Good story but lacking in details
Song of the Crimson Flower is a book that is exactly the type of story I love to read, but was lacking in details and relied heavily upon the books in the Rise of the Empress series for character development and world building.
I liked the main characters overall. Lan is very kind and courageous, while Bao is intelligent and caring. Yes, Lan has that outburst at Bao at the beginning of the story, but it seemed really out of character for her. Like she had never done such a thing and never would again. It was just a little weird, but also shows that even the kindest people have their breaking points. It also showed that, even though she was kind, Lan was living a very privileged life and needed to get out of the house and see the hardships of the world. I felt so bad for Bao and how he was treated by people who were considered “above his station,” when he is a great physician's apprentice and artistic with his music and poetry.
The romance between Lan and Bao was adorable, but nothing spectacular. It makes sense that Lan eventually falls for Bao, because she realized that he was the one making the romantic gestures when she thought it was her betrothed. She’s only mean to Bao the one time, and after that they’re fine with each other. I was annoyed that Bao became “acceptable” to marry at the end of the story because he was now the leader of a great city. I think the romance would have been a lot more meaningful if that hadn’t happened and Lan was like “screw it, I’m marrying him anyway.”
I should have read the Rise of the Empress duology, because I felt like I was really missing out on a few things. There were several characters that I assume where from those books, and their development was pretty shallow. In many ways I felt like an outsider looking in. Like, here are these beloved characters from these other books, but the only two characters I ever really got to know were Lan and Bao. I just didn’t really care about the rest of them and just felt like they were thrown in there to make the connection between Song of the Crimson Flower and Rise of the Empress.
My favorite part was the pronunciation guide at the front of the book. It helped a lot and I really appreciated it. There should be a rule that all books have character name pronunciations at the front.
Overall, I didn’t love the story, but I didn’t hate it. The writing was fine and the story was solid, it was just predictable and could have used more details with some of the background characters.
I liked the main characters overall. Lan is very kind and courageous, while Bao is intelligent and caring. Yes, Lan has that outburst at Bao at the beginning of the story, but it seemed really out of character for her. Like she had never done such a thing and never would again. It was just a little weird, but also shows that even the kindest people have their breaking points. It also showed that, even though she was kind, Lan was living a very privileged life and needed to get out of the house and see the hardships of the world. I felt so bad for Bao and how he was treated by people who were considered “above his station,” when he is a great physician's apprentice and artistic with his music and poetry.
The romance between Lan and Bao was adorable, but nothing spectacular. It makes sense that Lan eventually falls for Bao, because she realized that he was the one making the romantic gestures when she thought it was her betrothed. She’s only mean to Bao the one time, and after that they’re fine with each other. I was annoyed that Bao became “acceptable” to marry at the end of the story because he was now the leader of a great city. I think the romance would have been a lot more meaningful if that hadn’t happened and Lan was like “screw it, I’m marrying him anyway.”
I should have read the Rise of the Empress duology, because I felt like I was really missing out on a few things. There were several characters that I assume where from those books, and their development was pretty shallow. In many ways I felt like an outsider looking in. Like, here are these beloved characters from these other books, but the only two characters I ever really got to know were Lan and Bao. I just didn’t really care about the rest of them and just felt like they were thrown in there to make the connection between Song of the Crimson Flower and Rise of the Empress.
My favorite part was the pronunciation guide at the front of the book. It helped a lot and I really appreciated it. There should be a rule that all books have character name pronunciations at the front.
Overall, I didn’t love the story, but I didn’t hate it. The writing was fine and the story was solid, it was just predictable and could have used more details with some of the background characters.