The tears I shed before reading the epilogue and then the way I sobbed more after reading the epilogue. Who is going to pay for my therapy bills?

Told from the pov of both the MCs, Legend of the White Snake is a queer fantasy romance based on the folklore of White Snake. I read this in one sitting.

I loved Zhen. He was such a compassionate character but I wished he had shown a little more of self respect and walked away from Xien for a while. He was treated badly in the second half even though he gave enough reasons to make anyone believe he wasn't some sort of evil monster. He always put others above himself and while that loyalty was the best part about his relationship with Quin, it was a little misplaced when it came to the prince.

It took me a little while to warm up to Xien. I understand the idea of losing your mother could be unfathomable but did that give anyone even a prince a right to have humans/animals to be used and tortured in labs for a cure? But in terms of the setting of the story Legend of the White Snake does a great job in showing the difference between class especially relevant in Asian folklore.

I was fortunate enough to receive an arc of this and boy am I so happy I did! This was such a lovely read and hit all the wholesome danmei feels in all the right places. It was engaging, sweet, and exciting, and kept me well immersed from beginning to end. The relationship dynamic between Xian and Zhen was adorable (with a healthy dose of angst), Xian being the valiant, charming, and trusting prince, while Zhen was the endearing, clever, and gentle-hearted counterpart. Zhen particularly was a character that will stay with me for some time. He isn't flawless; he messes up but works hard to atone for it. His selflessness, his sweet demeanor, and his empathic nature made him immensily lovable (and his naiveté oh so adorable). But most of all, his initial ignorance and his near desperate desire to redress it makes him feel grounded, humane, and relatable. I felt for him, but also felt with him.
Overall, it truly was the loveliest journey that I believe will delight danmei fans and new fans alike who are looking for a wholesome love story steeped in gorgeous chinese folklore.

PS: I do hope I get to see a certain side pair's story in a new installment 👀🐍⚔️💞

Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with this ARC. All thoughts above are my own.

I absolutely love fantasy stand-alones! Getting a well-rounded story in one installment? Yes, please! 'Legend of the White Snake' was a fast-paced read that built up to an incredible ending. Even though it was fast-paced, it felt well fleshed out and had me invested in the story and what was going to happen to the characters the whole time. I absolutely recommend this to fantasy readers and anyone who loves a good retelling!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5 stars
Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC of this book exchange for an honest review!

Legend of the White Snake is a retelling of the original legend. Prince Xian has been hunting the white snake who swallowed the spirit pearl that could’ve saved his mothers life. Seven years later, he meets Zhen, a beautiful boy who is the snake spirit he has been hunting.

“Nothing like fresh air, sunshine, and deadly venom to start our day”


I fell in love with Sher Lee’s writing after reading her first book Fake Dates and Mooncakes and was so exciting to dive into this book! I haven’t read a book before retelling this Chinese folktale, which made it more interesting as well!

I liked how the story started off with what transpired seven years before the real story takes place! We got an inside into Xian’s life a bit and how his mother’s illness has shaped his life. We also meet the white snake for the first time!

After the opening, the story takes place seven years later, with both Xian and Zhen having POVs, which really helps with the telling of the story! The voices of both were very distinctive and noticeable, which was great. I also loved the writing overall, which was really flowy, elegant and descriptive!

Both Xian and Zhen are such interesting characters! Xian’s life has been dictated by what happened to his mother. His love for her is so apparent and I loved seeing his determination to help her drive his actions. Zhen is a spirit who just wants to be human and wants to experience life, which is very understandable. The side characters are also so well written! Both Feng and Qing were very integral to the story and to Xian and Zhen!

Their romance was honestly the best! I loved how they first ‘met’ in the stables, both having their guards down. It was a really sweet meet-cute moment! The instant attraction helped selling the romance! It was sweet and heart-warming and they just made me smile all along! They are just perfect for each other! True soulmates, zhī jǐ, who deserve the world!

There is such a great progression of the plot! Knowing Zhen is the white snake that Xian has been hunting adds a fun layer to their interactions. You know that bomb is going to drop at a point, and I really liked the moment that bomb dropped! I also liked how the story continued afterwards. Then the biggest bomb dropped at the end of this book, which just had me screaming!!

Overall, I loved Legend of the White Snake! It was an amazing sweet and fun story with an ending that had me on the edge of my seat while reading! I just want so much more of this world and these characters!

有缘千里来相会 (yǒu yuán qiān lǐ lái xiāng huì)
we have the destiny to meet across a thousand miles.

The past is calling me right now. It’s telling me I took too long to write this damn review and I remember nothing that happened lmao

But, it was kinda forgettable too?

3.5 stars

“Lay a hand on him and I’ll destroy you,” Xian blurted out. “If not in this life, then I swear, I’ll find you in the next.”

I don’t think I’ve read this mythology yet, The White Snake one, but I like that it was a gender-bent retelling, the White Snake is usually a girl, this was a mm YA fantasy, so that was really fun! I will also say that the ending was soul-crushing for a while there, so that was also fun #jokesIamdead

“Zhen tried to memorize everything, but standing close to Xian turned his brain into a sieve.”

With a dash of hidden identity, adventure, and romance, this was a good read overall. There were quite a few things that made me rate it lower, but I literally can’t remember them lmao, so that’s all you get *dances away*

Thank you HarperCollins Canada for this eARC and Frenzy Books for the physical ARC!

Legend of the White Snake is a stunning retelling steeped on folklore and beautiful history. From the painting of each careful setting and scene to the character's personalities Sher Lee pulls you in to this one and really sinks you in to the plot. Reading this book felt like watching a high production historical drama in all the best ways. The plot had twists and turns with characters you love, hate, root for and cry for.

Thank you Netgally for this ARC.

On my journey of finding/reading books that gives me the representation that reflects me and that I want, it was nice to read a book that was similar to things I already read in my spare time. Manga, Korean and Chinese webtoons and Korean and Chinese translated web novels, all of which sometimes contain lgtbt+ pairings, so this felt like familiar ground. While I did think it was slow in the beginning, at least to me, I enjoyed the writing and the voice of the characters, I enjoyed how this mythology was interwoven in this story. It was feeling like a high 3.5 stars, but I really feel this picked up the pace and really got into it's groove halfway through, either b/c I was all the way in or b/c the pace picked up. This is such a familiar concept with the things I read in my spare time, at the same time I enjoyed this book from beginning to end.

Seemingly doomed from the start, Legend of the White Snake is a book about love and empathy. We love a cute meet cute where one doesn't realize the other is royalty. What follows is a precious book about love in unexpected places. It's about someone who just pulls our heart no matter how difficult or seemingly impossible it can be. The heart wants what the heart wants. It was fun to see human interactions from the perspective of Zhen! But what drew me to the story is Zhen's mindset.

This is my second book by this author. First being Fake Dates and Mooncakes which I absolutely loved. Just like the first book, this is a YA romance between two boys, very rich in Chinese culture, with a sweet and heartwarming romance.

I liked both of the characters in this book independently, though they’re a bit melodramatic at times, I think that comes with the territory of such a story. I was really invested in both of their storylines. Zhen, selfless to a fault; Xian, headstrong. I enjoyed how Xian grows and bends with Zhen’s love and learns to be more compassionate.

However, I did have trouble getting into the supernatural aspect of their romance. It’s in the name, so this is not really fully the book’s fault. I’m not sure how much I’d be into any romance that involves a snake spirit. But let’s just say the book didn’t really help make it feel less weird, at least in the first half. The romance is pretty much insta love, and it’s unclear why these two characters are infatuated with one another past their looks.

When I let myself pretend they were both human, their connection was very delicate and beautifully woven. How their bond strengthens over time and how they start to completely trust each other is truly lovely.

So despite and because of these, by the end, I found myself fully invested in the romance, and was at the edge of my seat trying to find out if they would end up together. There might have been a few tears shed.

The fantasy/action aspects of this book were mostly focused on the second half of the book. A lot of betrayals and twists and at no point did I know who was gonna survive.

I also really enjoyed a bunch of the side characters, especially the best friends of the two main characters. And appreciated that even the side characters got a good amount of growth here.

I do wish there was more urgency at the beginning of the book towards the main character’s goals. I think this would have helped with the pacing, since the second half rushes by quite fast, but the first half drags a bit more.

Thank you to HarperCollins Children’s Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

Overall rating: 3.7 ⭐

This was a great book! I loved the idea of it as well as the basis in Chinese Mythology. For me personally, it took a while to get into the book, but overall very good.

Giving this a 4 out of 5 starts. Fantastic beginner danmei/xianxia. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Overall this was on the lighter side of danmei and would be a great first one to try without committing to the longer series like Grandmaster or Scum Villain. It takes Chinese folklore and keeps it whimsical in storytelling to make a sweet, gentle read. It is like a tiny Vidalia onion in that there are some layers to peel back but it isn't anything that requires a lot of thinking to figure out.

Overall the story is really cute!

This was so incredibly cute!

As the book promises, this is a lovely retelling of the Chinese Folktale and it's quite a lovely read. The writing was a tad simplistic at times but I couldn't tell if it was because it was attempting to keep in vein of the the folktale writing or because it was for a YA audience but overall, I enjoyed it. It was a little slow at first but once the unmasking (un-snake-ing?) happened, it moved at a much faster pace.

The ending was sweet and as dramatic and heartwrenching as one might assume! But also very sweet.

Thank you so much to HarperCollins Children's Books | Quill Tree Books/NetGalley for a chance to read and review!

This book was so cute and then became so sad so fast! Like Ms. Sher Lee, you were so close to hearing from my imaginary therapist but also thank you so much for that beautiful, sweet story 🙂‍↕️ also Qing is everything to me.

This story was so easy to inhale. A short story that also made me feel so many things!

Book Review

Title: The Legend of the White Snake by Sher Lee

Genre: Historical, Folklore, Romance, Queer

Rating: 3.5 Stars

I wasn’t aware of Legend of the White Snake before signing up for the tour, but regular readers of my blog will know I am huge fan of anything to do with Asian mythology and folklore. Some of my favorite books in the genre would be Daughter of the Moon Goddess and Wicked Fox so I was excited to pick this one up. Like Daughter of the Moon Goddess this is still a young adult novel at its heart, but it features all the hallmarks of the genre. For someone looking to break into Asian mythology and folklore especially Chinese dramas then this might be the book for you. I hadn’t read Sher Lee’s other novel, Fake Dates and Mooncakes but it is something I will seriously consider picking up in the future because of how much I enjoyed this one.

Going into the book, I must agree with some other reviewers that the romance does feature insta-love, but in a lot of folklore this is a feature, so I wasn’t too bothered by it. However, there wasn’t much more development in the relationship after it is established. A lot of the relationship issues come from how deeply it is tied to the plot and how little development there is between Zhen and Xian. The stakes are quite high throughout the book, but I didn’t really like the aspect of Zhen hiding his identity from the person he claims to love. However, I do see how this will work for some and not for others and I personally fall somewhere in the middle as there were a lot of things I enjoyed but some I didn’t.

Zhen and Xian do spend a lot of time together throughout the book and we are able to see a lot of their personalities individually as well as a couple. This helped me appreciate the romance more despite the insta-love and it was cute enough that it didn’t distract me too much from the story. One thing I did adore about Legend of the White Snake was the cultural aspects, as this is a retelling of the legend in Chinese folklore. One of the twists is that instead of there being a female snake spirit falling for a young man we have a male spirit falling for the Crown Prince. One thing I will add is that despite there being a lot of inspiration from Chinese culture, Chinese mythology and philosophy it can be a bit confusing if you aren’t familiar with the legend being told so I would advise looking that up before beginning the book.

Overall, the characters and the relationship were good with some development, but the author could have taken some more time to develop the feelings between the characters and explaining the mythology a little more, so the reader doesn’t have to look up the legend in question. I personally found the author’s world building to have so much potential that was wasted here since the world building was severely lacking in places. That being said, these problems weren’t large enough for it to affect my overall enjoyment of the book, but it did leave me wanting a lot more than what I got in the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I just finished reading AND sobbing my heart out to this masterpiece!! I've seen so many praise-filled, beautiful reviews for this story and it far surpassed my already high expectations. Sher's writing alone was deeply poetic and transported me straight to another realm, one full of magic and passion and sacrifice... One full of love that outlasts all. I was swept up from the start and adored how powerfully I felt each character's emotions. Xian and Zhen were incredible, and their respective relationships with Feng and Qing were depicted beautifully. (Qing was definitely a favorite character for me!)

The story itself was masterfully woven. Not being at all familiar with the tale this is based on (or much Chinese literature in general), I was thrilled by how vividly Sher fleshed out this world and its ways, and I'm STILL floored by the final plot twist! (Did NOT see that coming!!) All in all, a stunning read and another favorite!

a prince and a snake spirit's fate was intertwined that momentous day 7 years prior to the book's main timeline. the prince was having a rare pearl to heal his mother from severe illness, and a white snake swallowed that pearl. the prince had been hunting for snakes since. 7 years later, the oracle prophesied that the antidote can be found at a certain city. the prince went to that mission. lo and behold, the snake he was searching for was closer than he was expected.

this book was a grower. i didn't really sure at the beginning, but it progressively get more interesting as the story went on. at 50% mark, i was hooked. a lot of things i still couldn't completely understand, idk what cultivation is and i dont really get what the extend of the snake spirit's ability. but the main couple dynamics was nice, the plot twist was unpredictable, and the ending was acceptable even though it made me frown a bit. pretty fine for a standalone.

3.5 stars
I enjoyed the lore but couldn't get a feel for the characters. I liked the romance but overall it felt very meh. I couldn't get invested in the characters through the writing. I would however recommend this book for readers looking for this specific story with tension and interesting worldbuilding.

i’m embarrassed i didn’t finish this book in time for its release but im also very glad that i prolonged my time reading it. coincidentally, one of my classes this quarter is ‘storytelling’ and the first part is all about retellings and such so of course i decided to do research on the legend behind this book, so as i was reading and saw realgar’ i, firstly, got excited that my research paid off but secondly it made me know what was about to happen, making the entire scene much more on edge (in a good way!!). the way that lee wove the original legend in while making changes and allowing it to have a happy ending. i’ve been in a reading slump recently but that ending really helped me to get out of it, truly felt like a flip switched while reading, allowing me to get back in the swing of reading.
anyways. this was incredible. i loved the twists and the characters. the found family of it all. xian and zhen’s relationship was also so well written and well done. the way xian never used his power over zhen in the bedroom and even when they weren’t on good terms, xian never wanted true harm to come to zhen. another thing i found lovely was the realistic aspects of xian being a prince. with the one character and consequences/discipline, xian wouldn’t be able to let him go free as zhen wanted. he needed to give them some public punishment because he is a prince, he needs to show his power to his people. even if he doesn’t necessarily want to. it added a level of reality that didn’t hinder anything in the book or even make xian look harsh or ruthless, but rather add dimension to his character. i could go on for ages but this was amazing and lee did it once again. i loved their other book, another one that helped me out of a slump actually! so i knew this would be amazing but it well surpassed any and all expectations. what a lovely read

After Sher Lee's debut, Fake Dates and Mooncakes, my expectations for Legend of the White Snake were high, and Sher Lee certainly delivered!

Legend of the White Snake is a queer retelling of a Chinese folktale, with elements of romance, magic and mythology.
When he was little Prince Xian's mother was bitten by a white snake and this bite has condemned her to a slow, painful death. The cure can only be obtained from a rare white snake, or from an even rarer snake pearl.
Zhen was an ordinary white snake before consuming a snake pearl transformed him into a snake spirit with the ability to take human form.
When Xian travels across the county in a desperate last bid to catch a white snake and save his mother, he crosses paths with stable boy Zhen. The two are immediately drawn to each other, but eventually the truth about Zhen's identity will put their relationship to the test.

The beautiful storytelling drew me in straight away, and I found myself turning pages and easily losing myself in the richly drawn world of this story and the poetic narration. I liked both characters, but had a particularly soft spot for Zhen. I enjoyed the element of court politics and intrigue and found the story at times gut wrenching in the best way.

Read this novel if you enjoy:
🤍 Chinese mythology
🤍 shape shifters/animal spirits
🤍 magic
🤍 prince X stable boy
🤍 sacrifice, devotion and betrayal
🤍 a doomed romance

5 Reasons to Read

Legends and Traditions

The Chinese Folklore that fills the pages of this book make it so much fun to read. I loved learning about the Yin and Yang, the traditions of the Chinese Royal court, and the legends that have been handed down from generation to generation.

Snakes

So many cool facts about all kinds of different snakes. The details around every type of snake described made me appreciate the reptiles even more. It was such a unique addition to the storyline.

Romance

Let there be Romance! I loved the slow burn between Xian and Zhen. It was well worth it. I also loved the side romance and the way each of the characters fell for one another. So good!

Friendships & Found Family

This is definitely a friendship/found family story. Zhen and Qing have a bond like siblings but have only known each other a short while. On the opposite side, Xian and Feng have been friends since childhood and are as close as family can get. I loved getting to know all the character dynamics.

Betrayals

Xian believes he’s only just met Zhen for the first time but in reality, Zhen has been hiding a secret long kept from anyone over the past seven years. When secrets are revealed, the ultimate betrayal is unavoidable.