable, the back and forth. Our girly could not pick a man and the love triangle was THICK. It really ruined the vibes for me and gave me a lot of whiplash. That's why I couldn't rate it higher because it was very distracting and I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

Overall, this does have a great ending and I would recommend to this looking for a ya fantasy book. There is a little bit of spice so I'd definitely not give this one out to kids under the age of 16.

I would like to thank Netgalley for sending me this e-arc in return for an honest review.

This book was one of my highly anticipated reads of this year and I have to say it quite sucked me in from the first page. I love the idea of this other world full of our reflections mimicking our movements so we don't know about them, and in general the mystery of what has been going on at the palace and why the Royal family has kept so many secrets. It was a book filled with magic, prophecies, twists, mythology, and romance.

My only struggle with the book is the relationship in the beginning of the book did not make any sense, it was very abrupt and fast... I get why it was for the plot, but I feel like there needed to be a bit more added to it for it to be believable.

The Girl with No Reflection by Keshe Chow spins a surreal Chinese-inspired fantasy about a new bride who switches places with her reflection in order to escape her cruel husband.

Conceptually, I love the idea of mirror worlds and sentient reflections, and I loved the moments of dreamy, creepy gothic-like atmosphere. Those parts were wonderful!

However, I feel like the story is so focused on moving its plot forward that it neglects to stop to establish its characters first. For instance, Ying and the Mirror prince's relationship felt incredibly rushed. They're googly eyed and fawning over after only knowing each other a day, and I wish they had more time to grow feelings for one another because their romance doesn't feel genuine or earned within the story.

On a similar note, the betrayals and plot twists that occur in the story don't hit as hard since relationships were hardly developed in the first place.

All in all, I think the story suffers from its fast pacing and I wish the story had slowed down to focus on its characters first.

Rating: DNF — I did not finish this book. I gave it my best try but I could not really get into it and this year I promised myself I wasn’t going to read books I didn’t like. So what did I not like about this book… the execution. The concept of this book, super cool A mirror world and someone falls in, that sounds wicked brilliant. The characters in this mirror world have to mimic the people in the real world. [My brain the whole time also thought what happens when they ‘consummate’ the wedding in the real world/mirror world.} There weren’t a whole lot of details or contexts, I couldn’t imagine the world, and then Ying just went ope OK, when going in makes no sense. Am I making sense? If I’m not then don’t try the book to see if perhaps I’m wrong, I’m not. I did give the book a fair shake — I read to 20% and then I gave up :(

Do I feel bad yes…. This book has a beautiful cover and such a cool concept. I’m so grateful for the ARC. Truly.

I enjoyed this beautifully written tale! It was full of lush prose, enchanting magic and dark secrets! It took me a little bit to get into it, but once I connected with the characters a little more I really enjoyed this story! I can't wait to read more from this author in the future!

I liked a lot of what this was trying to do, but ultimately, the world-building and plot was just too confusing for me to truly fall in love with. I didn't fully understand some of the finer points of the world and how the mirrors worked- this may have been a better book to go into without trying to understand everything and just go along for the ride.

The writing itself was pleasant- I think I'd be interested in reading a different book by the author to see if I connect with that more.

emotional roller coaster. that is what this book was. at first it was hard to get into but as i read it -for the sake of the plot- it got easier to read. i think why i found it hard to get into was that the characters were a bit shallow and i couldn’t feel connected to any of them which thankfully changed. but i feel like you have to read at least half of the book to actually connect with characters which i understand if you don’t want to. also i think there were plot holes in the book especially regarding reflections. overall tho it was a good read one of the best plot i read -even with the plot holes- and schemes were chefs kiss.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

It was a DNF

I have to start saying that this book started sooooo good, I was loving this book at the start, I thought the story was very original. But then not only things happened way too fast, but also there was a lot of things going on at the same time, very confusing to keep up. Also the story was going in circles, very repetitive.
Also I am not against cussing in books, but I did not like the cussing in this book, It just did not fit in it.

Love, betrayal, creepy mirror monsters. Sign me up! This beautifully written book has everything I love, folklore, romance, a well-constructed fantasy world and horror. I can’t wait for the author’s next book.

this was such a fun time!!!!!!! WAAAAHHHHH

the girl with no reflection.. this book.. this book may be predictable at times but ugh i was invested and i was entertained and that's what matters to me. not only that but it's got beautiful proses, it felt like i was seeing the world in a hazy sparkling filter. i love it. i've been in a reading slump but this saved me, so thank you keshe chow. i will be looking forward to the author's next works!

a big thank you to the author and the team for providing an arc.

I really wanted to love this book, but sadly it fell a little short for me. I did like the setting and the cover is absolutely gorgeous, but the plot was a bit lacking for me and sadly I decided to not finish it as I didn’t really care about the characters and was unmotivated to finish. I got about 40% of the way through it but it left me wanting. I did enjoy the writing style and descriptions so I would give this author another chance on a future release of theirs, I just want a bit more monumental of a plot. I think the plot here felt more vibes based. I also wasn’t really into the romance either. But I think a lot of people will enjoy this one and I hope those readers find it.