clandestine's review
4.0
damn i really took my time with this one! which is okay, i think, because even without rushing, there are still a lot that i did not understand. what i read was a translation work, and me not being entirely familiar with chinese culture much less Ancient chinese culture, there must be a lot of context that i missed. really appreciate the translators' hard work for making this available for non-chinese speakers to read!!
how i judge books is how memorable it is to me! not just the plot, but the experience of reading the book itself. and sadly, i knew fgep is gonna be one of those unmemorable books to me. thing is, i cry and get touched easily, so even though i cried TONS while reading this, it's not anything significant. i enjoyed it mostly because of how attached i am to lin wanyue.
i am a sucker for loves that surpass the mortal world, lin wanyue & li xian fortunately had that! so that's a +1 for me. their relationship was.. Stormy, to say the least, and their ending was much well deserved after the exhaustion they've been through.
somehow im more interested in shiyi & yu xian... because the concept of secret imperial spies/assassins dating each other and being the princess' gay awakening... that is so big brained of them. speaking about gay awakening, li xian's experience with her own lesbianism resonated with me. that's when i started to become even more invested in li xian's character. her constant but growing protectiveness for lin wanyue was also admirable.
most of the story was predictable, and im not the impatient kind to hurriedly want explanation handed to me, so when most things were presented to me, i just nod and read along. but! what shocked me the most is qi wang and chu wang! i did not see that coming from any angle, that genuinely surprised me, and im not sure if it's the pleasant kind.
anyway! this could've been 3/3.5 stars if it weren't for the last extra. an enjoyable read with strong political intrigue & military strategy, lovable main character and interesting love interest. both are complex and as human as they can be.
how i judge books is how memorable it is to me! not just the plot, but the experience of reading the book itself. and sadly, i knew fgep is gonna be one of those unmemorable books to me. thing is, i cry and get touched easily, so even though i cried TONS while reading this, it's not anything significant. i enjoyed it mostly because of how attached i am to lin wanyue.
Spoiler
i am a sucker for loves that surpass the mortal world, lin wanyue & li xian fortunately had that! so that's a +1 for me. their relationship was.. Stormy, to say the least, and their ending was much well deserved after the exhaustion they've been through.
somehow im more interested in shiyi & yu xian... because the concept of secret imperial spies/assassins dating each other and being the princess' gay awakening... that is so big brained of them. speaking about gay awakening, li xian's experience with her own lesbianism resonated with me. that's when i started to become even more invested in li xian's character. her constant but growing protectiveness for lin wanyue was also admirable.
most of the story was predictable, and im not the impatient kind to hurriedly want explanation handed to me, so when most things were presented to me, i just nod and read along. but! what shocked me the most is qi wang and chu wang! i did not see that coming from any angle, that genuinely surprised me, and im not sure if it's the pleasant kind.
anyway! this could've been 3/3.5 stars if it weren't for the last extra. an enjoyable read with strong political intrigue & military strategy, lovable main character and interesting love interest. both are complex and as human as they can be.
erickabdz's review
4.0
Like a coral red bean inlaid in ivory dice, the wistful yearning for you deep into my bones.
I'M. IN LOVE.
I actually can believe how much I loved this book. With only the title, I was already loving it, but the execution was so much better than I could hope for! There were so many good tropes that I loved and three-dimensional characters all around. There were so! many! lgbt+! couples! But, if I'm being totally honest, I was captivated mostly for these two things:
First, Lin WanYue. My heart. I screamed every time she got close to a bow. Having Lin WanYue as a general was e v e r y t h i n g to me. I clapped and screamed in every fight. I was also so, so very gay for her. I'm just... *chef kiss* Female General Lin WanYue.
Second, all the political drama! I love stories about kings and queens and princesses and princes and... all of it. This was very well done and actually intriguing! I really, really enjoyed the dramas at the palace and how words were a fight by themselves. This was wonderfully done, and along with the fights, were what I most enjoyed reading.
The relationship between lwy and lx was so very beautiful and touching, and what I loved the most about it was how tender they were towards each other. I loved as well how respected lwy became A Mess every time lx was around. It was really sweet to read, and now I won't accept any love declaration if it doesn't involve an army rescue in a palace.
Also, I loved so, so much that lx is clearly a lesbian. How this was portrayed was superb and touching, especially knowing that the author herself is a lesbian. I'm just in awe of how much heart was put into developing lx's sexuality.
There are two reasons I'm not giving it full five stars. One, sometimes I felt like the definition of a woman was too limiting, some stereotypes here and there that were not fully challenged. Two, the ending. It was not bad, there was foreshadowing even, but
Spoiler
I really enjoyed lwy being a General ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh I just... wanted something more complex I guess but!!! my girls lived together happily so I can rest in peaceAnyway, I loved this book very, very much and I also blushed for the entirety of lwy and lx interactions, and that's how love should be I think. Also: fake dating, only one bed &
Spoiler
arranged marriage? sign me tf up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!a little warning: I would have loved to read reviews by trans readers to know how was the cross-dressing handled, but I could not find any. But please take this into consideration if it might a trigger for you, because it's an important part of the plot. Please let me know if I should put more thought into this!
brianaholmesxo's review
4.0
okay its finally done! after two months (and no, it did not take so long because it was bad it took so long bc i kept taking kdrama breaks lol) but anyways i finished.
also spoiler!!
right off the bat, the moment this book started i was so interested in lin wanyue and her story. with jwqs it took a little bit for me to get into, but with this i was hooked from the very first chapter. so many pages in and i was crying for lin wanyue. I felt this instant connection with her character like every emotion she felt, i felt it too. I enjoyed li xians character as well, but lin wanyue is for sure my favorite I just adore her so goddamn much.
as for the plot, I dont have too much to say. to be honest I dont go into these novels for the plot at all, I go into them for the romance so normally i dread when things get too plot-heavy but i rarely felt that with this. yes at times it did get boring but for most of it i really enjoyed being with lin wanyue in battle. shes so smart and seeing her lead men and execute her plans was so much fun. I would say my only complaint about this book was the ending. I definitely felt like it was rushed, what i wanted to happen, and thought would happen, didn't. not that thats a bad thing, I understand why the author did what she did, but personally it was something i looked forward to. if the author had just expanded the last half a bit more it could have changed my feelings but my enjoyment was not dulled by much, i still LOVED this book. I also adored the extra chapters, lin wanyue and li xian are so cute together and i highly recommend this read.
also spoiler!!
Spoiler
one thing I especially loved from this novel was the way li xian reacted towards lin feixings affection. to be honest, i thought this would be like a situation where li xian is like "if i love her as a man, can I love her as a woman too?" i was totally expecting that to be the deal, so i was a little confused when she would make it very obvious that she was having complicated feelings towards lin feixing. there are many occasions where she points out how she was unsure what to do, and why she felt it was so different especially the scene when lin feixing tried to kiss her forehead and li xian was clearly uncomfortable and upset, i was questioning why because i thought it was a perfect opportunity for their relationship to grow deeper but that wasn't the case and you find out why when lin wanyues identity is revealed and it makes sense. maybe that was obvious to other readers but not to me lol but i loved it.ladooozle's review
4.0
[4.5] I really enjoyed it and I believe I would've given it 5 stars if some of the political stuff wasn't as confusing in the middle because even though a lot of it was explained by the end, I still felt a little lost. I thought that Li Xian's sexuality was written beautifully and the explanations done by the author in the author notes made me tear up at times, especially when I found out PDL herself is a lesbian. I adored Li Xian and Lin Wanyue as a couple, and loved that it wasn't just slow burn that ended randomly, their relationship evolved and grew so much together. I went back to reread some of the earlier chapters and the foreshadowing that was done all the way in the beginning for the way the novel would end really surprised me, I didn't pick up on any of it. The plot felt a little rushed towards the ending, which is understandable since there was a lot to wrap up, but I feel that if it was spread out a little it would have been more enjoyable and less confusing to follow. I think if the first half wasn't as slow it would have been easier to do that, but I understand that Lin Wanyue needed time to develop and Li Xian's political schemes needed to be set up. Even with all of that, I still really loved the book and how the relationship between Li Xian and Lin Wanyue was written, and how Lin Wanyue's character grew throughout the story.
Spoiler
(how she had no attraction towards Lin Wanyue until realizing she was a woman, her aversion to being with Li Zhong, etc),666prada's review
3.0
i'm not the biggest fan of the crossdressing trope but since baihe content is so scarce, i decided to give it a chance anyways, and it was pretty good. plus, fortunately the crossdressing part didn't bring unnecessary drama to the table.
➽lin wanyue's village is massacred by the huns when she is fourteen, so she decides to disguise herself as a man and enlist in the army to take revenge and kill as many huns as she can, but since she is a very talented soldier, she ends up getting mixed in the elaborate schemes of eldest princess li xian who wants to ensure her little brother succeeds the throne when time comes.
➽there are battles, political scheming, some tender romance, angst and pining, found family, even some torturing and blood-drinking which was something i didn't see coming, but that was probably the strongest chapter.
➽li xian is so smart and she isn't afraid to do morally questionable things and use people to get what she wants, and you know what? i think that's very hot of her.
➽nice side characters, i found you yi especially interesting, i'm glad we even got some extras with her, but the whole supporting cast was pretty good.
➽so why 3 stars? around the middle the plot itself started to bore me, so it was a bit of a struggle to get through it, i wasn't super emotionally invested in whatever was happening, plus honestly after all that slowburn some parts of the romance felt a bit... rushed? i mean the whole reconciliation arc was iffy to me. like i swear to god the first half is like 5 stars, then the second 2-3...
➽lin wanyue's village is massacred by the huns when she is fourteen, so she decides to disguise herself as a man and enlist in the army to take revenge and kill as many huns as she can, but since she is a very talented soldier, she ends up getting mixed in the elaborate schemes of eldest princess li xian who wants to ensure her little brother succeeds the throne when time comes.
➽there are battles, political scheming, some tender romance, angst and pining, found family, even some torturing and blood-drinking which was something i didn't see coming, but that was probably the strongest chapter.
➽li xian is so smart and she isn't afraid to do morally questionable things and use people to get what she wants, and you know what? i think that's very hot of her.
➽nice side characters, i found you yi especially interesting, i'm glad we even got some extras with her, but the whole supporting cast was pretty good.
➽so why 3 stars? around the middle the plot itself started to bore me, so it was a bit of a struggle to get through it, i wasn't super emotionally invested in whatever was happening, plus honestly after all that slowburn some parts of the romance felt a bit... rushed? i mean the whole reconciliation arc was iffy to me. like i swear to god the first half is like 5 stars, then the second 2-3...
jasongrace's review
5.0
i'm genuinely in AWE by how good this was. i think that this is actually my favourite sapphic book to date.
shiqingxuan34's review
4.0
some of the royal politics went over my head a little but the ending has moved me to tears )):
id love to give this 5 stars because it means so much to me to have a wlw romance like this but it wasn't ~perfect~ in all its aspects but god it was emotional and pretty clever
id love to give this 5 stars because it means so much to me to have a wlw romance like this but it wasn't ~perfect~ in all its aspects but god it was emotional and pretty clever
aenys's review
4.0
had me until the ending tbh..... I really wanted everyone to know lwy's identity. But very enjoyable and melt's translation was nice.