Song of the Crimson Flower

I haven't read it yet my tbr is huge. I just recently got back into reading it was something I did with my mom and after her death I didn't want to do it anymore. Now, 10 years later I'm making my guest bedroom into a library and I saw this book review on YouTube and decided to just get it even though I haven't read it yet

Love this series. It is a great book to read if you are just getting into Fantasy novels. It's great for preteens and teens. Loved how the author told the villans story first.

I had a fantastic time with this book! It has been a long time since I was able to read an entire book in a single day but it was so easy to get lost in this book. This wasn't a long book with less than 300 pages but I thought it told a big story. The story grabbed me from the start and the story progress at a perfect pace to keep the pages turning. I am so glad that I took a chance and decided to give this book a try.This book is listed as a companion book to the author's Rise of the Empress series. When I started reading this book, I had no idea that it had any connection to another book and I still wouldn't if I didn't happen to see it on Goodreads. This book reads wonderfully as a stand-alone story. I am thinking I may need to read the other books in the series though just because I enjoyed this one so much.This was a wonderfully imaginative fantasy. Bao has grown up as an orphan and knows that he is not worthy of those in the upper class. He has lived with a local physician and his family and is training as an apprentice. Lan is the daughter of an important man and has lived a rather charmed life. She is looking forward to setting a date for her wedding. Things fall apart for both Bao and Lan and their lives are forever changed. They must work together to beat a witch's curse and will have quite the adventure working towards that task.I really liked both Bao and Lan and wanted to see them together. They have both made mistakes in their lives but they were really a victim of circumstances more than anything. When Bao needed help, Lan didn't hesitate and I loved seeing them work together towards a common goal. They didn't ask more of each other than they thought they would be willing to give. It was really nice getting to see them get to know each other away from the opinions of society.I loved the way some magic was worked into the story. I thought that the curse was very well done and I liked how it evolved over the course of the story. I liked that the magic wasn't an overpowering part of the story but there was enough to add a really nice element to the story. This book had a very nice balance of action, romance, and magic.I would recommend this book to others. I thought that this was a really well-done story that was a lot of fun to read. This was the first book by Julie C. Dao that I have had the chance to read but I wouldn't hesitate to pick up more of her work in the future.I received an advanced review copy of this book from Philomel Books via Bookish First.

My boyfriend loved the book got into it

Song of the Crimson Flower is a book that is exactly the type of story I love to read, but was lacking in details and relied heavily upon the books in the Rise of the Empress series for character development and world building.I liked the main characters overall. Lan is very kind and courageous, while Bao is intelligent and caring. Yes, Lan has that outburst at Bao at the beginning of the story, but it seemed really out of character for her. Like she had never done such a thing and never would again. It was just a little weird, but also shows that even the kindest people have their breaking points. It also showed that, even though she was kind, Lan was living a very privileged life and needed to get out of the house and see the hardships of the world. I felt so bad for Bao and how he was treated by people who were considered “above his station,” when he is a great physician's apprentice and artistic with his music and poetry.The romance between Lan and Bao was adorable, but nothing spectacular. It makes sense that Lan eventually falls for Bao, because she realized that he was the one making the romantic gestures when she thought it was her betrothed. She’s only mean to Bao the one time, and after that they’re fine with each other. <spoiler>I was annoyed that Bao became “acceptable” to marry at the end of the story because he was now the leader of a great city. I think the romance would have been a lot more meaningful if that hadn’t happened and Lan was like “screw it, I’m marrying him anyway.”</spoiler>I should have read the Rise of the Empress duology, because I felt like I was really missing out on a few things. There were several characters that I assume where from those books, and their development was pretty shallow. In many ways I felt like an outsider looking in. Like, here are these beloved characters from these other books, but the only two characters I ever really got to know were Lan and Bao. I just didn’t really care about the rest of them and just felt like they were thrown in there to make the connection between Song of the Crimson Flower and Rise of the Empress.My favorite part was the pronunciation guide at the front of the book. It helped a lot and I really appreciated it. There should be a rule that all books have character name pronunciations at the front.Overall, I didn’t love the story, but I didn’t hate it. The writing was fine and the story was solid, it was just predictable and could have used more details with some of the background characters.

Sono contentissima, è arrivato in perfette condizioni e per fortuna perché è un regalo!😆

Simple Language. But didn’t find it to be that capitative to read.

This is a delightful little romantic adventure set in the same world as the Forest of a Thousand Lanterns books – you don’t need to have read them to read this but it would give a little added flavour to read the entire set – things will make a little bit more sense I suppose. But I’d say dive into this without looking into it too much and you’ll have a better time.There isn’t a huge amount of substance to this story beyond what you might expect from a YA fantasy romance with this kind of setup. I actually don’t think that’s a bad thing, it allows the focus to be on the relationship building and the beautiful writing. There’s a fairy tale quality to the story that I think would be ruined if you stuck heaps more world building or additional characters or settings. I just don’t want someone to read this not expecting a romance and then being disappointed/confused – which I have been in the past. Romance lovers only beyond this point.I liked the characters, even though the story as a whole is…I’d say familiar as opposed to tropey, Lan still feels like a well-rounded character, and I liked the way that both Lan and Bao develop as the story goes on. There is arguably a bit of insta-love in there, but I think that’s more about how short the book is and how much takes place off-page (before the start of the book) as opposed to being insta-love in a tropey YA fantasy kind of way. It’s a fun sweet dynamic between these two.This is a quick book, there’s no denying it, and arguably there are some moments that feel a little light because of that, it would be very easy to complain that there isn’t enough emphasis on worldbuilding or some of the non-romance plot elements. But I just think that wasn’t what this book was trying to do – you can get that in plenty of other places. This is a nice romance that is familiar and lovely in a wonderful setting (that you can read more of if you so choose). I’m delighted to have this on my shelf and I’ll absolutely be reading it next time I want a pick me up!My rating: 4/5 starsI bought this book myself all opinions are my own.The Song of the Crimson Flower is out now!