"I could have kissed him as if history did not exist, as if war was only myth."

I want to start by saying thank you to St Martins Press and Net galley for the amazing ARC of 'A Song to Drown Rivers'.

This book starts off with Xishi about to leave the house to run errands, and her mother reminding Xishi to wear her veil. Xishi proceeds to walk to the river near her home, in order to wash silk. There, she discovers a soldier dragging around a girl. Xishi of course could not stand by and watch, so she defended the girl, throwing a rock at the soldier. This leads to Xishi being the new target. But a mysterious man steps in saving both Xishi and the girl. They depart, and Xishi does not think shell ever run to him again. But later, he arrives at her home, looking for the infamous beauty that her village brags about. There they both find out who the other is. The mysterious man, Fanli, proposes a deal with Xishi that will save her family and the entire kingdom. But she will have to travel to another kingdom and leave her family.

Ann Liang wrote a captivating and fast paced book. I was hooked since the first chapter. Overall I would give this book more of a 3.5 Stars rather than 4. Even though I did enjoy this book, it kept falling short at times. I do love that I was never bored. I managed to read this book in a few days, even working my full time job. This book had great plot, heroines, villain's and betrayals I never saw coming until the very end.

But I do wish the book was a bit longer and did not have so many time jumps that were so long. 2 of the main jumps that I wish had not happened were, in my opinion, important ones to character and the romance aspects. When Fanli has to train Xishi over the course of 10 weeks, I was looking forward to that development and growth. But we only got a few days of it then it was a time jump up 10 weeks later. The second one was a year time jump that I felt was not necessary at all because I wanted to see more of Xishi's character development and her involvement in the kingdom and with the king himself. Because how am I just to accept that they're so trusting and connected when we did not get much of it. I just feel that the time jumps could have been used better or not at all. I would have connected with all the characters much more. I do understand that this book is a standalone but it could have greatly benefitted just by being a bit longer.

Apart from that though I do love the pacing of this book. There truly was never a dull moment and I was left mouth agape a lot through out this book. I really adore and love Xishi and I love that we finally got a book where the heroine uses her beauty to her own advantage and to further her own advantages. I like that we are able to see how she balances pros and cons to her decisions because it is not just her in danger but kingdoms, but I also love that she is raw with how she feels.

Synopsis: Based on a Chinese Legend, a young woman is picked to train and become a spy for her kingdom with the goal of seducing the enemy King.
Pros/cons: Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy, due out next month! This has sat on my shelf for months and I’m mad at myself for not reading it sooner! I thought it was so so good- full of romance and suspense, it really surprised me! The ending was terribly tragic and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it (so not quite a 5,) but overall I highly recommend!

4-4.5/5

2.5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an ARC of this book!

I want to start off by saying that I am not super familiar with the legend of Xishi and cannot corroborate to how accurate this book is to the legend itself, however I will say that the premise of this book really lured me in. It is no surprise that society as a whole unfairly places a lot of worth on a woman’s beauty, and I typically enjoy books where the FMC uses that to her advantage to acquire revenge or to satisfy her goals. This book however, fell a little short for me, personally.

I felt like the character depth was very limited in this book and I found it difficult to care about what was happening. This was super fast-paced and easy to binge; however, the pacing didn’t make sense to me. I think this book would’ve benefited from being longer and more drawn out. The book covers a timeline of just over two years, which I didn’t realize until the end because it was not outwardly stated and I felt like not much happened during that timeframe “on page”. I also felt like some plot points were just dropped or never fully explained.

I think if you connect to the romance from the beginning, you will really like this book. I personally, just didn’t. I prefer more of a slow burn in a romance where I can really understand why the characters want to be with each other, and I feel like I didn’t get that with this book. There were a lot of scenes that I would’ve loved, had I been more connected to them.

The reason that this book isn’t rated lower is due to the writing style. The prose was very beautiful at times and there were a lot of “quotable” quotes. I have heard great things about the other books that this author has released, and would consider picking one of those up, as I did enjoy her writing.

A Song to Drown Rivers - a lyrical poem of love, loss and revenge

I am unfamiliar with the Legend of Xishi, but this book has made ne determined to learn more. The kingdoms of Wu and Yue are locked in an eternal struggle of conquest and beautiful Xish is selected by Fanli, the minister, to become tribute to King Fuchian of Wu and topple the kingdom by gaining the King's favor.

One of my favorite lines of the book reads ,"Happiness was a side dish, like the sweet sticky rice cakes. But revenge - that was the salt of life. Necessary. Essential."

Ann Liang's writing reminds me of Shelley Parker Chan in composition and the ethereal quality of her navigating through Xishi's feelings has aspects of Judy A Lin and Amelie Wan Zhao.

The characters are beautifully etched, th eir emotions and thoughts veining through the marble halls of the kingdoms, shaping the future of the people. I absolutely loved this!! And am eager to see more.

Many thank yous to St Martin's Press and Ann Liang for the ARC!! I will be posting the review on Amazon once the book releases.

4.5 rounded up! This book was absolutely stunning. Liang took a world with two warring kingdoms (something that’s not uncommon in the fantasy genre) and worked it into something I’ve never seen before. All of the relationships were fleshed out and felt so raw and real. The feminine rage Xishi has, the relationships and politics, the yearning—it was all incredible!

This book and its characters will stick with me for a long time. I can’t wait to see what Ann Liang does next!

One of my favorite books of the year! I absolutely loved this story that was as beautiful as it was heartbreaking. This was my first Ann Liang book, and I was absolutely enchanted the entire time I read it. I fell in love with Xishi and Fanli. The story really drew me in and I could not put it down; I’m still thinking about it. Definitely recommend!

A special thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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!