Iron Widow is book 1 in this Young/New Adult Science Fantasy series.

4 stars mostly because I didn't get that emotional connection as I did with Zachary Ying, but this story was amazing all the same. Let's see, what can I say about this book?
–Book is very much a feminine rage story through the views of Chinese inspired lenses. The protagonist, Wu Zetian, feels like a character who toes the line between Cersei Lannister and Margery Tyrell from Game of Thrones. Wants to make better the government, but isn't at all afraid to murder and burn things to the ground in order to get there.
–I think calling this a female empowerment book is debatable. Wu Zetian has no women support characters in this book, and when I thought she would have one, the character is, unfortunately, not around enough to call her a friend, and because of what happens in the last act of the book, the impact just wasn't really there for me. Can't explain because spoilers. The only support Wu Zetian really gets is from her two love interests, Yizhi and Shimin. The rest is Wu Zetian experiencing sexism, classism, and racism either toward her, Shimin, and/or other characters throughout the book.
–The polyamorous romance is VERY slow burn. I was actually surprised how long it took for Wu Zetian, Yizhi, AND Shimin to get together. I'm actually not mad about that, I was just surprised because I was expecting before the middle of the book for them to get together.
–The book is, surprisingly, under 400 pages, and I noticed. The reason why I said that is because by the time we get to the last act, the story is suddenly sprinting to the end. Don't get me wrong, the ending was very surprising to me and I seriously can't WAIT to read book 2, but I'm wondering if maybe this book could've benefitted with just a few more chapters to either flesh some characters out and/or pad out the last act.
–Oh! Thanks to the author and their videos on YouTube dissecting Asian inspired stories in media, I did in fact fell down a rabbit whole on the history of Wu Zetian, the first and ONLY female Emperor(there's a reason why Wu Zetian went by Emperor and not Empress, I mean, she did when she was married to two Emperors, but that title went to her once she was able to take the throne after their passing, there's a lot of sexist historians to get through, but she is a very fascinating figure to learn about IMO). This story and world is very much INSPIRED by Ancient China and its history and mecha anime, or Pacific Rim if you don't know what mecha anime is. This isn't a what if story, nor is it an alternate, if anything, that ending made sure of that lol.
I think that's pretty much it. I had a lot more to say than I thought lol, but Iron Widow was a great book and I'm looking forward to reading book 2, Heavenly Tyrant. I seriously hope I preordered it, because I honestly don't remember if I did lol. Guess I'll find out come release day XD