Thank you to Eliza for a free ARC for winning the newsletter giveaway ❤️ no expectation of review or anything like that, my opinions are my own!

Representations: https://trello.com/c/VZvUYHOH

Absolutely perfect blend of English and Chinese folklore!

Loved the characters! Really good mix of them, and all different enough that at no point I had any issues mixing them up. The romance is quite a slow burn I felt, and it's not super strong in the foreground, but I quite like that. The end part of the romance though was very interesting, I just wish that'd been explored a little more as it felt a little abrupt! Certainly going to skim back through (I don't really re-read books) and have another read of certain scenes to see if it really was as abrupt as it seems at first though 👀 Kiamling was such an interesting protag. She is absolutely an asshole at points, but the kinda asshole you wanna shout at but you also can understand why they're doing what they're doing. Her character arc was really good to read, very well written. Jingling just rocks, I love Jingling lmao. Every scene with her was great!

The plot was cool as hell, the blend of folklores and mythology was really well done. This book really showcases some aspects I've not even really seen in tradpub books before! Would have liked to have seen more about the mysteries in Canton though, it is mostly explained but idk I just felt like I was still missing a lot of that side of the story. It kinda felt like the Canton plotline fell through the cracks a little in the overall plot and just needed a bit more meat on its bones.

This book does have a dual PoV and it is handled pretty well imo, but is pretty confusing when it first happens. But after reading a page of the first POV swap I got it so it wasn't too bad. It does serve a pretty good purpose! Of course, the British occupation of Hong Kong and colonisation is a big topic. It's interesting having Archie be a middle man essentially, a mouth piece of the crown without really fully understanding things, and having his world view slowly eroded over the course of the book just by being with Kiamling and seeing what Hong Kong truly is.

But yeah, highly recommend. Beautiful cover, great characters and just a well written adventure! I can't wait to read the sequel, while this book was pretty neatly wrapped up (you could probably actually read this standalone tbh), I do want to read more of these characters for sure!!

Representations: https://trello.com/c/kEopMhjU

Surprisingly dark, but a good story about just how screwed up it can get if only some people are magic.

I'm really loving this era of books that seem to be exploring the fact that people would be utter assholes if only some people were magical. This book is kinda about children being forced to be slaves, kidnapped from their families and sold as products. But as a children's book haha.

The BSL rep was also awesome but I wish a little bit more was done with it. It was quite hard to work out what was being signed, and what was being said. However, I absolutely love how the magical cure trope is done here, that's how the trope should be done! My anxiety went through the roof in that chapter lmao but it played out so damn well.

Leonie and Cress are fantastic characters though. Their growth throughout the book and how their characters change through the events is really well written. I especially love how Cress grew into, and above, her role as a match and how the dynamic between the 2 very subtly changes over the book. Leonie is one of the strongest female MCs I've read in a while - dealt a shit hand at life but determined and strong. She knows what she wants, but is too young and sheltered to fully know consequence or what her actions actually mean. The side characters are pretty good, but some of them certainly got a bit jumbled around in my head and I forgot who some people were, just because the side characters for the most part have such small and/or fleeting roles.

Plot-wise the book is mainly an adventure/escape. It's mostly linear, and a little predictable - but that doesn't detract from the story at all honestly. I really loved the magic system and how it all works, and I love how Leonie handles her magic.

Overall, yeah this is a fantastic book. It is pretty dark, but I know kid me would have loved this just as much as adult me does. Honestly could see this easily being a film or TV show, and it would work pretty well.