I don't exactly want to go back in time and slap myself silly for reading this, but I really could've spent those few weeks reading something better. It was a fun ride, it had an interesting plot, but in the end, it wasn't really worth it and I don't believe I'll be rereading this book.
On top of being a good-ish source of entertainment during extreme boredom, the worldbuilding isn't bad, the romance, albeit rushed, could've been way worse, and the FL (our protagonist) is a character that you can feel sympathy for.
Godly Empress Doctor had its pros, but the parts I disliked outweigh the good parts of it. Despite feeling sorry for the FL when the world hates her, that doesn't make me like her. She is a Mary Sue who excels in everything, has no weaknesses, her plans rarely ever fail, and this book might as well be titled, "The Adventures of Feng Wu, Mary Sue" or something along those lines.
Almost all of the female characters similar to FL's age are downright obsessed with the crown prince (our ML and love interest). If they aren't daydreaming being married to (or even just being a concubine/maid of) him, they're busy beating up the FL. They're basically just one personality split into several people. On a similar note, the characters are rather cliche, predictable, and flat.
Examples: Duan Chaoge (FL's best friend), crass and violent attitude, cannot keep secrets to save FL's life, arrogant, impatient, only good trait (as far as I can see) is loyalty; Feng Xun, more bearable than Duan Chaoge, but always yelling about how FL liked ML before she actually did catch feelings, which annoyed me to no end; our ML (later goes through some ok character development but is still horrible to me) who physically hurt FL despite supposedly liking her, threatened her family and friends, and is scarily possessive (beat up his good friend just because said friend and FL were TALKING)
Final dislike: The author bit off more than they could chew with how busy the plots were; ended up leaving innumerable plotholes.
Good time killer, but not a good book. If you want something to actually get into, don't pick this one.