thanks netgalley for the eARC <3 !!!!
i havent read this author's other popular work, but i really enjoyed this one (not to mention the stunning cover). the politics and tension were great; it's a promising book to add to your TBR if youre interested in a chinese fantasy with VAMPIRES and a strong heroine.

This was a great fantasy book! The world building was wonderful and very well thought out. The story was very interesting and fast paced.

This book was so FUN. I am obsessed with how hard Fei works to humble Siwang and Yexue. Fei feels trapped by a prophesy given to her on her birth, seeing it as a curse to forever be tied to a man and have wars waged in her name. Her frustrations with the lack of power and freedom given to women and desire to make a name for herself are woven throughout the story and her stubbornness shines through as she constantly makes decisions to avoid that, regardless of negative outcomes. I greatly enjoyed both Siwang and Yexue and the differences in their mannerisms towards Fei as they both try to get into her good graces.

I felt some parts were a bit rushed and would’ve enjoyed taking a step back to dig in a bit more, though the version of the story I received through Netgalley is a very early draft, so maybe these issues have been fixed in the final version. All in all, I was highly entertained and I love to see men down horrendously for a main character who refuses to fully give in to either one of them. I am excited to see how the story further develops in the next book and hope for more of an exploration into the magic of the story and to learn what it truly means that to be foretold as the empress of all empresses.

I'd like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this.

I am praying that in the second book our lead female ends up with neither man and kills one or both of them.

The female was a smart, sad, and determined lady. Labeled the princess of a prophecy in which her uniting with a prince will bring peace and prosperity to a kingdom. She has been kept for 17 years behind the walls of the emperor's palace so that she would eventually marry his son. There is another captive, the prince of a warring kingdom who is rumored to have dark magic / vampiristic qualities.

Her childhood friend / intended seems to be smart, good with combat, and wants peace.
The captive prince wants peace too, cherishes freedom, and wants the female to be herself.

Both men on paper if we focus on the bare bones qualities sound like good matches, but actually they're both controlling people. Both of them have selfish / vain tendencies. Both of them withhold information from her.

Our female lead is trying to figure out the prophecy and her place, and if she has powers, but both princes seem to keep her at arms length and or fail to tell her anything or care to tell her anything. Also, the captive prince shows up at the beginning and then vanishes until 70% into the book. The use of his vampire / demonic powers is at a minimum too, though it gives him a strong advantage.

Sure, it reminded me of Chinese dramas of the xianxia kind... but those had tighter narratives. Since this will have a sequel I expect a lot of info dropping in book two. All in all, slightly better than her previous book but not by much.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing this e-ARC! I was so excited for Chang's sophomore novel after reading TGUWG and The Nightblood Prince did not disappoint! The worldbuilding was incredibly well-done and the plot was well-paced and engaging. Overall I enjoyed this read.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an eARC for The Nightblood Prince!

The book follows Fei, a woman who is betrothed to crown Prince Shiwang due to a prophecy on the day of her birth that declares she will be the "empress among empresses". Fei's character and personality definitely borrows from Mulan. Fei feels confined by her fate and her betrothal to Shiwang and desires to hunt a legendary tiger to win a wish from the emperor. Her wish, of course, is the break the betrothal and live a life outside of a gilded cage. On the eve of her hunt, she saves the captive demon prince, Yuxue. Fei gets her wish and the betrothal is dissolved. However, her family is also exiled with her. That is where part two of the novel starts to pick up.

Fei is a delightfully, selfishly flawed female protagonist. She makes selfish choices without considering the consequences for her family...or really anyone else. I know that is something some readers may find frustrating. However, I find it delightfully refreshing that Fei focuses on her wants and needs. After her father is conscripted into the army, predictably, Fei pulls a Mulan and runs away to enlist under the name Li Fei. Through-out the plot, we are introduced to the horrors of war that is plaguing both sides.

The romance is fine. Shiwang and Yuxue both definitely have their flaws and issues. I love how Fei is aware of the flaws and doesn't let herself forgive and forget too easily. Honestly, both men are fine. But they have killed A LOT of people. I think I preferred Yuxue even though there was only every tension between him and Fei. Frankly, I hope this is a series where Fei is allowed to choose herself. (Again, allowing herself to be selfish.)

Overall, the plot is fairly slow in the first half and fast paced in the second half. I loved the visual interplay between the Chinese language and English. The introduction of vampires was interesting, but was not really expanded upon. I'm glad there is going to be a sequel because there are so many plot points that I want to see a full resolution. Especially the prophecy. Overall, this is an incredibly entertaining read! Thank you again to Netgalley and the publisher.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book! Below is my honest review.

Rating: 3.75 stars out of 5 stars

This book is sort of like a Mulan-retelling, but with more fantastical elements to it. I didn't quite love this one as much as I did with her "To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods", but this was still enjoyable! We follow Fei, who is destined from birth to marry the Crown Prince of the most powerful empire in the world. She is promised to be married to one prince, but seems to have growing feelings for another prince (who are enemies). Thus, this book is a love-triangle and perhaps an enemies-to-lovers plot??

I will say, the beginning of the story was a bit repetitive with Fei explaining to three different people why she wanted her independence and freedom. But then afterwards, it got interesting. This book is strong in character development and relationships, but not so much with world building. I had a lot of questions about the Nightblood Prince and his people, but that will likely be explored in the next book. I will also say, this book reads like Young Adult, so if you're looking for some high fantasy novel, you may be a little bored with this book. There are certainly war scenes, but it's not super graphic or violent.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and may pick up the next one!

Thank you so much Random House Childrens and Netgalley!!

They say don’t judge a book by its cover, but please judge this book by its cover. Because the outside and inside are both glorious to behold!

I was kicking my feet so much during reading this! This is definitely a romance first and foremost, but the vampires and magical elements fit in so perfectly. Molly is a wonder because the things coming out of these men’s mouth had me swooning!

I absolutely loved the FMC! Fei was smart, kind and driven. Above all she wanted to be in control of her destiny and know that the one she loved, loved her for who she was and not what she could do for them.

This book definitely lives up to comparison of being Helen of Troy meets mulan. Fei is strong and brave to the point of reckless in her attempts to stand up for herself. And the men who love her are filled with such yearning. I need more of Fei’s story and I want to know where they all go from here!

I enjoyed this story - wonderfully descriptive, simple but solid world building, and questionably motivated characters.

My feelings on the main character, Fei, went back and forth. While I understood her desire for freedom and autonomy, she really felt quite immature and naive. Despite the consequences of her actions (or lack of action), she continues to behave in the same manner. In fact, this goes hand in hand with her selfishness. To some degree, it's understandable, but again for someone who complains they have no control over their life, Fei often thinks only of herself. Now some might argue she has to, because no one else is, but that's not true.

In terms of the plot, it was complex enough to be interesting, and simple enough to easily follow. There aren't too many characters, places, etc to remember. A map might have helped, though. The love triangle had me riveted.

I'd love to continue and see where it goes.

The Nightblood Prince
by: Molly X. Chang

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

We begin with a prophecy about Fei, our main character, becoming the Empress of all Empresses. Fast forward 17 years, we find her living a luxurious but suffocating life in the palace as Prince Siwang’s betrothed. It becomes apparent pretty early on that women should be seen and not heard, and we learn that angers Fei endlessly. She does not want to remain caged, so she hatches a scheme to earn her freedom.

The two love interests, Siwang and Yexue, are such fantastic contrasts of each other. Siwang is the pampered Crown Prince who appears thoughtful and doting, but has a darkness to him and definitely has secrets. In contrast, Yexue is all sharp edges, but is soft for Fei. They are both such simps for her, and it was fun to see her explore her relationship with both of them!

A lot happens in this story, and I struggled with the pacing and the lack of plot progression at times. The last 3rd of the book started to pick up, which leaves me hopeful for the sequel.

This book is a must read if you like:
🩸 Villain Love Interest
🔪 Love Triangle
🩸Vampires
🔪 Prophecy!!!
🩸 STRONG (and stubborn) FMC

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story was entirely not what I was expecting in the best possible way.

✔ Fei is absolutely lovely - she’s certainly not perfect, perhaps a bit naive, at the beginning but she grows into herself and comes to terms with her situation, struggles, and dreams in a very mature way. I really enjoyed how she and the writing didn’t downplay how impactful the patriarchal views of their society were to women at all social levels.
✔ Speaking of patriarchy, I loved loved loved how much Fei emphasized that her feelings for the MMCs were very complicated and tied up in the unequal nature of women vs men in this world. It was not only relatable, but so important to see representation of love and relationships where the struggles come from the nature of the world around oneself and the inherent inequalities found in said world.
✔ On a more fun note, I also really enjoyed how the love triangle was handled. Normally I get a bit annoyed with love triangles, especially when there seems to be a clear “winner” but this was not that.
✔ Beyond the love triangle/relationship with Fei (FMC), the MMCs were very interesting characters. Both of them truly felt morally gray in a way that I feel like I don’t normally see in YA books. They’re both right, but also very very wrong - at times their motives feel justified, but they can still read as both heroic and villainous if you consider their actions throughout the story. Even though we only saw them through Fei’s eyes, they felt very fleshed out and real independent of any romance.
✔ Loved the ending and the potential it sets up for sequels.

✖ No complaints!

5/5 stars!

I greatly enjoyed reading this - sped through it in fact - and this author, as well as the sequels will be on my radar and eagerly anticipated!
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book first caught my attention because of its stunning cover, I do not often see reviews that acknowledge the artists whose work grab our eye before we ever read a word of the novel but I think Kelly Chong's work on this book is worthy of note. The story itself has an interesting premise, a girl born with a great prophesy, taken into the emperor's home to be raised to marry the prince; two princes, one raised to the crown, while the other hostage from a conquered land, raised in the same palace. The girl with great destiny, Fei, becomes close to both princes and when the hostage escapes and wages war to regain his lands, his own magical powers come to light, his gift of the night blood. The love triangle, of sorts, between Fei, the Crown Prince who dotes on her and the vampire-prince who gets under her skin is at the center of this book that sweeps from palace to battlefields to reconquered cities. This was an enjoyable opener to a promising YA romance-fantasy series and I look forward to seeing where the story leads these three characters.
I received access to this eARC thru NetGalley (for which I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher, Random House Children's, Random House Books for Young Readers) for an honest review. The opinion expressed here is my own.

This book has a serious identity crisis- an entirely new storyline sweeps in at about the halfway mark. Also, everyone in this book “sneers.” But the worst thing is the FMC herself. I’m absolutely baffled by one of the love interest’s devotion to her. She rationalizes her decisions by saying they’ll give her more freedom, but these are consistently the worst choices possible AND have negative consequences for her family.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Random House Children’s for letting me read The Nightblood Prince by Molly X. Chang! This author continues to impress! I’m a romance reader at heart, so I wish that aspect had been a bigger part, but in context it makes sense given the main character’s rightful resentment and mistrust for love due to her prophecy. The action and tension were impeccable, the whole book really played out like a movie in my head.

This was such a fast paced fantasy romance! Which I really appreciate, especially for a fantasy. It doesn’t get bogged down in the world building. To be clear, this leaned more romance than fantasy. While Fei consistently reminds us about her frustration with her fate and how she is limited by her gender, the plot does truly center on her choice of romantic partner.

I am a lover of love triangles and a lover of villains- and I feel like I needed more of both of in this book. I would call Siwang and Yuxue more morally grey than legitimate villains. The few sparkling moments of banter that we got were not enough to satisfy and I’d like to see more of that in following book. But I would read future books as I can see the potential in all 3 main characters and how they can develop over time.

The Nightblood Prince is a thrilling blend of romance, prophecy, and magic that will keep you on your toes. Fei, destined to be the Empress of All Empresses, finds herself torn between two princes: the duty-bound Crown Prince and the mysterious, vampire-commanding Yexue. The tension between fate and desire is palpable, and Fei’s journey of self-discovery is what really drives this book.

The world building was so beautifully written and the romance and the tension was so swoon worthy that you can feel it sizzling off the page.

The one downside? The plot can feel a bit predictable at times, but with beautifully written scenes and some serious magical stakes.

Would I recommend it? If you’re into romantic fantasy with a side of vampires and impossible choices, absolutely.

I really loved reading this book and I can not wait for more by this author!! I flew through this book because it was that good. The author did an amazing job keeping the plot interesting without it getting boring or slow. I will be recommending this book to all of the family and friends.

This book has wonderful world building and I found my self enjoying the characters a lot but there were some errors that were odd and probably would be edited out when the book is published such as some small misspellings but I would definitely recommend this to teens in my library.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. That said, I do hope the final print edition will have gone through another round of edits. Multiple times I came across pages with sentence(s) copy/pasted, one instance where the wrong character was mentioned in a scene, and a lot of misspelled or entirely missing words.
As far as the story and characters go, Fei was really difficult to like. It felt like the author had changed her mind about how to let particular scenes play out, yet never went in to fix the scenes after.
This story would have been better served with more page time with the second love interest, who was hardly even in the book for nearly the first 200 pages and yet easily the best character. It was nice when he finally showed back up, but until then I kept asking myself, 'where's the other guy?' And 'I thought this was a "villain" love triangle?' I didn't realize there would be a book two, so while I am curious to see if Yexue finally wins her heart, I won't be rushing out to get it upon release because this was marketed as romance, but the romance really fell flat for me. Especially considering the end. I was really disappointed. There was also just too much reliance on the inspiration from Mulan and the Illiad/ Helen of Troy... but with vampires.
The I think the teens in our library might enjoy this, but not for those seeking a satisfying romance. And it desperately needs to be polished. There's really no excuse for a book this short to be so riddled with errors and inconsistencies, so i hope it will be fixed before final printing.

This book is a masterful blend of intricate world-building, compelling characters, and thrilling adventure. From the very first page, the author draws readers into a world brimming with magic, danger, and political intrigue. The setting is both vast and richly detailed.
Overall, this book is a true gem for fantasy lovers. Whether you're new to the genre or a seasoned fan, it's impossible not to get lost in its pages. A captivating, unforgettable read!

Thank you NetGalley for proving an ARC.