shoutout to the floor at the palermo airport. 🙌

well… this might be an unpopular opinion, but i didn’t really enjoy this book as much as i thought i would.

for a book branded as a sapphic love story there was too much talk about men. i’ve never read a sapphic book that was SO male centered. and maybe that was the point, that women will always live in men’s shadows and will always be the one getting recognition and all that… but i just don’t care.

the parts about descriptions of art felt very dull and un-interesting. i also felt that the author told us what to feel. there was a lot of telling and not enough showing.

my another issue is with the length. this book is unnecessarily long with never ending chapters, bro you ain’t donna tartt. the characters felt very two dimensional to me and i didn’t really feel any sympathy towards them. the only character that got some sort of depth is, once again, michel.

laure is a very interesting character and i enjoyed her pov the most. her development throughout her story felt a little rushed but i’m happy with her ending. erica? oh, i hated her guts. stupid selfish girl. i wanted to scream at her. genuinely did NOT care about her. her ending? no. their relationship felt so forced after the second part. at that point i just stopped caring.

overall it could’ve been much better if it were more thought through. there is potential but the book didn’t do for me what it did for others.

note: drink every time erica’s breasts are mentioned.

this is my first baihe novel (gifted to me by my bff for my bday <3) so i did not know what i was getting myself into.

right off the bat, i was mesmerised just by the first two paragraphs: a beautiful princess of a clan that is also the most powerful sword fighter? i'm sold!

i will be honest, i was confused at times because the pacing of the story is a bit odd and i didn't know what was going on. it felt like there were some plot holes, too. speaking of the plot, i still don't know what the main objective was... i feel like the novel lacked a certain direction and as a result the story was all over the place.

some readers struggled with the number of characters, and at first i did too, but then it got more fluid and i enjoyed the satisfaction of everyone's story combining into the bigger picture.

i really enjoyed FWQ's character: she was so fun, unbothered and such a tease. her relationship and chemistry with YSY interested me immediately. i'm kind of disappointed we didn't get to get deeper into the relationship and it didn't really lead anywhere. YSY was alright as a second main character, but in comparison to FWQ she was a bit bland. she had a couple good moments, though!

all in all, for my first baihe novel it wasn't so bad. yes, it wasn't perfect but i still enjoyed my time reading this book. i've discovered a new world and i'm excited to dive deeper!