The Dragon and the Sun Lotus

While I always enjoy Amélie Wen Zhao's books, they never fully wow me enough to be a highlight. Will I still always be tempted to pick up her books for the C-drama vibe? Hell yes! Especially with sea dragons coming into play - all ancient powers, pride and maybe a bit of prejudice. This book is a satisfying conclusion to the dilogy, and the world is lush and immense and puts so many vivid images in my head. I was also really into the whole (secret) identity angle. Hidden truths and conflicted loyalties, I'm here for it. Add to this the presence of mó, beautiful but deadly demons, and what more could I want? However, as I came to expect from the author, the FMC is a bit weak and annoying. The MMCs are more interesting, although I could always do without a love triangle. Nonetheless, the series worked for me overall. 4/5 stars Thank you @netgalley and @randomhousekids and @harperfiction for the eARC! #TheDragonAndTheSunLotus #Netgalley #Instagram

Well, writing this review took me some time to think. I absolutely loved the first book of this trilogy, the setting, the mythology, the fmc and most of all the love interest. And I can only summarize book 2 with: I missed all of that. I personally felt like she lost her spark completely and went from a woman fighting for what she wants to a woman whining and looking for a man to safe her. I additionally did not feel the same spark with the “new” love interest and felt their love story way too rushed and kinda like just a means to an end or maybe the author just wanted to push for the love triangle trope really badly. And that lost me completely. And no, the fmc did not stick with her decision but ran back for an unnecessary scene that made be so angry because it did neither character justice since it didn’t do anything for the plot. The ending felt rushed too, and especially for one of the guys it felt a lot like the author just forgot him for a sec and needed to get rid of that upcoming plot hole. So yeah, I was disappointed to say the least. The series could have been so much better if it would have been only one book OR if it would have been a longer series. But this? Yeah no, sadly not a worthy ending for my taste. Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC!

I definitely liked this vol. more than the first one. Even thought the story itself wasn‘t that special, the characters and the chemistry between them was really beautiful. And don’t missunderstand - The story wasn’t bad or anything like that (i liked it!) but it wasn’t something completly new that caught me of guard. The End of the book was really fitting but my heart is still kinda aching🥹