Beautifully written book that sucks you in from the very beginning and keeps you wanting more up to the end. I loved the romantic tension. This proves that you don’t need explicit scenes to create some heat. Would definitely recommend.

Fantastic historical fiction perfect for fans of Chinese dramas. The world is immersive and the story engaging.

This is an enjoyable, easy to read, kingdom romance. The writing is pretty and quite atmospheric. It was quite fast-paced and action-packed. For an adult kingdom romance, the writing and plot didn't feel like one. It was predictable, and ofc the enemy king needs to be hot and good natured and loveable (regardless of what his country did). Beauty privilege at its core and im not even talking about Xinshi. I wouldnt so far as to call this is historical (?) fantasy. I've read some east Asian historical inspired fantasy, and know when the author is picking up from the real events or story. This book didnt even have author's note to offer on the table based on what or why. It's more like a very loose telling about one of the Chinese's pretties figure in history. So yeah. The world building is okay, but it can work with more fantasy/ magic elements. This is a romance at first, other things later. Xinshi is loveable bcs she's also smart. The kingdom intricate, forbidden love, and slow burn worked well. If you're into those things, give this book a go. A quite well-written standalone.

Thankyou for the arc in exchange for honest review. Will edit and add more links once the SMP boycott lift.
3.5 stars around up~

Interesting take on an old Chinese tale, but I really couldn't get into it. Seriously, the most beautiful woman? Who determines this? And how does anyone know how anotherperson, is going as just as insanely desirable? Too short of time for training as well. Meh. Oh, well, I am sure it will find many readers who will enjoy the story.. Suspend belef. It's well written, tho a bit to rushed, Characters could have been a bit more fleshed out, as well. Be that as it may, Ann Liang has chosen a wonderful tale to retell and introduce to a new audience.

This book has lots of potential. The characters and romance were good, but they could have been better. It felt a little rushed but overall was a good story.

amazing!!! this book deserves so much hype and love, so devastingly beautiful, ann liang never fails to impress me and i love her romance books and for her first fantasy romance i absolutelyyy adorreeeeeeee this!!!!!!!!!

This book did not work for me. I had knowledge of the original story prior to reading this, but I don't think this was the retelling I was hoping for.

Between the insta-love trop and the time jumps, I found it hard to be connected to the characters and their relationships. I wanted more of the magical nature of the original story to come through. There were also plot points that felt dropped for plot reasons.

I wanted to like this, and I think that there is probably an audience for this book, but unfortunately it is not me.

3.25
But of course I did not correct him. When men say they want a lover, what they often mean is they want a mirror; they wish to see themselves reflected back at them in the best light

Before I picked this up , I skimmed reviews and noted that this was quite a divisive book so I was curious as to where I’d fall on the spectrum : I liked it ! Also “historical fantasy” where ????, why are we straight up lying to people . This is a historical fiction novel!

A Song to Drown Rivers was very accessible retelling in the sense that If you weren't familiar with the Chinese legend of Xishi (like myself) you weren’t thrown into the deep end . It was easy to follow . I only know Liang for her Young adult rom-coms so this was a different side to her writing . I loved the prose : the similes , metaphors and descriptions were so well done.

The plot was intriguing, and I actually ended up feeling sympathetic towards Fu Chai. Liang did a great job of highlighting the complexity of Xishi’s undercover mission. She was in enemy territory and carried a deep hatred for the kingdom that had caused her people so much suffering. But as she lived among them, she realised the people of Wu weren’t all bad -they were human too. The buildup was compelling, but after the climax, when the plan was finally executed, I completely lost interest.

Audiobook review
This was my first time listening to Natalie Naudus and I liked her narration . Side note but I looked into her and found out that that she’s an author too ! Her book called Gay the Pray away is YA a queer romance with strong religious themes about deconstruction, it’s sooo up my alley so I’m excited to pick it up .Thanks Ann Liang!

This book had me on edge from start to finish! The story is full of mystery, magic, and dark secrets that just keep unraveling. I loved the vibe of the world Ann Liang created—it felt super eerie and fascinating all at once! The main character is easy to root for, and there are moments that really make you think about family, loyalty, and what you’re willing to sacrifice.

Some parts of the story felt a little slow, though, and I wished we got more action sooner. There’s a lot of buildup, which works well for the spooky atmosphere but sometimes left me wanting more excitement. Still, I liked how the relationships developed and how all the twists made me rethink what I thought was happening!

Overall, it was a fun read, especially if you’re into dark fantasy and stories with mysterious magic!! The writing style was beautiful, and the ending left me both satisfied and a little haunted. I’d recommend it if you’re looking for something unique and don’t mind a slower pace.

A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang
#fantasy

I really wish that this book had a prologue. I was bored and lost for the first few chapters. Yes, that is where they introduce the world building. But in this story they needed to pick the spy they were going to send into the rival king's palace. It would have been nice to know up front. I, like many readers, like to go into a story blind. I pick books by reading their synopsis months in advance usually. Authors please give us the hint of foreshadowing in the beginning of the book.

After the spy was chosen, the story picked up for me. But it was a very slow start. This is why I took off the full ⭐. I almost didn't want to keep reading. BUT I did end up enjoying the story even though I wasn't thrilled with the ending. But this ending did make sure that the book would remain a stand alone and not become a series. All ribbons tied neatly into bows.

#stmartinspress
#asongtodrownrivers #annliang

Beautiful historical fantasy! A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang is inspired by the legend of Xishi, a beautiful girl who brings down an empire. Written as if told orally to us by the narrator, the story follows Xishi, a young Yue village girl known for her beauty who is bitter at the loss of her sister and wants revenge on the Wu kingdom. Fanli, the advisor to the Yue kingdom, offers Xishi a way to get her revenge, but it won’t be easy, and it’ll test Xishi in ways she never thought possible.

I loved every word of this story. Xishi is trained by Fanli to use her beauty and become a concubine of the Wu king, a gift form the Yue kingdom and its new spy. Xishi bravely takes on this task, learning how to use her beauty to her advantage. Her courage and determination drive her as well as the promise that her family will be well cared for. She is doing this for them and her country.

Xishi’s story unfolds in two halfs. The first is her home kingdom Yue where she learns to be a spy and temptress. The second half follows her into enemy territory where she is tasked with making the Wu king fall in love with her. During the first half, we see her relationship with Fanli unfold. I loved how they danced around each other, this tension building between them. The second half is driven by fear as Xishi enters the Wu kingdom where her every action is examined. I love how the two halves couldn’t be more different but also the same danger runs through them both.

Overall, A Song to Drown Rivers is a beautifully worded retelling of one of China’s great beauties. It is haunting, filled with danger, intrigue, and romance. Oh the romance! It is both heartbreaking and warming all at the same time. If you are a fan of historical fantasy, I highly recommend this one. It will not disappoint!

I started this book with maybe not the best of mentalities. It was about to publish so I started to "knock it out". I just have to say, even though my attitude was a little stinky, I really enjoyed the story that Ann wrote. I think the cover artwork is perfect for what's inside: a historical fantasy featuring a dynamic heroine playing a deadly game and using all of her beauty and smarts to avenge her sister and make her world a better place.
Xishi is a likeable character and I was invested in her journey and endgame.
Thank you to SMP and Netgalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

A Song to Drown Rivers is a story inspired by one of the Four Beauties of Ancient China, Xishi. She is recruited by the military advisor, Fanli, of Yue to be a spy and seduce the immoral king of Wu, Fuchai. There is a lot of political intrigue and romance in this story. The story is shorter than I expected for inspiration. There is a lot to go into about Xishi and I think the story did not quite go far enough. The story spends a lot of time going through establishing the characters and other elements that were all enjoyable and just needed a little more time to explore further.

Fuchai remained a mystery for most of the story as I wanted to explore his backgrounds and motivations a little more. There seemed to be a lot more to his character and I think it would be great to explore it. As for Xishi and Fanli, I wish that they spent more time together for the reader to further connect to their relationship. There was a lot of potential there, but I think there was not quite enough connection for me. The rest of the story was good, and the story went by quickly. The pacing was a little slow, but it did pick up towards the end. Overall, this was a good story and I look forward to reading more from the author in the future.

**I give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, for the opportunity to read this entertaining novel. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**

I'm having trouble deciding how I feel about this book, the writing was fun and enjoyable, but I can't help but feel like the story could have been fleshed out better. It was at times slow and then breakneck fast-paced, I do believe this book has been mis-marketed, it's supposed to be a romantasy but really it's historical fiction based on
the Chinese legend of the Four Beauties, there are no fantasy elements, except a teeny bit at the end, and the romance is very backstage. I wanted to root for Xishi and Fanli but I wish they had gotten more time together and more time for us to see why they are in love, because honestly she was with Fuchai more and he had some absolute killer lines that made me want her to switch things around so he was endgame. Honestly, it just felt like wasted potential. That being said, I did enjoy the writing style so I will totally try more Ann Liang books!

This absolutely had moments of utter heartbreak and devastation, with beautiful writing and a really great story. While I felt some underdevelopment with the main characters, I still enjoyed my time with this one.

This book was amazing— so much depth about the power of humanity and kindness and the futility of war. It had mythology and history and romance and action - and the prose was gorgeous.

I was promised fantasy, but it was 99% historical fiction and 1% fantasy. If this was labeled correctly, I could've at least set some reasonable expectations. (That is, not requesting the arc in the first place and reading the published version instead.) It is what it is.

The first paragraph where the FMC talks about her overwhelming beauty didn't draw me in at all. It pretty much did the exact opposite and set my mood for the rest of the novel.

I didn't find any of the characters compelling. I didn't care for the romance between Xishi and Fanli. I love femme fatale stories, but this was written in such a flat manner that I couldn't bring myself to care about Xishi's training, character development, relationship with the king, or any of the political ploys.

Two stars for the ending though. That little bit of fantasy was like an oasis after a long trek in the desert.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this arc.

A Song to Drown Rivers draws on the story of the Four Beauties from Ancient China, specifically the story of Xishi, a beautiful young woman from the Yue Kingdom who entered the court of the Wu Kingdom as a concubine in order to pull down the Wu from within. Thanks to my more American than Chinese upbringing, I was unfamiliar with this story, but was delighted my reading experience made me feel like I was watching an historical Chinese drama. Mostly. This was, unfortunately, not smooth sailing for me. It’s a more or less faithful retelling of the story, but I felt like threads were constantly dropped and lost, and time jumps felt awkward.

Xishi is probably the most beautiful girl in the Yue Kingdom, but lives modestly in a small village helping her mother wash silk. Her life is upended when Fanli, one of King Goujian’s ministers, comes looking for the most beautiful woman to send to the conquering Wu Kingdom as a tribute, but actually as a spy from within. Along with her friend Zhengdan, another beauty from the village who will serve as her palace lady, Xishi trains under Fanli to seduce Fuchai, the Wu Kingdom’s king. But the Wu Kingdom is distrustful, especially a minister who was faithful to Fuchai’s father, creating obstacles in Xishi’s path at every turn. In a court full of vipers, Xishi and Zhengdan must tread carefully in order to be successful in their mission in bringing down the Wu Kingdom, and stay alive while doing it.

A Song to Drown Rivers and I started off so well. I loved how it reminded me of the historical Chinese dramas I watched a couple of years ago, scratching an itch I didn’t know I had. Even though the descriptions generally proved to be sparser than I’m accustomed to in a fantasy novel, I felt the world came alive in my mind thanks to the knowledge I went into the novel with. It was so much fun getting to know the more reserved Xishi and her more outgoing friend Zhengdan and the extremely serious Fanli, but things started slowly going downhill once the girls reached the Wu Kingdom. After an extended training sequence under Fanli’s careful tutelage, the story then takes place over a two year span, and some of the story threads just felt a little off. The ending, too, was frustrating. The last chapter read more like an extended epilogue I didn’t need, and I felt like a second book could have been a good option to really close out the story of Xishi and Fanli, but, instead, it seemed like some really exciting things happened, but, due to circumstances, the reader doesn’t get to know any of it.

I did like Xishi, though, and I liked the subtle, soft romance between her and Fanli. Xishi may just be a village girl, but she was brought up well, even if her childhood came with the trauma of witnessing her younger sister’s death at the hands of a Wu soldier, and carried herself well throughout the novel. She’s smart and always does what her mission demands, even if a part of her fights it. I really liked her poise and determination, but I wish her personal stake in it, wanting to avenge her sister’s death, had played a bigger role. Her romance with Fanli was sweet and soft, though I was sometimes a little frustrated with how often Xishi longed for him those two years she spent in the Wu court. Their devotion to each other, though, was lovely, and a part of my heart ached for them, especially at the end.

As Xishi’s story, I felt like A Song to Drown Rivers cut out more story than I would have liked. There were so many interesting characters, and hints at court intrigue, and the reader just doesn’t really get to see any of it because only Xishi is telling the story. If Xishi doesn’t do or hear of anything, the reader doesn’t as well, and sometimes I was left frustrated because someone else was doing something more interesting than she was. It also made me feel like threads were picked up only to be dropped because the characters they dealt with had no place in much of Xishi’s story. That was a little disappointing because Xishi spent two years in the Wu Kingdom, but it’s really probably half of the book, if that, that covers her time there. Her training, which was just a matter of weeks, felt overly long, though I understand it was probably to develop that strong emotional bond with Fanli. I just would have loved to see more time poured into the time she spent in the Wu Kingdom.

I would have loved to get to know the minor characters a lot better. Fanli is coldly beautiful with a razor sharp mind. He never lets himself get above his mission, and I loved his devotion and dedication, as long as it didn’t imperil his values. I would have loved to see more of him, but of course he couldn’t be more involved in the story than he was, and, even then, it felt dangerous, which was actually kind of fun. I would have loved to get more of Zhengdan. She had such a fun personality. She isn’t quite as refined as Xishi, and definitely has her own vendetta. I would have loved to get more of her story because it felt like it ended kind of abruptly, and she was definitely one of my favorites. She was, unfortunately, given a bare bones characterization that could have gone somewhere and didn’t. Lady Yu, one of Fuchai’s concubines, could have had an amazing role in this story, but I felt like her thread was dropped just after being introduced and she didn’t get to reach her full potential. I wanted so much more, and especially would have liked to see her, Xishi, and Fuchai all together, but this was just a huge letdown. Fuchai himself was an interesting character. He came off more spoiled than evil, and I ended up feeling sorry for him because I didn’t feel like he really deserved everything that happened to him, just some of it.

The thing that bothered me the most, though, was how the prose and the dialogue felt like a mismatch to me. I know a part of me kept thinking the characters were going to open their mouths and start talking in Mandarin (which would be absolutely ridiculous in a novel), but there just wasn’t anything even remotely pretty about the way they spoke. While the descriptions and general storytelling felt beautiful, like a lovely Chinese painting, the speech made me flinch with how plain and more American it felt. Maybe this is just me, but it really bothered me throughout the novel. Xishi’s inner thoughts felt more eloquently expressed than her speech did.

But A Song to Drown Rivers did manage to entertain me. I enjoyed reading this novel, and was often surprised at how quickly I flew through it. The pacing felt a little off, and the time jump in the middle of Xishi’s time in the Wu Kingdom was a little awkward, but I enjoyed the story. It’s much more straightforward than the Chinese dramas I’m used to watching, which was a nice change of pace for me. Still, there were things that bothered me, and I really hated the ending. Overall, the story didn’t feel quite as smooth as I would have liked, but I enjoyed this Ancient Chinese-inspired novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

Thanks to St Martin’s Press for gifted access via NetGalley. All opinions below are my own.

A beautiful young girl is convinced to become the concubine of the enemy king with the goal of being a spy for the rebellion. She must transform herself into an enticing temptation even though she has lived a hard life torn by war. She falls for the man coaching her through the process but they must focus on the mission. She gets closer and closer to the king with a chance to take him down and lose it all in the process.

I loved the ending of this one. It was very unexpected. The rest was your standard fantasy love triangle with a strong base in history. The underlying theme of personal desires versus the need to sacrifice for your country, your beliefs and the hope of a better world was so on target.

Unfortunately this book was just not for me, it was way too instant lovey for me, it had so much potential tho