Another fun and fascinating book by Jeannie Lin! This novel takes the familiar concept of My Fair Lady and puts a Tang Dynasty twist on it, which is something I am very unfamiliar with but appreciated nonetheless. It's a very compelling, if somewhat restrained, story with a great supporting cast. There might not be any flying swordsmen in this, but it still transports you and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

An important thing to note: this is not your typical romance novel. In a romance novel set in Victorian England or the Regency period, there are a lot more stolen kisses, and the sexual tension is more obvious. This novel will seem tame in comparison. Some might say even too restrained and detached. While I think Lin could've preserved the Eastern ideals of duty, honor, and familial responsibility while increasing the sexual tension more than she did, I didn't mind the restraint. The stakes felt very real, so I was compelled to keep reading even when the romance stalled.

The lack of sexual tension (except in the last 80 or so pages) is the reason I docked this a whole star. Otherwise, there's a lot to love. Her descriptions are beautiful without being over the top. The cast was interesting and fun, and the pacing was decent. Overall, I recommend this novel if you're looking for a little something different or if you don't like lurid romances. ( )

The April 2023 #TBRChallenge is "Unusual Historical." This is 1000% my catnip, and I was looking forward to returning to the challenge after a very challenging March. I basically took one look at my Harlequin Historicals shelf and grabbed this book. I've wanted to read it for a long time, and I've slowly been collecting this author's work, based on the premises and promise of fellow reviewers. I was not disappointed.

The novel opens with Fei Long storming a provincial teahouse and finding his younger sister, Pearl, in a compromising situation with her long-time love Han. Fei Long is furious because Pearl has been selected as a heqin (alliance) bride, but she protested bitterly against it and ran away with her lover instead. It is a matter of honor and principle, but Fei Long relents in the end and allows the two to escape. He's left in a conundrum, however: the Khitan kingdom is still expecting to receive a Tang princess as part of their political alliance agreement, and Fei Long only has one sister. Where is is going to find a replacement, and fast?

He goes downstairs to the teahouse and broods over a cup of tea. He makes a remark to the server which results in her throwing the tea at him, a mortal offense given his class status. The girl is horrified at her reaction, and seeks him out the next day, telling him that she has been thrown out of the tea house for her insubordination and has nowhere to go, begging his forgiveness for her rash act. Fei Long gets another good look at her, and a crazy plan forms in his mind: he can potentially take this tea girl and put her in his sister's place as the heqin bride. He'd have two months to teach her courtly manners and ways, poise and dress, as well as how to read and write. He could take her back to his home in the capital city, Changan, and put his servants to work on her - and maybe, just maybe, he'd be able to pull it off.

The girl, Yan Ling, readily agrees to the scheme when he proposes it. She has no family, and now no job or place to live - so what does she have to lose?

The two travel back to Fei Long's mansion in the capital, and he installs her in his sister's quarters and begins her princess lessons. He quickly finds himself at a loss, however; his parents are deceased, and his father's last concubine has gone off to join a convent. His household servants can help, but what he needs is someone who can teach Yan Ling to be a Lady of Quality. He turns to an old friend, Li Bai Shen, a renowned theatre actor who is well known and well loved for taking the female roles in the plays. If anyone can teach an illiterate girl from the provinces how to pass for a high-born princess, it is the self-proclaimed master of deception.

Yan Ling is caught up in the whirlwind of her lessons - with Bai Shen; with Dao, Pearl's loyal servant; and with Fei Long himself, who teaches her how to write. She quickly grows to love her newfound home in the bustling capital city, and is determined to follow through with the scheme to step into Pearl's role as the heqin bride, who is being sent basically to the hinterlands. She owes as much to the man she once covered with tea, but who ultimately saved her and gave her a chance.

There is more going on under the surface of this My Fair Lady-esque story, however: dark political machinations swirl about, and Fei Long's father leaves behind huge debts to a notorious moneylender. Fei Long is the new leader of his household, and it falls to him to keep everything moving smoothly, and to keep pride of place for his family's honor. As Yan Ling transforms from mousy servant girl to courtier, it becomes harder and harder for him to be around her, knowing all that burdens him - and all he dreams of.

This may be #3 in a series but it stands alone quite beautifully. It is a beautifully told story, set in 824 China during the Tang dynasty. The rigid class structure plays a large role in proceedings, and informs all of the characters in believably authentic ways. Fei Long is very much of the Sesshoumaru mold, bound by honor and pride and his father's name. He should not be having the thoughts and feelings he's having about Yan Ling, and finds himself between a rock and a hard place. How can he love her? And yet, how can he let her go?

The romantic tension is delicious and sensual. These characters feel all of their emotions, and yet try to restrain them around others. I just loved the push-pull tug between them. They are very much characters of their time as well, and the side plots that play out around them are excellent set pieces that move the plot along. The supporting cast is equally wonderful! I saw the 'out' to the ultimate tangle way before either character did, and I was hoping that I would be right because any other solution would just be absurd. (I was!)

The UST resolves in a set of beautiful love scenes near the end, just the way I like them (in a similar fashion to my own fandom opus fic), so A++ for that, too.

As anticipated, I just adored this writer's style and I'm really happy I have more of her work on Mount TBR! ( )

This was a buddy read that I had with Melissa's Book Musings. You can find her final review of the book here. Suffice it to say that we both gave it three stars.

My Fair Concubine was a riff off of My Fair Lady and honestly, this should have just been called "My Fair Tea House Girl" since there was no concubine in this book besides for a couple minutes appearance, and she's not the main focus of this book. Ahem. Excuse the rant.

I am going to echo Melissa's Book Musings here with the fact that I found the heroine, Yan Ling just okay. I would also add in a seriously bored by her too. The hero Chang Fei Long I was more intrigued by, but who wouldn't love the Tang Dynasty version of Henry Higgins.

Plot is that because Fei Long has decided to not force his sister to come back and be wedded as per Imperial decree, he needs someone to take her place. So he of course sets his sights on the tea house girl who threw tea on him (just go with it). I mean you suspend your belief when you read romance, but in this case I really had to suspend my belief. The whole plan (make Yan Ling over in order to pass for someone who was brought up learning proper etiquette along with writing and the proper way in which to walk and talk) was hare-brained as hell. I was just wondering how they were going to pull it off.

So instead of some madcap scenes, we get a lot and I do mean a lot of Ms. Lin describing all of Yan Ling's lessons. I felt like I was slowly being beaten to death with a palm frond. I was just bored throughout anytime the book (which was about 80 percent of it) going into how Yan was learning how to write calligraphy or to spell and read certain words.

I really did love the character of Li Bai Shen (an old friend of Fei Long's) who is an actor who portrays women quite often in plays who is tapped to get Yan Ling to walk and move like a woman. I wish we had focused on him a bit more and also included more of his training, because those were the only parts that I found intriguing.

Other characters we don't get to see developed much, Yan Ling's current personal maid Dao and others such as Fei Long's servants. Frankly I can't believe no servants anywhere would not have been gossiping about what he was trying to pull off under the Emperor's nose.

I thought the flow could have been improved if we hadn't focused so much on the training aspect. And I can't lie, the constant stealing of glances by Yan Ling when she decides out of nowhere she has fallen for Fei Long or when Fei Long who has been right and proper the whole time, decides, screw it, he';s going to run away with Yan Ling rang false. The actual sex scenes took me completely out of the book, they were done well (except for the whole the first time was the best time ever nonsense which I wish would die a quick death in romance books everywhere) but once again didn't ring true of how right and proper Fei Long had been the entire book.

I wish I could say more about the Tang Dynasty setting. I did not feel fully immersed in the culture. I really wish that we had gotten more insights into other homes, tea houses, how the courts were set up, etc.

The ending I rolled my eyes at. The simplest solution ever in order for the hero and heroine to have their happily ever after. ( )

Loved loved loved this book!

Set in Tang Dynasty, China, this version of My Fair Lady is pure comfort reading. Yan Ling is a tea house serving girl, hard-working with a fiery streak. Fei Long is the perfect composed, elegant gentleman, always in control. When they meet, they seem like the answer to each other's problem Fei Long needs a woman to prepare as a bride for a neighboring nation after he allows his sister to run away with her true love, and Yan Ling needs to escape to an environment that suits her intelligent, romantic, lively spirit., but somewhere along the way, feelings happen.

I loved the contrast of the subtle, outward interactions with the tumultuous inner battles. Although light on history, there was enough to flavour the story nicely. I was hooked from the beginning straight through to the end. I had not read Jeannie Lin before, and My Fair Concubine was so enjoyable, I must read more or her work.

ATW 2018 China ( )

To truly enjoy this novel to its fullest, you have to not just like the time it’s set in, but you have to love it, or at least be intrigued by it. The setting is a character in itself. China’s Tang Dynasty is a period regarded as a high point in Chinese civilization: a golden age of cosmopolitan culture and was largely a period of progress and stability.

Ms. Lin has this wonderful way of taking you on an adventure you’ll be hard pressed to leave at the end of the telling of the tale. And that’s only the beginning! You’ll love the characterization of not just the main characters but all the people that come in and out of their adventure.

For a fun, clever and sweeping romance, this one is a must!

Melanie for b2b

Complimentary copy provided by the publisher
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