Book Info:

My Favorite Quote:

Blame me, or blame the heavens for placing us on different sides of this war. May we meet in another life.

My Personal Rate: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (3,8)

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Review:

I just finished reading this book and I think this book is great but is not really my tea. Even though I love historical-fiction and xianxia genre, I feel like there could be something more for this book. I like the story-telling in this book and I like the main character, but I can’t say this is my favorite book.

The story is written from first point of view. It’s Zephyr’s point of view. In the story, she’s always scheming to help Ren restoring the power to Xin Bao. I enjoy reading how cunning Zephyr is. She betrays her lordess to join Miasma and then she betrays Miasma to join Cicada. Zephyr’s strategy is quite complicated that it took me a while to understand her motives and pattern.

Then, she met Crow—Miasma’s strategist—and fell in love with him. But I kinda forget how they could fall in love while they were being on opposite sides? Is it just because they were playing zither and they feel connected? Perhaps I missed a point while reading. But, all I can remember is Crow always trying to poison Zephyr. He poisoned Zephyr to make her depend on him for antidote. He is depicted as a attractive boy but other than that, I feel like he doesn’t have a firm character. And it seems like that their love story is not that deep but I do like the quotes in Zephyr's letter to Crow.

Another important part is when Zephyr is getting killed in a war and suddenly she ascend to immortal realm and become a Goddess of mist. I think this is the only xianxia part of this book. But somehow the scene feels to sudden. I know, maybe the point of Zephyr being a Goddess is to make her able to change body and going back to life. But I don’t really get it why suddenly there’s immortal realm. I legit thought the book was only historical-fiction genre at first.

Zephyr also shares sister bond with Ren, Lotus, and Cloud. I want to know more about the bond between the four sisters but there’s just a little explanation. I also want to know how Ku—Cicada’s strategist—is sister to Zephyr because they are like two persons who never met at all. What happened? Is Ku losing her memories? Maybe I should read the second book for explanation.

In the end of the book, I just learn that this book is inspired by The Three Kingdoms (for the time-setting). For the zither part, I thought zither in this story is like a magic that could stop a war or fight enemies. But it’s just some kind of language between strategists.

To sum up, I give 3,8 stars for this book.