This is my favorite kind of romance: heartbreaking, star-crossed lovers who are kept apart before their romance can truly take flight by circumstances.

Xishi, renowned for her beauty, is recruited by Fanli, the king's top advisor, to become a spy. She's to be offered as a concubine in tribute to the conquering neighbor kingdom, whose warriors killed Xishi's sister. But as Fanli gives her the training she'll need to enter court and captivate the king, he may find himself captivated, too. And Xishi finds her heart torn between desire for Fanli and desire for revenge.

Xishi must summon all her cunning to enchant the young, handsome, and spoiled King Fuchai—each step into his heart pulling her further from Fanli. Determined to use her beauty to topple a kingdom, she risks everything. This captivating tale will keep you turning the pages to see if Xishi and Fanli can find their way back to each other.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Holy crap…I’m not ok. This book has ripped my heart out in the best way possible. I can count the number of times I’ve cried because of a book on my hands. This books has so much beauty to it. It really highlights the horrors of war and that no country really wins. No side is ever truly evil and wrong. It was a masterpiece and I loved it so much. Please please read. And be prepared to cry.

I love anything that is of a mythological persuasion, and this one did not disappoint. It at times breaks you heart, and makes you have all the feels (anger, longing, hope). It was a great read.

I loved Ann Liang's venture into adult fantasy! When I heard that this book was a retelling of a Chinese myth/legend, I was immediately interested and it did not disappoint. I was already intrigued by the concept of wielding beauty as power, and I thought Ann did a great job of weaving that into the plot. I loved the development of Xishi's character and her relationship with Fanli, and I thought the pacing was really well done!

I really wish that Liang had gone deeper into this story - it was good, but overall, it felt a little surface-level and shallow. It also felt pretty juvenile - for being an adult novel, it didn't have the bite or spice I was hoping it would have. I'll definitely read more from Ann Liang, but won't go out of my way to get it early again.

This book was unbelievably addictive. From the very beginning, I adored the MC. And from the very first interaction with the love interest, I was completely hooked by the tension and chemistry they had, he was an amazing character.
The world, the set up for the plot... amazing.
The pacing and the writing got an A+ from me.
I loved the set up for the villain and the grey areas we got to explore with him.

However....
first of all, the love interest felt all talk and no action at times... I get this was his job and the mission but he literally was the least protective/possesive hero I've read and I didn't like that, especially when then he'd try to play it as if he was.
The MC falling for the hero and having such devotion to him felt a bit... unfair and slighty one sided, even though I know it wasn't. It just felt like it went from 0 to a hundred way too quickly and without much lovey moments from them. Which brought me to think this was more about the Kingdoms, and politics. And that's what would be developed... but....
Everything in this story kept pointing towards the MC realizing that both sides had good and the other Kingdom weren't all monsters... and yet she kind of did a little, but completed her mission as if there was nothing wrong with that, abadoning everyone she met there in the blink of an eye. It was extremely disppointing and underwhelming. At times it felt like she wasnt reacting to things, or took to long to feel things in response to events. And not just because she was faking it, it felt like her development was stunted or came too late.
Her ending in a way felt deserved because of all she did and didn't do, how late it all came to her head.

And now, the ending.... I don't think it was a bad ending, I actually think it was a GREAT ending. It's just not my personal preference. Definitely not a romance/romantasy. But still good!

I adored this story. It was incredibly grounded and I loved the ability to explore the human side of villains. The desperation to free themselves of the horror that was the Wu court truly came out. While it was painful, the ending was exactly what the story needed. The women in this story feel like they are alive and living today and the story maintains realistic beats throughout. I've being able to learn more about legends and myths that I did not grow up hearing.

Reviewed February 17, 2025;

I hadn't read anything by Ann Liang before but the description and cover caught my eye. The story is inspired by the legend of the four beauties of ancient China.

The story follows Xishi, a young peasant woman from an outskirt Yue village, described as a beauty with the power to topple kingdoms and overturn cities. A famous Yue military advisor, Fanli, visits her village and presents Xishi with an opportunity to use her beauty to bring down the Wu kingdom, as a concubine to the Wu King, Fuchai. Xishi begins training as a spy with Fanli. At the end of her training, she is presented as a gift to the Wu King, Fuchai. Several themes include power, war, trust, friendship, violence, love, beauty, sacrifice, and betrayal. The plot will keep you invested from beginning to end.

Towards the end, I had mixed feelings about the female main character, Xishi, although, I believe you were meant to question her choices. It felt like she started developing real feelings for Fuchai since his feelings were ultimately genuine. Admittedly, I enjoy the enemies-to-lovers troupe, and I thought that's where this plot was headed. It wasn't and I didn't feel there was enough relationship building between Xishi and Fanli to believe their love story. Overall, I enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to others to read.

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

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang!

Actual Rating 1.5

There were so many things about this book that were promising, that made me sure I was going to love it. I was most intrigued by the ancient setting, the chance of seeing the worldbuilding relating to the two cultures, and the spy/intrigue aspect of it all. But these elements were drowned in a lot of the weaker YA tropes that made this book feel just like all other mediocre YA fantasies I've read in the last few years. It kind of felt like this book was really just written for the youngsters these days who want their BookTok boxes checked without caring about quality.

There's insta-love; a love triangle (because of course everyone has to be hot); there's the gorgeous protagonist from the country who is saved by the stunning, strong advisor; the ten weeks of training (to become a world-class assassin mind you, only ten weeks for this) is really just focused on her learning how to hide her feelings and mooning after the man she know she shouldn't; and more. Super disappointed by this one and I'm not even going to get into the lack of character depth/development and growth.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Xishi is an unparalleled beauty in a country that is still recovering from a crushing loss against its neighbors. A defeat in a war that cost not just the country's honor, but saw her village attacked and her little sister murdered. Her beauty catches the eye of court strategist Fanli and he gives her the chance to avenge the country by going to the foreign king's court as a concubine and spy. Except training with Fanli creates a deeper connection than just strategist and pawn, and arriving in her new country lets her see the war from both sides. Will Xishi be able to achieve her goal when her heart is with Fanli and the king she thought of as pure evil turns out to be nothing more than human?

It did not go at all how I expected yet somehow still managed to be everything I thought it would be. The way that Liang deals with all the mess of emotions and betrayals that come with war and the search for revenge is impressive. You will feel for both sides of the conflict in a way that makes it clear there is never a clear winner and there's no true healing in revenge. Liang's writing highlights characters' reasons and motivations so that you can connect with even those characters you would consider evil or inexcusable. It's all about human emotions and empathy.

The one thing I could possibly complain about is that getting attached to characters is dangerous.

Delighted thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the excellent read!

The premise was interesting but the execution was a bit bland.

A beautiful young woman infiltrates an enemy court.

I really wanted to like this one more than I did. I was immediately drawn into the story by the forbidden love and espionage aspects but was disappointed by the lack of action overall.

Her training is kind of glossed over. When she finally infiltrates the enemy court I was missing the intensity of the situation and the stakes felt pretty low.

The romance elements were pretty light. I wanted more from the forbidden romance trope which just didn’t happen.

There was so much potential with this story but it needed a few tweaks I think to deliver on what it felt like it was trying to achieve.

Forbidden Romance
Espionage
War
Longing
Bittersweet

Rating: 3/5
Spice: 0/5

#bookstackcityreviews

Thank you @stmartinspress for the #gifted copy of #asongtodrownrivers !!

Overall, this definitely reads more like a historical novel with splashes of romance than it does fantasy, so from a marketing perspective that seemed like a loss. The romance between the leads wasn't overly convincing as they actually didn't spend much time together and their relationship didn't develop much in that time. That being said, it was a a solid, enjoyable read that fans of historical reads will enjoy.

Perfect perfect perfect. This book was so good and I’m just so incredibly proud to be Asian and read Asian characters by Asian authors. The representation is amazing.

A good retelling of a Chinese myth, but I found the prose to be a little clunky. Enjoyed it, but not as much as I could have.

Unfortunately, I have to DNF this at 56%. While the writing was good, the characters are so underdeveloped that I do not care what happens to any of them.

2/5⭐️ here we go with a romantasy🙄 I’m being very generous with this rating. But I didn’t really care for the story! I don’t care about this girls beauty trying to infiltrate the king because her sister was murdered. What???!!! And the pacing was off…I couldn’t believe I was able to finish it!

The description and the tags on this book make it seem like it is going to be a romantasy book, but it is absolutely not. There are zero fantasy aspects to it, it does have a little romance in the beginning and then the rest of the book is Xishi faking a romance. There is not a HEA, which to be honest really shook me. I was not expecting the ending to be such a bummer. This book really is historical fiction / retelling.

I both liked and disliked this book. By the 50% mark I was pretty hooked, it was an easy read and I wanted to know what was going to happen (and then the ending was a let down). My biggest thing with the book is Xishi is sent to be the enemy king’s concubine, over the course of two years they share some kisses, and nothing more, but he is so entranced by her that this causes the fall of his kingdom. I just wasn’t buying it. Also, her motivation for wanting to destroy the king is her dead sister, who she stops thinking about or mentioning pretty quickly so soon I even forgot why she was doing what she was doing.

Overall for me it was mid, so 3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang retells the legend of ancient Chinese beauty Xishi, a poor village girl who was trained as a court lady to infiltrate the enemy king’s court and weaken it, allowing her own kingdom to gain control. This was my first experience with the legend, so I can’t speak to Liang’s adherence to the original story in her version, but I did enjoy the love story of Xishi and Fanli, as well as Xishi’s opportunity to avenge the death of her sister and suffering of her people. This book is a quick read and felt more YA than adult, but as a fan of YA I did not mind.

4.5 🌟
No one wins in war. This story was so well written, with easy to follow world building and imagery. The character development had me wanting to route for everyone and had my heart aching on everyone's behalf.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review