Challenge Corner discussion

Inspired by the legend of Xishi, one of the famous Four Beauties of Ancient China, A Song to Drown Rivers is an epic historical fantasy about womanhood, war, sacrifice, and love against all odds.
Her beauty hides a deadly purpose.

Xishi’s beauty is seen as a blessing to the villagers of Yue—convinced that the best fate for a girl is to marry well and support her family. When Xishi draws the attention of the famous young military advisor, Fanli, he presents her with a rare opportunity: to use her beauty as a weapon. One that could topple the rival neighboring kingdom of Wu, improve the lives of her people, and avenge her sister’s murder. All she has to do is infiltrate the enemy palace as a spy, seduce their immoral king, and weaken them from within.

Trained by Fanli in everything from classical instruments to concealing emotion, Xishi hones her beauty into the perfect blade. But she knows Fanli can see through every deception she masters, the attraction between them burning away any falsehoods.

Once inside the enemy palace, Xishi finds herself under the hungry gaze of the king’s advisors while the king himself shows her great affection. Despite his gentleness, a brutality lurks and Xishi knows she can never let her guard down. But the higher Xishi climbs in the Wu court, the farther she and Fanli have to fall—and if she is unmasked as a traitor, she will bring both kingdoms down.

ugh, I'm so behind in buddy reads. I'm going to get through a few books and then I'll be here to get this one done! 😊

I'm behind too! I'm hoping to read a couple of books today/tomorrow

Same here, hoping to start next week.

Where did the time go? Still intending to read this, this week or early next.

ooh man, missed this one!

Yes, I'll aim for early next week too!

I'll be starting this one this weekend

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RESTARTING SEPTEMBER 27TH, 2024

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Just got this one.

Through Ch.. 6 (pg. 83) 26% I'm loving this one!

(view spoiler)[Wow! I think the writing of this one is just beautiful, and even if someone doesn't like the story I can't imagine not loving the beauty of the words.

I am really worried for Xishi and how she'll do spying on Fuchai. She's obviously able to use her womanly wiles on men but that will only take her so far. I feel so bad for what happened to Susu and that she felt so responsible for her. Little ones don't always listen no matter the danger because they don't understand. That was so sad. I am pretty sure she's going to use her womanly wiles on Fanli at some point. lol So far I really like her, Fanli, and Zhengdan. I think (hope) she's make a great palace lady and help Xishi stay safe. (hide spoiler)]

Through Ch. 14 (pg. 166) 52%

(view spoiler)[Wow! Xishi is far braver than I am! lol And thankfully her palace lady & friend, Zhengdan, is sharp enough to realize that the one maid was giving her poison from Lady Yu. Xishi has a way about her to get people to listen to her. I was a bit surprised how Fuchai has been so patient with her.

I loved the birthday scene and of all the gifts he was given he appreciated to pebble. I loved that. I don't know why Wu Zixu is doing to much to try to mess up things for Xishi. He's awful.

I want to see a budding romance between Xishi and Fanli! (hide spoiler)]

Trisha, I really hope you love this one as much as I did or at least a lot. I finished it the other day but man, oh, man! NO SPOILER!

(view spoiler)[OMG! I first of all couldn't believe it when Fuchai hurt Fanli, I was SO MAD that Zhengdan was killed. I just loved her so much! And then I thought sure the way it seemed at times that Xishi was falling for Fuchai. It's hard when you hear so much bad about someone and you know they're basically responsible for Susu's death but then you find out he really has a good heart for YOU (in this case Xishi) and can be gentle and give you the world, I see how hard it would be to not begin to forgive in your heart so I was worried.

The ending made me SO, SO SAD but at the same time it was also so absolutely beautiful. I was pissed that Goujian did that to Xishi and murdered her but WHY? Just because her "job" was done. Fanli loved her so much and just couldn't handle life without her. What a sad, and beautiful ending. Love forever. I though this author did such an amazing job! (hide spoiler)]

I’ll be reading this soon

Started

Vicki wrote: "Through Ch.. 6 (pg. 83) 26% I'm loving this one!

Wow! I think the writing of this one is just beautiful, and even if someone doesn't like the story I can't imagine not loving the beauty of the wor..."

Chapters 1-7 (view spoiler)[ I agree with you Vicki.What happened to Susu was really sad. It’ll be interesting to see how the whole spying thing plays out. I’m not really sure how I feel about the book yet, but I’m listening to the audiobook. (hide spoiler)]

Chapters 8-14 (view spoiler)[ So she was shot by an arrow. I’m not sure how I feel about the banter in this book between the two characters. I’m not really the biggest fan of Xishi’s character to be honest… (hide spoiler)]

Chapters 15- 18
(view spoiler)[ Yes, saying someone else’s name while you are kissing someone is not a good thing….
And that one person being killed was sad, especially since she was framed. I feel like she will slowly start to actually like the king, especially with how he protected her from getting burned. (hide spoiler)]

Finally started this one last night.

Finished (view spoiler)[The ending was so confusing for me. I didn’t love that she ended up murdering the king. I thought he was going to be redeemable in her eyes, but I guess not. And then she was murdered? That made no sense either, like why? I also didn’t like the romance in this one. It wasn’t well developed in my opinion. (hide spoiler)]

Chapters 1-6
(view spoiler)[ Time is passing a lot quicker than I expected. I feel like she just arrived and started training and now she’s passed a test and is about to go off. I liked seeing her entrance this man but I knew getting out of it would be a challenge. That was bad, but she needs to learn how to extricate herself from these types of situations as well. I’m curious what will happen when she goes to see the King. Given all the descriptions of how beautiful she is, he will be interested, but will that be enough? (hide spoiler)]

Chapters 7-15
(view spoiler)[ The king is so dumb I can’t lol. Just builds her a palace like that, no big deal. No wonder all his advisors preferred his dad. I enjoyed that it took her a little while to get and keep his attention, but I’m finding it very hard to believe that they aren’t having sex. Eventually he’d be pushing for that and she’d run out of excuses real fast. I’m not surprised one of the wives tried to poison her, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened more given how much attention the king is giving her. I wonder if this alliance will work out or if she’ll get backstabbed. (hide spoiler)]

Chapters 16-18
(view spoiler)[ What an idiot how did she manage to say Fanli’s name. Even with her performance in the face of this torture I would not be believing her like the king is. You don’t just do that. And poor Zhengdan, I knew he was going to get her back but I’m sad she died. And a canal, really, I can’t with this idiot king lol. (hide spoiler)]

Finished
(view spoiler)[ I enjoyed this but I didn’t love it. I was so surprised that she died and then we saw her in the afterlife watching him. It made sense when it was explained but that was brutal, after everything she went through for her country just to be murdered for it. Her killing the king was also brutal. It needed to happen but she was deluding herself saying she hated him, she was fond of him, there was no question of that. Overall, this was a good read, I would have liked it better if there wasn’t the romance between her and Fanli or if that had been better developed, it went from he’s cute to I love him so fast that I wasn’t invested at all. This spans a long period of time, but seeing more of their relationship building would have really helped. (hide spoiler)]