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I don’t know how I feel about the book so far. I find the changing and warping of the house fascinating, and definitely gotta hand it to Ainsling for not only tracking it but not doing the dumb thing and trying to explore.

My dumbass forgot about the history of the Three Kingdoms and that Sima Yi is the name of a real person who served under the Cao Wei kingdom (Ximing is this novel’s equivalent). Thank you to my dearest friend who brought it up.

Random side note: I cannot stand another mention of “baichi fool” or “you baichi idiot” and there’s only been one of each. Baichi is not a modifier, thank you very much. It is a noun that means "idiot" or "fool", for goodness sake; Hai Meilin's essentially saying "fool fool" or "you idiot idiot” and I am banging my head against the wall because of this.

The sporadic appearance of Hai Meilin's attraction to Liu Sky is frustrating, and it feels misplaced. Remove the lust and bouts of yearning (???) and the story remains unchanged. The pair lack chemistry, and I'm much more inclined to believe that Liu Sky begrudgingly accepts Hai Meilin as a woman amongst his ranks in a time where that is forbidden because she is a reputable warrior rather than his attraction to her.

Choosing to give places or landmarks a name in romanized Chinese (pinyin) is nothing to bat an eye at; it's pretty common to use other languages or something entirely made up. It's another thing to do that and then claim the name has meaning without clearly explaining what it means (I'm looking specifically at the river named Dian). I don’t believe there is a glossary either…?

This, above all else, erases what could have been a depiction of Hai Meilin's battle prowess, and instead makes it seem like an egregious use of plot armor. The narration also makes for a very fast-paced story, so much so that we're skimming over even the most important of scenes There is no tension; I do not feel the weight of what is at stake the same way the characters feel.

However, the writing of the novel makes it very difficult to grasp this. There is a distinct lack of show-not-tell, and many scenes, especially the action-packed scenes (key battle scenes, might I add), suffer from it. It feels like I'm hearing a recount of the battle from a secondhand source, as opposed to experiencing it alongside the character in the heat of the moment.

It's difficult to track Hai Meilin's development as a warrior. It's clear that she undergoes the rigorous training all soldiers in the army do, and she works hard in the evenings after training to further hone her skills. Pair that with her strong foundation and knowledge of *qi gong*, and on paper, she's an exceptionally skilled individual in the combat arts.

The mix of romanized Chinese names (in standard *pinyin*) and non-romanized ones isn't bad per se, but it is a little jarring to go from reading about Hai Meilin and Yu Xiuying to Liu Sky. I'm particularly bothered by the author's decision to give a character a non-Chinese name but write it in the manner of one, i.e., surname first. I cannot begin to explain how hard I cringed when I first saw "Liu Sky”.

You cannot convince me that Gabriel is not austistic and Elodie does not have ADHD. They’re both so pleasantly charming in their own way, and I fear their falling out was a horrifically simple moment of miscommunication.

I can’t help but be both frustrated and sympathetic towards Shean, definitely leaning more frustrated though. She’s confident and ambitious, and not for no reason, for she certainly has the skill and dedication to back up her attitude. However, she is young and reckless, thinking only of herself and not of the consequences of her actions.

Why am I struggling so much to pick up this book

Stressing me out right now