Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

I hesitated to write this review because I wanted to like this book so bad. However, I think I fell in the minority because this was kind of a struggle to get through for me.

I guess I felt like this was supposed to be a fantasy and a romance, and in my opinion, it didn’t feel like either one of those. Or maybe this just isn’t what I look for in a fantasy. I also need more romance in a book to consider it one.

I felt like most of this book was very slow paced and very hard to get through. It did pick up in some parts so the entire thing wasn’t so slow, but all in all it was very hard for me to get through this one.

I’m also not a fan of sad books and with that ending it made this have less stars for me. I personally read to make me happy not to make me sad.

All in all, I’d probably give it 2.5 stars and round up to 3. There were some good parts, but I’m not sure if I would recommend it or not.

I loved the premise of this book and enjoyed the execution for the most part. The only thing I wanted more of was detailed descriptions of Xishi's training. The fast pace of the plot may have hurt more than helped the evolution of the story, but enough was done in setting the political scene at court and the machinations of both concubines and advisors to maintain favour to keep me engaged. The longing that develops between Xishi and Fanli was mostly done off page with the reader building their relationship from their interactions and time spent together.

Know thine enemy is the foundation of this read. For only then can you defeat them. The way in which desire and beautybwas used as a means of toppling the conquerors was good and I love stories that show the more subtle ways in which power can be dismantled. Enough was done with character building for the reader to form opinions of each of the main characters and to follow their actions on the page. Definitely a read I'd recommend.

I cried my eyes out reading this. It was such a devastating yet beautifully written story. Ann Liang truly has a gift for storytelling, as I was completely immersed in the plot and immediately fell in love with the characters. I was unfamiliar with the legend of Xishi before reading this, but I am definitely going to look it up and will probably cry some more. I was sobbing throughout the last few chapters and continued sobbing for three hours afterward. I'm crying again just thinking about the characters as I type this. I don't know if my heart will ever recover from this pain.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

2 stars

I was really looking forward to reading Ann Liang's first fantasy novel since I loved her YA contemporary romances (If You Could See the Sun and I Hope This Doesn't Find You). While I applaud her for branching out to a different genre, I think she still has a lot to improve. To begin with, I barely consider this a fantasy and more of a historical fiction. There was barely any fantasy elements at all until literally the last two chapters. There was also supposed to be a romance, but it came off as instalove and the two love interests were only together for a total of maybe 30% of the book. Honestly speaking I was convinced Xishi was just going to end up with the villain because they actually had some meaningful interactions. I'm genuinely surprised because her YA contemporary books were great and have characters with personality. The only characters I found to be somewhat interesting were Xishi's friend Zhengdan and the evil king Fuchai (tbh even including Fuchai is a bit of a stretch but that's how much I didn't care about Xishi and "main guy" Fanli). The only positive thing I can say is that the writing is actually beautiful, but the basic plot and characters ruin it unfortunately. Overall I'm disappointed in this book since I felt like it had potential.

I received this book as an ARC.

While I want to preface that I greatly enjoyed this book, I struggle to see how it fits in the romance or fantasy genres. I feel like it more clearly aligns with historical fiction.

I liked the premise of the story a lot but feel like some tweaks could have made it even better. The villain is sorely lacking in the villainous behavior and I found myself rooting for him. I think that the characters as a whole could have used a bump throughout the story to show their growth despite their hardships. I would have liked for there to be more world building and understanding of the realms.

I, overall, sped through the book as I followed the blights of our FMC and would do it again in a heartbeat!

This book definitely intrigued me, with the cover and premise. My only grief was that it seemed too easy to fool the emperor at times. But I was devastated with the ending, did not see that coming. Decent read for me, thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

Thank you so much Ann Liang and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC of A Song to Drown Rivers. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A Song to Drown Rivers is one of those books that you hear a lot about before it even publishes. I’d honestly heard nothing but good things and couldn’t wait to read the story for myself. After finishing the last page, I can undoubtedly say that I understand why everyone is raving about A Song to Drown Rivers!

I absolutely loved FMC, Xishi! She’s inspired by the legend of one of the Four Beauties of Ancient China and she is a force to behold. Although most are swift to value her for her beauty, her intelligence and quick thinking are what impressed me the most. This woman was able to change the course of a whole kingdom by thinking on her feet, which is a power all its own!

As the story unfolded, I found myself having a difficult time putting the book down. A Song to Drown Rivers is written in such a way that I felt like I was on the undercover mission right along Xishi. I could just picture her training how to beguile the king, delivering secret messages in the form of origami flowers, and sneaking forbidden moments with the man she actually loves. It’s just that good!

Finally, that ending 👀. I promise I won’t give anything away. I just have to tell you that I didn’t see it coming. Not. At. All. In fact, after I read the last sentence, I had to put the book down and stare into space for a bit while I processed everything. Without a doubt, those last few pages will live rent free in my brain for a long time to come.

In the pages, you will find:

🇨🇳 Ancient China
💪 A strong FMC
🏰 Kingdoms in peril
👑 Royality
🤫 A secret mission
🤝 A strong female friendship
🤔 Plotting and scheming
❤️ Closed door romance
🤯 An ending you won’t soon forget

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

#asongtodrownrivers #annliang #stmartinspress

3.75 stars!

This was a gorgeous book of intrigue, deception, beauty, and the rise and fall of kings. Xishi, a young woman with beauty beyond compare, is trained to be a spy on the inside, sent off to marry an oppressive king and dismantle his kingdom from the inside. As time flies (and I mean flies, a year passes in just a sentence in the middle of a chapter), she never wavers in her mission, always remembering the land she left, and the man she left that she could have had a future with in another life.

This was a cool adventure for me to learn another culture’s mythology, and I’m certainly going to be looking deeper into it after this!! Xishi was a great main character, strong and fierce and steady, loyal to those important to her. The cast of characters rounds out nicely with spy trainer and long lost love interest Fanli, petty and penchant and childlike king Fuachai, and devoted and tough best friend/lady in waiting Zhengdon. We spent so much time with Xishi that we got to see the people in her orbit, but I wish we would have had more time with some of them. The book moved incredibly fast, which was helpful in not getting bogged down in the minutiae but also was a bummer as things weren’t as fleshed out as they could be.

This was a great standalone that definitely had me in my feels and opened up my cultural feelers! Thank you so much to Ann Liang and NetGalley for a chance to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc!!!

A Song to Drown Rivers, although different from Ann Liang's usual books, is reflective of the author's encaptivating writing, keeping you hooked from beginning to end.

At no point did I know where the story was headed and I was more and more excited to get further into it. The historical elements of the book combined with the sprinkles of romance and anticipation was perfect, especially coming from an author with such different other releases.

I loved the protagonist, how she was so smart throughout the entirety of the book, how she got herself out of difficult situations and tricked her way forward.

I was very excited for what I had hoped would be a happy ending, but seems like I was also tricked. Insert angry emoji.

Overall, an amazing read, as one can expect from Ann Liang!

Oh how I loved this!! Perfectly masterful in story and the characters were moving, real and complex! A beautiful standalone masterpiece of Asian fantasy storytelling! Xishi, Fanli, Fuchai were such wonderful characters- I enjoyed this immensely!

This was a captivating novel. While this book wasn't what I thought it was going to be, but well worth the read. I wasn't impressed with the ending but I did love the book. A recommend despite the ending

Thank you publisher and netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own and isn't influenced by anyone else

This book was good and I do recommend it, however, I think it could have been so much better. It had a lot of wasted potential. Everything seemed very glossed over and sped through. The romance was lacking and there were fantasy elements that could have been explored more. Each character fell a little flat for me as well. This book needed to be longer and more fleshed out. That being said, I read through the second half very quickly and spilled a couple of tears at the end. I did enjoy this book and am glad I read it, but it left me wanting more. If the author had dove a little deeper into the book and taken more time with her story, this could have been 4 stars easily with the potential of 5 stars. Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for allowing me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Ann Liang for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for A Song to Drown Rivers coming out October 1, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I really love Asian stories, especially based on legends. So I was excited to receive this book. I thought it felt a little like Mulan if I were to compare it. But then a lot of it was about Xishi’s beauty. It was a little like House of Flying Daggers as well. I really enjoyed the plot. I would’ve liked a little more substance to the dialogue. Sometimes it felt a little cliche. There was a lot of world building, so I get it. If there’s another book, I’d check it out.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Asian stories!

This was 4 stars for me!

I absolutely loved the world building that was developed in this story. It was magical and precise, especially the way the characters found their way into the story. I loved the way each character was developed to have you root for them and truly wish the best for their end game. Not only is this cover gorgeous but the plot and characters make it so enjoyable.

Hands down an amazing read!

More of a 3.5 maybe.

This was definitely one of my most anticipated books of the year and despite receiving the arc long ago, I kept putting it off. As luck would have it, I got the audiobook copy narrated by none other than the amazing Natalie Naudus and had to pick it up immediately. And as always, her narration is an unforgettable force of nature.

I went into this without knowing the original myth coz I wanted it to feel fresh in my mind and was immediately intrigued by the beautiful Xi Shi. The writing is also very lyrical, with a poetic flow to it, and listening to it made it much more interesting. But I have to say, the plot and characters didn’t live up to what I was expecting from it. Most of the plot happens off the page and we are told about it later, which made me feel very detached from the characters and I couldn’t root for them as much as I wanted.

Xi Shi and her love interest Fanli are also separated for most of the book, with just a few intense scenes between them all throughout, which makes the marketing of the book as a romance disingenuous. The spy part of the storyline also felt unsatisfactory because while I enjoyed the developing dynamics between Xi Shi and the enemy king Fuchai, I would have loved to see more of both Xi Shi’s training to be a spy and the way she applies her training to seduce Fuchai and make him do his bidding. What she actually does in the book felt too simplistic to be such a decisive factor in changing the fate of two kingdoms.

While it might feel like I’m only criticizing the book, it’s more just me venting my frustration because I wanted it to be so much better. But despite these issues, I never did get bored throughout and really enjoyed listening to the audiobook, and was quite heartbroken towards the end. If you are interested in the book, do go in noting that this is more of a historical fiction drama and not a romantasy, and it might temper your expectations. I still wanna see what the author writes next outside of her usual YA contemporaries.

2.5 stars, rounded down
——————

I almost DNFed this book multiple times. I really tried, it just wasn’t for me.

This book had all the markers for something I was I usually love: fantasy, romance, a heroine. But something in the execution of it fell totally flat. The plot was expected, nothing new. I knew how it was going to end very early and found there was no really buildup to it. The book was almost too simple? It was clear to understand but there is no suspense at all. Events fly past, entire years flew by in this with no real action. What even was the world, because it’s barely explained. And her beauty becomes an entire plot point that the book revolved around. We get it, she’s beautiful. Mention something else about her, she’s literally taking down a whole rival Empire. Even the characters were entirely flat. This romance was boring and had no buildup or substance to it. The only character I really liked was killed. I just couldn’t connect to any of them.

This book has so much potential to be great but it was a definite flop for me.

3.5/5

A Song to Drown Rivers is a standalone fantasy about Xishi, a commoner and part of the Yue Kindgom, who is tasked with using her beauty to win over the rival Wu Kindgom’s King and work as a spy for the Yue. It’s based on an actual Legend of Xishi (don’t look it up if you want to read this—it’ll spoil it for you). I looked it up after reading it and it does very closely follow the legend.
 
Overall, I liked it but didn’t love it. What I liked about A Song to Drown Rivers was that it was mostly fast-paced, easy to understand, and I also liked the FMC, Xishi. What I didn’t love was that I wish the romance in here was a little more fleshed out. You’re shown a very small snippet of Xishi training for multiple weeks with the Yue Kindgom’s military advisor for her task of becoming a spy and winning over the Wu Kingdom’s King, and all of a sudden she’s suddenly in love with him and you as the reader don’t really see any of the buildup. Definitely some insta-love there, which I usually don’t care for too much. The ending was also very unsatisfying in my opinion, though it does seem to follow the actual legend.
 
I think if you like fantasies with female heroines who would do anything to save their people, you may enjoy this one. However, for my fellow romantasy lovers out there, I wouldn’t say the romance is very strong in this one.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book took me by surprise, I do not read anything outside of fantasy. But this was marketed as fantasy (unsure why because it definitely wasn't) and it was more of a historical fiction, and I really enjoyed it. I read it so quickly and I could not put it down once it really picked up. This was based on a true historical story of Xi Shi of the four beauties of ancient China and most of the main events in the book were true to the true legend. The entire journey of Xishi was amazing and her growth from a peasant girl to a spy was exhilarating and anxiety filled. Her relationship with Fuchai and his behavior as this ruthless king who only wants to be seen for who he is. The ending with him had be in tears and even towards the end I did not want him to die either because he was only the product of his environment. Although, my heart hurt for Fuchai, Xishi's relationship with Fanli was my favorite. He and Fuchai were opposites where Fanli was cool and calculated Fuchai was emotional and irrational. I think this paradox was hard for Xishi to reckon with and even though Fuchai was ruthless and violent she would often forget he was a wolf. She may have taken down his empire and was a hero to her own she felt shattered by it all. It was fascinating to witness her feeling the lines start to blur towards Fuchai despite her thirst for revenge.

The only reason this was not five stars for me is because I absolutely hated the ending especially knowing what the real ending was based on the story. I think that there was this huge build up for Xishi and Fanli and then she dies. I hate when they kill the main character, it did not feel necessary at all.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book tells a vivid story about Xishi's mission to be a spy and concubine in the Wu court on behalf of the Yue. I liked the beginning, which clearly laid out the history between the two kingdoms and established Xishi's backstory and motivations. After she leaves to begin training for her mission, I felt that the pacing was a bit odd. I expected more time to be spent on everything she needed to learn, especially considering that she had to essentially reshape her personality. I also wanted more planning with the Yue before she left for the Wu kingdom. Presumably these discussions did happen, but they were off-page. This pattern continues as Xishi begins to ensnare the Wu king. Alliances are built and foundations for undermining are laid, but then we don't see any more of the actual plotting and scheming. Because I don't know what to expect, I have nothing to anticipate or be stressed about, since all I know is, "the plan has been made and it's happening tonight." I also wish that more of the emotional aftermath had been explored, particularly with those who were Xishi's willing (and unwilling) accomplices. The focus was mostly on her relationships with the Yue minister and the Wu king, which is fine, but I wanted to see more maneuvering and complicated court navigating.

I do think this book had strong messages about the cost of war and perpetuating cycles of violence. The historical setting was also done well, and the writing style was very descriptive and easy to read. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a historical read with plenty of emotional conflict.

4.5 stars! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this advanced copy! You can pick up A Song to Drown Rivers on October 1, 2024.

This book was absolutely gorgeous from beginning to end. The writing was lyrical, but not too flowery, and I love how Ann Liang built this world and these characters. The story felt almost addictive, like when you binge a TV drama, and it had compelling interpersonal political and romantic conflicts.

Xishi and Fanli's forbidden romance was delicious and heartbreaking, especially when you're almost tempted to root for the villian of our story, Fuchai. But Liang reminds us time and time again how awful he is, tempering the times we want to sympathize and pity him with the moments when we hate him, like Xishi. Liang showcased how easy it is to place people into boxes like "enemy" when in reality we're so multi-faceted it's impossible to be only one thing.

The ending absolutely devastated me, and I did NOT see it coming. It did feel right, though, after everything that occurred. I wish we'd had a little bit more on-page romance, but the moments we did get had me kicking my feet giggling.

If you're looking for a historical drama with forbidden romance, political maneuvering, and a woman getting revenge, this is your book!