Book Review: Forest of a Thousand Lanterns

"Forest of a Thousand Lanterns" by Julie C. Dao (Rise of the Empress #1)

Publication Date-October 10, 2017

Genre- Young Adult, Fantasy, Retellings

Hardcover Edition-363 Pages

Rating-4/5 Lily Pads

Would I Recommend It? Yes, especially if you love books set in Asia

No Spoilers!!

Favorite Quotes:

Page 115-"Some of us must rely on friends to see the best within us. That is how we find balance."

Page 116-"We all have our battles to fight, but we can choose to overcome them."

Page 144-"Being underestimated can be a blessing in disguise," Xifeng said. "That is to say, it gives us a chance to astonish those who doubt our true worth."

Hey guys, I hope all of you are doing great. I can't believe it's the end of October, this month flew by so fast. There were so many books I wanted to read this month, but unfortunately I couldn't get to them. I pre-ordered this book and started it the day it came in the mail. I was really excited to read this book and it got some good buzz lately. So today I am reviewing "Forest of a Thousand Lanterns". When I found out this was a Snow White Evil Queen retelling set in Asia, I knew I had to read it. I'm always looking for books set in Asian countries. This book didn't disappoint me, let's get on to the review. 

Goodreads Summary

An East Asian fantasy reimagining of The Evil Queen legend about one peasant girl's quest to become Empress--and the darkness she must unleash to achieve her destiny.

Eighteen-year-old Xifeng is beautiful. The stars say she is destined for greatness, that she is meant to be Empress of Feng Lu. But only if she embraces the darkness within her. Growing up as a peasant in a forgotten village on the edge of the map, Xifeng longs to fulfill the destiny promised to her by her cruel aunt, the witch Guma, who has read the cards and seen glimmers of Xifeng's majestic future. But is the price of the throne too high?

Because in order to achieve greatness, she must spurn the young man who loves her and exploit the callous magic that runs through her veins--sorcery fueled by eating the hearts of the recently killed. For the god who has sent her on this journey will not be satisfied until his power is absolute.

Plot-5/5

The plot of this book is what sold me to read it. I love Fantasy books but I really love books set in Kingdoms and I just love the royalty side of Fantasy the most. I was especially sold when I found out this was a Snow White retelling because I love reading fairy tale retellings. Also, the book is set in Asia so how could I not love it? I'm not going to describe my feelings on the plot more because I would mention spoilers and I'm not spoiling you guys. 

World-5/5

Honestly, this book doesn't have a lot of world building in it. Since it was set in Asia I'm going to automatically give it a perfect rating and also because I loved how most of it took place in a castle. It was a very unique setting, it's never read a book like this before. 

Writing-4.5/5

This is Julie's debut novel and she really impressed me with her writing. Her writing style is beautiful, I really like it. The only thing I didn't like was the fact that this book is written in third person. It would've been so much better if it was in first person, especially because your reading about an evil villain. I like books in third person but I prefer them in first person because it's harder for me to connect to the characters. This is her first book so I'm cutting her some slack. 

Pacing-5/5

I thought the pacing was pretty good. It never felt slow and I was never bored while reading it. 

Cover-5/5

I really like the cover. I love the green, it's so pretty. I like the flower and the snake. The snake has a meaning in the book so I liked that the cover actually goes with the book. 

Characters-4/5

How I feel about the characters in this book is kind of complicated. A lot of the characters I liked but didn't love. I wasn't really attached to them. 

First of all, I had mixed feelings about the main protagonist, Xifeng. I understand she's supposed to be an anti-hero/evil villain. I found her unlikable in the first half of the book but I started to like her more in the second half. I liked her but I didn't love her. I'm not used to reading anti-heroine stories so that's probably why I couldn't connect to her. I liked her at some parts but then other times I didn't care for her. I just have mixed feelings about her. I also found myself rooting for her though at times. Guma I couldn't stand. She was so mean and abusive. I liked Wei, he was a nice guy. I was rooting for them and wanted them to be together. I hated Lady Sun, and I liked the Empress. I really liked the Crown Prince and I wanted to see more of him, he was barely in the book. I liked the Emperor. I liked the side characters including Hideki and Shiro. So basically I liked the characters in this book but I didn't love them. I didn't have a huge attachment to them and I didn't really care who died. I wasn't emotionally attached to anyone. 

Overall Thoughts

Overall, I really enjoyed this book but I didn't love it. I guess my expectations were too high. I still don't know how I feel about the book to be honest. This review was hard for me to write because I didn't know what to say about it since I didn't love it or hate it. I still found it very enjoyable and I'm glad I read it. I thought it ended really well and I found out there's a sequel. I'm curious to see what she does with it because I thought the book ended perfectly. I do want to read the next book but I'll have to wait until next year. So yeah, I recommend this book if you love retellings or reading about asian characters. I think you should borrow this book before buying a copy just to see what you think. Even though I bought my copy(I preordered it) I don't think it's worth buying but you'll probably love this book more than I did. So I gave this book 4/5 Lily Pads because I really liked it but it wasn't worth 5 stars to me. So anyway, that was my review. I'm sorry that this review is kind of lame and all over the place. I didn't know how to review this book, it was just hard for me. Thank you so much for reading this review. I'll have more posts coming soon so stay tuned. Bye and happy reading! :)