The Dragon and the Sun Lotus

Overall Rating: 5/5

Àn’yīng has been betrayed by the one person she thought she could trust. Forced to flee from the Kingdom of Sky, now she must face the Kingdom of Night, who has sent out their forces in an attempt to overthrow the Kingdom of Sky and the mortal realm to subject them to the forces of darkness and to mó.

But how does one deal with the fact that your destiny is as heir to a goddess... who cannot manifest Her powers when she needs them most? How do you fight a man that you once loved... and is now your worst enemy...

Short and yet nothing less than utterly delightful, Amélie Wen Zhao comes with the thrilling conclusion to this duology, and Amélie's talent with words is truly shining in the most delightful of ways with the way that she plunges her readers back into the tension, grief, and the fact that choices sometimes cause us to contradict our thoughts in ways that we wouldn't expect. This is a sequel that is emotionally heavy and yet also amazing in the best (and worst) ways that emotions can affect someone.... and Amélie has done a fantastic job of bringing those emotions of pain, of grief, of betrayal and of utter conflict with oneself to life in a truly haunting fashion...giving her characters so much more of a life-like quality.

To add on top of that, the storyline... and the absolute MAGIC of the world that Amélie has created... and as many have mentioned... it really does read like something of a xiānxiá-style Chinese drama, blending beautiful elements of mythology with a gorgeously fantastical world, and a story that will grab your attention and refuse to let you go the whole time through the masterpiece that is this high-stakes, rollercoaster of a story.

This is my very first duology and works by the very talented Amélie Wen Zhao and this was everything I wanted, and so much more. The writing is rich, engaging and immersive, and the pacing is consistent and well-thought out throughout. This absolutely blew me away, and I cannot wait to read more of Amélie Wen Zhao's works.