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Butterfly Swords by Jeannie Lin
Nov. 1st, 2010 11:58 pmButterfly Swords is a non-fetishized mainstream romance set in China during the Tang dynasty. Something I never thought I’d actually see!
Ai Li is a princess who discovers that her fiance is actually a traitor plotting against her father. And so, like any sensible princess with a horde of older brothers would do, she hires mercenaries to attack her wedding caravan so she can escape, acquiring a foreigner named Ryam as a bodyguard along the way.
The plot is a relatively typical wuxia romantic adventure, which is far from a bad thing. Lin is better with the fighting and adventure than with the more directly romantic parts, but she also writes to her strengths. My only problem is that, though this is Lin’s first book, there’s a previous story about Ryam’s friend (I think it was only available online?) and Ryam’s part of the plot assumes that the reader has read that, which I haven’t.
I’ve given few details, but that’s because most who would read this post knew if they were interested from the first line of the post, and just wanted to know if it sucked. It definitely does not suck.
ETA: According to Lin's website, the online-only story is about Ai Li's grandmother, which makes the immediate-sequel feeling a bit odder to me, but ah well.
Ai Li is a princess who discovers that her fiance is actually a traitor plotting against her father. And so, like any sensible princess with a horde of older brothers would do, she hires mercenaries to attack her wedding caravan so she can escape, acquiring a foreigner named Ryam as a bodyguard along the way.
The plot is a relatively typical wuxia romantic adventure, which is far from a bad thing. Lin is better with the fighting and adventure than with the more directly romantic parts, but she also writes to her strengths. My only problem is that, though this is Lin’s first book, there’s a previous story about Ryam’s friend (I think it was only available online?) and Ryam’s part of the plot assumes that the reader has read that, which I haven’t.
I’ve given few details, but that’s because most who would read this post knew if they were interested from the first line of the post, and just wanted to know if it sucked. It definitely does not suck.
ETA: According to Lin's website, the online-only story is about Ai Li's grandmother, which makes the immediate-sequel feeling a bit odder to me, but ah well.