ouch, this hurt so much. truly a tragic historical romance in more ways that one. i’m not going to lie: having only read romcoms from ann liang, i was a little hesitant about how her writing style would translate to historical fiction/fantasy, but this did not disappoint. the prose was beautiful and luscious, and the plot was well-crafted, while also following the perfected romance formula of her other books. this is one of the rare cases where i actually enjoyed reading about a love triangle (of a kind).