A Song to Drown Rivers feels like a beautiful folklore, and perhaps it is. It feels like a story I could truly believe it, written out with the full compassion and heartbreaking reality that Xishi must face to be a “heroine” for her own kingdom. How much must a person risk in a matter of years to simply end up as part of the river though?

Thank you to the publisher & the author for this arc. I opened this book thinking i was going to devoured it & all i found was a long introduction of a plan that only develops in a handful of paragraphs & a lot of things to fill in the gaps. This is my first time reading the author & honestly, i think is going to be my last because whatever attempt this was at a fantasy, a retelling or an adult novel failled miserably. It took me days, weeks even, to read past the first quarter of the book & only managed to finish it thanks to the audiobook (also provided by the publisher). The main character loses everyone & then her life at the hands of another character that has no development whatsoever, the characters surrounding her are pushed so far to the side that we can not really establish a connection with them to the point that when we lose them, it doesn't really affect the continuation of the story or makes a halt on the plan of our main character. The world is not even that well developed for such an introduction (that takes at least half the book) & half the 'plot twists' are explained so far ahead in the book that doesn't really take you by surprise. Adding more trauma to the story does not make it more appealing, or the fact that takes several elements from another stories we have read in the last several years & adds nothing different to them. While at some point i did like the romance, the ending of it just left a sour taste on my mouth. Especially how all the things end in the last 10%, how it attempts to touch the delicate strings at the heart of the reader but truly (& this is all my opinion), fails completely. It also attempts to leave a deeper message that there are no really good or bad side in war but everything ends up being horrible, like there is no bright side in any of this but doesn't go further than to a hint at a happy ending. All in all, i didn't like it.

Hi, umm. I am actually really upset I didn't read this ARC sooner BECAUSE IT WAS AMAZING and I promise I will repent of my sins and read the books before the publishing date because the fact I snoozed this book until the 23rd of the month actually brings me pain.

IT WAS SO GOOD. I loved teh subtle world building, the woven legend, the setting, the complexity of the characters, the events, the ending! Gah! I could go on and on and on. I absolutely loved it and shed actual tears. This is one that will linger with you so much longer after you read it.

For those who tried this and dnf'd it, I BEG you to try again.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book.

Content: kissing, war torn violence

+review will be shared on instagram (@readingkelsey) and updated here with the direct link.

Beautiful! Definitely different than a lot of fantasy out there right now- more lyrical, sometimes like poetry. I think that made it take a little longer to get into the characters, but by the end the connection was intense. I appreciated the writing and the story immensely. Historical is not always my bag, but this worked for me!!

Love a female rage revenge story! The writing style is lovely and Liang is a talented writer. I enjoyed reading Xishi's story and using her wits and clever tactics to manipulate the king into giving her what she wanted. And how it all ended... wow.

Didn't love: Xishi and Fanli's insta love. They barely knew each other and were somehow obsessed with each other and completely head over heels in love. And after not seeing Fanli for over a year, she was still pining for him. Didn't feel their connection.

Would have liked to see more of the actual training process. This felt very quick and like she was only training for a few days rather than ten weeks.

I'm going to be thinking about this book for a while yet. What an amazing book! Set in ancient China, Xishi is a beauty turned into a weapon to infiltrate the conquering neighbouring kingdom. Her task is to gather as much information as she can as the concubine to the king. However, it's not as simple as it seems. She and the man who trains her start to have feelings for each other. Once she's in the enemy kingdom, she realizes that the king is not all he is rumoured to be. The deeper she gets into the kingdom, the higher the stakes get for her.

I really enjoyed the complexities of Xishi's character. She's so much more than just a beautiful woman. And the author does such a good job showing her humanness and conflicting emotions as she spends more time in the enemy kingdom. While the ending was not what I thought it would be, it was really well wrapped up.

*4.5 stars*

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book.

This books was not what I had expected. Plot holes abound and an odd way of setting everything up. Not my favorite read this year. I think this should have been more of a YA book rather than a ln adult fantasy.

I really loved this story.

I picked A Song to Drown Rivers up without really knowing what it was about. I didn't read the blurb they give you, I just liked the cover and knew it was Asian inspired.

Boy did I go for a ride. Liang did a great job keeping me glued to the pages. She took politics and made it captivating. I needed to know what was going to happen next. How was Xishi going to entrance Fuchai? What would he do if he found out her plans?

Liang did a really nice job making me love Fuchai, the enemy king. I loved that he wasn't purely evil, but rather...morally grey as some would say. I liked how you could tell Xishi was torn between him and her duty to the Yue. At times I almost wished she didn't have to follow through with her plans.

The ending had me sobbing. I liked the change in perspective and I think it really added to the story.

This book had a great story and tackled some tough questions about morality, loyalty, and guilt. There were also a lot of great quotes throughout. I definitely recommend reading it.

Well, I can’t remember the last time I read a book where the ending truly ripped my heart out and stomped it into a million little pieces. Because this book did just that—however, I loved it so much.

I picked this one up not being familiar with the legend of Xishi. I don’t think that hindered my reading experience in any way. As soon as I began reading, I was hooked. The writing was captivating and so beautiful.

I fell in love with Xishi, and Fanli too, despite his cold exterior. While their romance wasn’t the prime focus of this story, I was still rooting for them and cheering them on. Until the very end. 🥲

I highly recommend getting yourself a copy of this. The hardcover is also gorgeous with beautiful sprayed edges! It’ll look good displayed on your shelf 🙂‍↕️

Couple of things to note before diving into this review. A Song to Drown Rivers is marked as a historical/romance fantasy and it does technically fit the bill.. but not in the way most people have come to expect. I was not personally bothered by it, but I know some people will be. If you are looking for a book steeped in magic or mythical creatures, this is not the story for you. If you are looking for a retelling of figure from Chinese history with very light fantasy elements, then go ahead and give this a try!

A Song to Drown Rivers is a beautifully written story based in ancient China. It touches upon the the story of Xi Shi, one of the first Four Beauties of Ancient China. I really enjoyed all elements of the book, and I feel like some what of a broken record here, I do think the story and characters would've benefited from this being--a minimum--a duology. I tend to really struggle with stand alone books for this reason. Especially ones where the story spans over a long period of time. A great stand alone doesn't leave you wishing there was MORE to the book (other than just wanting to stay longer with the characters/world that is). A Song to Drown Rivers had the potential to be a heart breaking master piece but because we aren't given a lot of time with the characters and their developments, the emotional impacts are shorted.

Not that they still weren't there. I was truly shocked by the ending. And I know this review sounds negative, but I did very much enjoy reading A Song to Drown Rivers. It has all the elements I love about a good story, I just wanted to be more invested.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Inspired by the legend of Xishi, one of the famous Four Beauties of Ancient China, A Song to Drown Rivers is an epic novel steeped in myth about womanhood, war, sacrifice, and love against all odds as the fate of two kingdoms hangs in a delicate balance.
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This book was so beautiful and heartbreaking in so many different ways! Xishi was such a badass. She was the most beautiful woman in her land and was sent as a tribute to their enemy. She had lost her sister in front of her, so her revenge was palpable her mission to infiltrate which she did very well. By the end the revenge was costing so many more lives, innocent and otherwise.
This story is heart wrenching at the end. I wasn’t expecting the range of emotion I was taken on in a few short pages. Fanli was so stoic and that ending for him 😭
This story was so beautifully written and loved every bit of it.

An incredible historical fiction novel showing the power of loyalty and love, and the strong theme of sacrifice.

This was such a rollercoaster of emotions, and I deeply felt each one from start to finish. The writing was intimate and incredibly detailed, giving life to even the most mundane parts of the book. The plot was easily digestible but still riveting. There are a few plot twists that came completely to a surprise to me. Though this is presented as a historical fantasy novel, there were no fantasy elements whatsoever. Normally this would be a markdown in my mind, but the historical element readers were given was done so well that I didn’t mind. The locations felt mystical and magical, even though they were very real in nature.

There is incredible inner dialogue with our FMC for the entirety of the book, and giving readers a chance to see the emotion in full was a gift to be able to experience. The character development was outstanding, and not just for our FMC. It was a joy to watch the change happen slowly. Though the spice was clean, the aspect of the love triangle and pretend feelings made up for it wholly in my mind.

I really enjoyed this book! The concept and its foundation in Chinese mythology were fantastic. It took me a bit of time to immerse myself in the story, but overall, it was an excellent read. Personally, some of Ann Liang's other books were more my groove, but this was a great way to see the breadth of her writing capabilities.

Rating 2

"How many women throughout history were blamed for the weaknesses of men? We made such convenient scapegoats. We were raised to be small, to be silent, to take whatever we were given and no more."

Unfortunately this book missed the mark for me. I will start off by saying that Ann Liang's writing is beautiful and the prose of this book was so intriguing, which is the only redeeming quality I can give this. The characters felt flat and one dimensional, I never got to a point where I felt connected to them and by the end, I could care less what happened to them. The romance between Xishi and Fanli came off as instalove and felt out of place. There was great potential for drama, tension and an epic, devastating love triangle but the opportunity was fumbled.
Not only did I dislike the characters but the plot plateaued for me around 30% (I am being generous here) and never picked back up. I almost forgot the kingdoms were fighting or that Xishi was sent to act as a spy.

This book had the potential to be absolutely incredible but sadly, it was a disappointment.

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

A Song to Drown Rivers, is a fictional, historical retelling of the legendary Four Beauties of China. We follow Xishi, one of the four beauties, on her journey to use her beauty to sabotage and destroy the Wu Kingdom. This story was very well written and kept me engaged the entire time! I was especially interested in the exploration of the costs of war and of the idea that in war a hero to one group, is most likely a villain to another.

I did have to take off one star because of the categorization of this book that I did find to be a bit misleading. This was categorized as an adult, fantasy romance and I can't say I agree that this book is a fantasy novel. I kept waiting for some involvement of magic, or other fantasy elements, and they just never appeared. There were small fantasy elements at the very end of the book, but I would lean towards categorizing this book as a historical fiction similar to mythological retellings, rather than a fantasy novel. It also is categorized as an adult novel, however, there were many aspects of the romantic relationships that read YA.

That being said, if you're looking for historical fiction (very light on fantasy elements), and slow burn, YA romance then I highly recommend this book!!

This book has such captivating writing that I didn’t want to put it down from the start. It weaves a gripping narrative of the legend of Xishi, a story I wasn’t familiar with. I felt an intriguing mix of connection and distance with the characters. It was almost such a grand story that it was difficult to get too close, and maybe we weren’t meant to. It had the feel of a legend that took place long ago, and we are now getting to look into the details.

Surprisingly, I found myself deeply engrossed in the love triangle, a plot element I typically don't favor. I was certain I wouldn't sympathize with Fuchai, but I was proven wrong. The emotional depth of the narrative was compelling, and I found myself shedding tears, something that hadn’t happened to me for quite some time.

I see quite a few mixed reviews, but I enjoyed it despite being outside my usual reading taste.

Thank you so much to the publisher, NetGalley, and the author for an eARC of this book. All opinions are late but still all my own!

I really enjoyed this; I thought it was great! I loved its take on romantic fantasy, and actually loved that it is YA/there was no spice. I think if it had had any spice at all, it would have done a disservice to the story because - though marketed as a romantasy - there's so much more to the story than the romance woven within.

Though time flowed faster than what we'd normally see in a novel, I actually think it really worked with this one. I loved the way Xishi came into her own and was so cunning throughout her time in the Wu kingdom and especially with King Fuchai. I thought it was really touching that by the end, even though she had no real reason to, every complicated thing she ended up feeling for Fuchai was so real.

I also loved the ending. Absolutely heart-wrenching end to the story, and I ate it up.

I would definitely recommend this!

I could not put this down! I very much enjoyed the writing, pacing, and all the exquisite forms of character, plot, and romantic tension. 🤌 There were definitely some parts that were less believable but they did lend to a feeling of the story being a fairytale/legend retelling!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC!

Easy, quick read. Kept my interest enough that I wanted to keep reading it and find out how this story unravels. I was drawn to promises of espionage and spying, which, sure it happened. But it was quite rushed, bland, and uneventful. We seemed to fast forward through all of the training that happened in 12 weeks that supposedly made Xishi ready to infiltrate an enemy kingdom for years. What?

I'm not sure why this is categorized as fantasy. There were no fantasy elements whatsoever (unless we are considering Xishi's "otherworldly" beauty to check that box). Also, on that note, romance? Hardly. This is a historical fiction retelling, through and through.

I know there are a few different speculations for how the story of Xi Shi actually ends, but I did find the one Ann Liang wrote to be the ending I had hoped for. Tragic, maybe HEA (depending on your perspective).

I think that the plot and characters were really interesting and I liked the world building. However, it was pretty slow at the beginning for me, making it hard to keep reading.