Wonderful! I would love to read more books like this from the author! Personally I did love the love triangle that was in this book. Even though the main interest was obvious I still had such a fun time reading it. This was a beautiful and emotional book that had me sobbing by the end.

Incredibly moving and well written. The prose and imagery are beautifully done; the story broke my heart. I am so glad that death was not the end.

“A Song to Drown Rivers” is a beautiful and heartbreaking story! Readers need to get the tissues ready! Xishi’s grace and beauty is well known within her village of Yue. She is to be used as a weapon against her enemies, by hopefully making the enemy king fall in love with her while she schemes behind his back. It’s a dangerous game!! She evolves from a simple village girl to a pivotal player in the political intrigue of the Wu Kingdom.

Ann Liang is an amazing writer! This book delves into power games, espionage, and the irresistible power of beauty, with great characterization that allows us to engage with each character deeply! The story was very well paced and I was on the edge of my seat from chapter to chapter! The ending was shocking! I LOVED THIS BOOK! I wish I could give it 10 stars!!!

Big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I loved this so much. It’s rare for a book to make me feel something, even rarer for a book to make me cry, and this book did both. I love tragedies, and that’s what A Song to Drown Rivers was.
The characters were very likable yet complex; I like how their morals weren’t perfect, yet they were still good people. Xishi’s care and sympathy for others battling against her need for revenge balanced the narrative.
The romance was insta-lovey, or at least not the most well developed due to the pacing of the book and the scarce time Xishi had together, but I still found it compelling.
4.5 stars rounded up. I wish it had been longer, as that would have given to the potential to have been even more devastating.

Ann Liang’s A Song to Drown Rivers is an emotional exploration of sacrifice and revenge.

Xishi is an unparalleled beauty who lives in a remote Yue village, terrorized by nightmares of her younger sister’s murder at the hands of Wu soldiers.

Enter Fanli, a famous military advisor to the Yue King. Fanli is searching for a beautiful girl to send as a bride to the Wu King, someone who can be trained as a spy and work to undermine the Wu kingdom.

Enlisting Xishi for this mission, Fanli trains her in deception, cunning, and intrigue. Xishi learns to use her beauty as both a weapon and as armor.

As Xishi climbs ranks with the Wu court and captures the attention of the Wu King, she finds it harder and harder to maintain her hatred. Yet, ultimately, she knows what she must do and the price she must pay for failure.

How much must Xishi sacrifice? For her family, her kingdom, and to avenge her sister? Who is the true enemy within this complicated web of lies?

This is one of the best books I’ve read this year. I loved the character development, the pacing, and the rise and fall of emotions. If this doesn’t leave you teary-eyed, you may have a heart of stone.

A Song to Drown Rivers is an incredibly interesting concept. Our primary character is a peasant in a village that was a part of the Yue Kingdom, but is currently ruled by the Wu Kingdom. The author does a good job of making you hate the Wu Kingdom. You are led to feel like they are the ones totally at fault for the troubles in the village; their poverty, the soldiers who use too much violence, and the death of her younger sister some time prior to the story itself. Likewise we are led to love our primary characters and get very in depth with their flaws and traits. The character development was really well done from the ones we love, to the ones we hate, and the ones we're honestly sure how to morally pin them.

The story itself was a bit lost on me, personally. The plot felt a bit too far fetched at points and that there were some portions of the story with too much detail and others with not enough. For example, being instantly willing to stand up to people who surely pose a threat to her; Foreshadowing that something would happen to her parents by saying she would regret leaving in the night without saying goodbye only for them to be totally fine when she returned, and the last chapter and a half of the book feeling completely detached from the rest of the story. I also struggled to follow the timeline to the story, she spoke of things taking a year to pass by at times, but then followed that by something that would have happened within the years time.

Overall the concept really drew me in. Peasant girl is called upon to be a spy to help save her kingdom and create peace, yet is that really the way to create peace. Can we create peace when those in power only want to maintain their power and continue to grow the land they own? Just wish the book felt a bit more believable and put together.

Wow, this book really took my by surprise. I loved this so much!

This book was heartbreaking, intriguing, layered, and for some reason gave me similar vibes to the Poppy War? I truly loved the characters in this book, especially the main character. It's very rare you come across an undeniably beautiful character. Most fmc's are "not like other girls" or "average" and somehow snag the hot bad boy, but this one was different.

I truly loved the plot of this book. It was enchanting, and super fast-paced. I honestly didn't see the ending coming. I really wish this book was longer, or maybe even a series because I would have loved for the author to take more time with developing the timeline and relationships between the characters. I just wanted more time and details with this story because I loved it that much!

Provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful retelling of the legend of one of the four great beauties of China! I do hope Ann continues to write the stories of the other three women, because that would make an incredible collection!

Thank you to the author, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and shed many-a-tears.
This is a retelling of a Chinese folk-story - Xishi is one of the Four Great Beauties in Chinese legend. The story stays true to what is typically understood (minus some timelines), including the names of important people (Fuchai, Goujian, FanLi). Nobody really knows what happened to Xishi at the end, I admired how the author weaved those two endings into the story - and chose what I think was the most impactful and appropriate ending for her (much to my chagrin, but a necessary one).
As a Chinese immigrant, I really cherished this digestible, and authentic version of the story for my understanding - so I could gain a piece of my heritage.

The book wasn't perfect - I thought the writing was adolescent, and many plot items just wasn't there - happened off-page. For example, the development of the romance, although convincing enough I weeped (because I'm a sucker), was really fast and -just happened-. I think the author's writing can benefit from more 'showing' rather than 'telling'. This is more largely apparent when we get to the latter half - when she's enticing the enemy, being a feminist spy icon, and illustrating the book's overarching lesson (which I'm very glad there is one) - it was all very direct and unconvincing. I never learned who Xishi really was - how was she so charismatic, and smart, and brave to topple a kingdom?

I hope Ann Liang continues with the 3 other Great Beauties in a series, and continue to develop her writing.

A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Ling is a beautifully written story about love and revenge. The words falling across the page like poetry, touching memories I had long forgotten and breaking my heart. Xishi and Fanli's story is a heart wrenching slow burn of forbidden romance. I read this book in one sitting, engrossed with the story and the characters, highlighting line after line of quotes. I have recommended it to everyone I know and plan to re-read it before it releases.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this copy of A Song to Drown Rivers in exchange for an honest review! I think this book is a wonderful historical fantasy novel! It surprised me in many ways. I found it to be a little light on the fantasy and more of a historical fiction novel. That did really work for me though as that's one of my favorite genres. But I think it's important that people aren't expecting a more traditional fantasy style book. I definitely did enjoy this story and I think others will too. The prose is wonderful and the story is one you can easily read in a single sitting. I would say overall this is a 4.5 I would round up to a 5!

Fair warning that A Song to Drown Rivers is not a romance. There is a love story, but this is not a romance. I don't think it's advertising itself as such at all and I never thought it was a romance. But in case someone is confused I just want to make sure that's clear. Now that we know that, I do want to compliment the love story. It was one that I was actually expecting not to like because it is a love triangle. I'm just never really a fan of those. That's why I was pleasantly surprised by how well this one worked in the story. It actually fit in the context of the story. Xishi is a beautiful woman working with and being trained by Fanli to turn her beauty into a weapon. They grow closer and have a connection. She wants revenge against the Wu Kingdom and is sent to seduce the king of the Wu Kingdom, King Fuchai in order to achieve that vengeance (among other reasons). This creates an interesting dynamic for the two of them, The story is woven with these complexities and is primed for betrayals that it makes the love triangle make sense while being so beautifully painful and tragic. Ann Liang has done a masterful job, especially with a trope I truly never seek out.

A Song to Drown Rivers did a great job with the characters. Fuchai is my favorite, but everyone is so well-crafted and feels real. That makes the sacrifices and the losses so much more heart-rending. I also think this book does really well with the world-building. It gave me what I felt was necessary and I was never confused, even with the complexities of warring nations and political intrigue. I think the plot is engaging, though at times, especially earlier in the book, things work out a bit too conveniently for Xishi in my opinion. The twists at the end had me completely shocked. I would say that was well-done in how things were unexpected while still making sense for the story. But wow was I caught off guard!

This book will break your heart in a way only a talented author can do to you, and if that's something you want then A Song to Drown Rivers is worth a read!

What a wonderful read! Heartbreaking and emotional, this story will take you on the most rewarding adventure.
Beautiful prose, the writing is top notch and while I won't give any spoilers, the last 1/4 of the book will have every bit of your attention! That's not to say that the rest isn't good...far from that...but i could NOT PUT THIS DOWN!!

Love, betrayal, war and the ultimate sacrifice. Stunning!!!!

"The mind destroys; the heart devours."

Xishi is such an amazing character - beautiful and strong and brave, but scared too. And the more she learns, the more dangerous she becomes.

"It is quite a different thing to help someone when it puts yourself at risk." But this is what I adore about Xishi. Though everything seems to change, her soul does not.

"She would have been trapped there forever, a bird caught in a cage. Everything within her would have wilted until only her beauty remained. But here, she was radiant."

The danger is quite real. This story moves at lightning speed. And the ending hurts like a knife.

Wow, this was excellent. It’s a retelling of the life of Xishi from Ancient China—I wasn’t familiar with the original story, but this book was compared to *She Who Became the Sun* (which I loved) so I picked it up right away. It definitely had similarities: the writing was top notch, we had an amazing female protagonist, and the characters were all complex and interesting.

I couldn’t put it down.

I do want to note: I’m seeing this shelved in lots of places as fantasy or romantasy, and while it is the retelling of a legend, there aren’t really any fantasy elements. Don’t let that stop you, though! It certainly *reads* like a fantasy book in terms of scope and pacing.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press!

Ann Liang's A Song to Drown Rivers is a heartbreakingly good read. She weaves a tale of star-crossed love, sacrifice, betrayal, and the blurred lines of war. Eastern mythology and her skillful world-building set the stage for a tear-jerking, heart-wrenching story.

The novel is a page-turner, filled with political intrigue, unexpected twists, and emotional depth. Liang's writing is lush and evocative, making the reader feel every moment of tension and heartache. The romance, while central, is perfectly balanced with the broader themes of loyalty, identity, and redemption.

Ann Liang's storytelling is nothing short of mesmerizing. Her ability to create unpredictable plot twists combined with deeply emotional character arcs sets this novel apart. Xishi's strength and vulnerability make her a heroine to root for, and her journey is both heartbreaking and inspiring. This book is an absolute must-read for romantasy lovers.

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

A Song to Drown Rivers isn't in the genre of books I normally pick up, but the description and the gorgeous cover art caught my attention and I decided to give it a shot. I was completely blown away by not just the beauty of the story of Xishi and Fanli, but by the absolute poetry of Ann Liang's storytelling.

The story begins with a chance encounter in Xishi's rural village on an ordinary day, and builds into an epic story of political intrigue, strategy, weaponized beauty, and one of the best forbidden love stories I've ever read. 5 stars, no notes, I love this book and can't wait to read more by this brilliant author. Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reading copy.

⭐️ 3.5 stars-

As someone who considers Ann Liang to be one of my favorite authors, believe me when I say that no one is more disappointed by this book than me. But also believe me when I say how shocked I am by the fact that I seem to maybe be the only person who didn’t like this book very much? Let me explain.

I’ll start at the beginning. The first act of this book…a bit of a snooze fest. It felt like the romantic leads had no chemistry and also like the main character had no personality, which is so astronomically different from Liang’s other books that I found myself genuinely baffled while reading. Nothing was really going on, and anything that was going on was told mostly in summary. And for a historical romance (that’s apparently supposed to be a fantasy? Someone please tell me where the fantasy is…this was a historical novel 95% of the book tbh), Liang’s writing style still feels strangely modern on occasion (maybe I’m just too used to her usual writing style), and there’s a lack of historical detail that left me feeling disjointed from the setting and the characters’ personalities in their time period. It didn’t really feel like Liang was particularly familiar with historical genre conventions when she wrote this novel. I just don’t know if this genre meshes very well with her writing style.

A lot of disappointments in the beginning. So many, in fact, that I put this book aside for months. But then I picked it up again, mostly because I had the ARC and felt obligated to push through because of it. And although my former complaints about the modernity of the writing style still hold, the second act picked up significantly in terms of pacing. The second love interest was introduced (oh, yeah, this is a love triangle :/ I kind of hate love triangles because I get attached/feel bad for the secondary love interest and hate not knowing who to root for, so maybe that was also part of my problem with this novel) and I preferred him vastly to the first, even though it’s very obvious which love interest is endgame (not him 🥲). Fanli=no personality. Fuchai=so adorable! exceptionally Cardan Greenbriar coded! He should have been endgame and I don’t care about any and all reasons to the contrary (him being evil and also a murderer…I don’t care! He deserved better 😭). Anyway, I enjoyed the second act significantly more because occasionally I could convince myself that Fuchsia was endgame and not Fanli and I just ate up any scenes where he was present. He was one of the few characters with personality, along with her best friend. But the literal main character, Xishi, honestly had the least personality of them all in my opinion, and Fanli wasn’t much better. I was confused and am still confused as to why Xishi and Fanli were attracted to each other, as well as how/when they formed such an intense bond? I never saw any of their connection on page, so therefore all of Xishi’s motivations in respect to him just made no sense to me.

So, from the second act on, I got into this book, even if I still wasn’t particularly happy about where the plot and the romance were going. But the ending???? Well, there were a lot of twists. And I’m not going to spoil anything, but I will say that the first bit of twists did break my heart a lot, just like everyone said it would. For a book that I’d been fairly uninvested in, emotionally, it still made me shed a couple tears (likely out of pure shock…like WOW it was crazy), so I can’t imagine how heartbroken I would have been if I’d been more emotionally invested. But the second bit of twists...uhmm…huh?? It was all so bizarre and weird and sad and strange I was having a hard time buying any of it. There’s nothing wrong with a sad ending, but there was such a supreme lack of closure in terms of plot, even if you could argue that the romance had closure. What I mean by a lack of closure is that, throughout this book, the themes explore the futility of trying to choose a “right” side in a war and the pitfalls of black and white morality. I was really looking forward to seeing that discussion be developed fully and concluded on. In the height of the climax, it was getting somewhere, but by the end, I found myself a little lost in what was happening with the morality argument. It was left a little too open-ended for my tastes.

Overall, this book was a mixed bag. There were aspects I really enjoyed, others I was confused by, and others I was disappointed by. A lot of things about this book felt disjointed/poorly executed to me, and for that I do not particularly recommend it, but also, I do not think it was a *bad* or terrible book in any way, and I can definitely see why a lot of people would enjoy it, especially as the last third was quite thrilling and full of variously enjoyable twists and turns. 🎑🌜⚔️

thanks to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

2.5 Stars—

I hope this book finds its audience, that audience is not me.

First for the positives, I did enjoy the writing style and the idea of the story had merit. The characters were likeable and the romance had potential!

HOWEVER
It’s like when we got past start, it all fell apart. The plot was nonexistent, the romance was not there and then BAM we were expected to believe it was fully formed. Everything happened at the last 5% and even that wasn’t satisfactory


SPOILER



And the ending!? Absolutely not. I felt like all the trudging I did to get through the book wasn’t worth it by then. Why? It made absolutely no sense and served no purpose other than shock value.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for this ARC of A Song to Drown Rivers in exchange for an honest review. I really love a good “female rage” or rather, a “female tragedy” story, but I kept on waiting for this story to get better and it would incrementally but then dip down. The writing was a bit inconsistent and the imagery just felt like it was there to be there. It just kind of faded as the story went on. Beautiful but lackluster overall.

Definitely a beautiful read. Loved the imagery and the time this took to unfold.
Definitely takes you into a different world …………
3.5 stars