Song of the Crimson Flower (Rise of the Empress, book 2.5)

By Julie C. Dao

Blurb: 
From the acclaimed author of Forest of a Thousand Lanterns comes a fantastical new tale of darkness and love, in which magical bonds are stronger than blood.

Will love break the spell? After cruelly rejecting Bao, the poor physician's apprentice who loves her, Lan, a wealthy nobleman's daughter, regrets her actions. So when she finds Bao's prized flute floating in his boat near her house, she takes it into her care, not knowing that his soul has been trapped inside it by an evil witch, who cursed Bao, telling him that only love will set him free. Though Bao now despises her, Lan vows to make amends and help break the spell.

Together, the two travel across the continent, finding themselves in the presence of greatness in the forms of the Great Forest's Empress Jade and Commander Wei. They journey with Wei, getting tangled in the webs of war, blood magic, and romance along the way. Will Lan and Bao begin to break the spell that's been placed upon them? Or will they be doomed to live out their lives with black magic running through their veins?

Review: 
So I thought this was book 3 in the series and you know what I'm quite pleased it isn't. Because otherwise the books would have been ranked; good, awesome, is this really the same author? Yes! You heard me correctly. I'm pleased this is a side story but then at the same time it still isn't really good to increase my rating of it. So apologies in advance for this review is quite harsh but it is my honest feelings and again my opinion. What is my taste might not be yours and so on...

So this book started off with another two characters, this time they were in the grasslands of Feng Lu. Lan and "Tam" they were such a sweet couple and were planning to get married but Tam kept denying the date and kept giving poor reasons. Then Lan's father wanted to have a meeting to discuss a set date in person as he wanted her married. Lan is a princess and Tam was of a high valued family. 

Lan came from quite a large family with lots of brothers and a caring grandmother. They use to all play together along with Tam and a young boy called Boa, who was an orphan. But then they grew up and had jobs to do so it was very rare that they actually seen each other often.

Lan and "Tam's" love story is quite sweet really, he comes to her every night on the right outside of her room and plays his flute. He creates a song for her but it has no words until one day she discovers the lyrics hidden in the tree she use to climb.

Her grandmother has recently passed away so she is in the grieving stage when she finds out about Tam and takes all her anger out on poor Boa who is only the messenger. She obviously didn't follow the saying don't shoot the messenger.

Boa then goes on a trip to find the river witch to change his life and then discovers his past. Ge then bumps into Land while trying to find his mother and they go on an adventure together because she feels quite guilty for what she has said.

So basically that's the full story... so predictable. Eurgh! This book should have been so much shorter for the amount of adventure and action that happened in this book. The journey to find his mother was just dragged on for far too long. The same stuff happened constantly Boa faded Lan, revived him, they get kidnapped and carried on their adventure with the kidnappers to find his mother. He finds his mother and she is a two faced lying b**ch. Boa says it not me. 

Obviously it's more of a romance story then it is a fantasy story. You have Lan and Tam/Boa romance and then Wei and Lady Yen. The only thing that I did like about this story was that we got to meet some of the old characters who were in the major part of the books these were Wren and Wei. It was nice to see how they had developed in their new roles since the Great War when Xifeng died. That was the only link there was to this book which is a shame really but then that's the whole point of a side story. I just don't see how this was really necessary for the main series to carry on. What happened in this book could have taken one chapter out of the next book to describe. So I'm actually a bit annoyed I've spent the time reading this book.

It was well wrote and I still felt it flowed but I just felt like on a whole it could have been shorter, it lacked action, it was quite different from the other books in the series and just not worth my time at all. But hey ho! it's read now.

I also feel like the characters in this story didn't really develop much throughout either, Lan was just quite childish about her heart being broken and it just annoys me how she treated other people. Especially when she was on the adventure with a Boa to find his mother you could obviously feel there was a romance building up but she kept on denying it every time. 

If you enjoyed the first 2 books of this series and debating whether to actually read this book, it's entirely up to you but I know that I wouldn't read it again.

Favourite Character: Lady Yen

Read: 16/11/19 - 26/11/19

3.5 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie