I love Jeannie Lin's prose and scene-setting, and thoroughly enjoyed the political machinations of her Tang Dynasty backdrop. The romance, however, just left me a bit bored. There was a lot of wandering - literally - for the majority of the book, and it felt aimless at several points. I have already started the next book in the series, though, because the characters who return as main characters in book two are so promising. Looking forward to reading more of the Tang Dynasty series.

I've been wanting to read this for a while and the adventure romance of it all did not disappoint!! The dynamic between Ai Li and Ryam is really well fleshed out and Jeannie Lin does an excellent job of showing where the puzzle pieces of their relationship fit. Minor point off for what I felt like was a super convenient ending and unexplained minor character development.