Rating: 3 stars
Fei Long is in desperate straits. His sister has been selected to be sent to a foreign court to secure an important political alliance through marriage but has instead eloped with her lover. Once Fei Long catches up to the runaway couple, he doesn't really have the heart to force his sister back home, so instead, he lets her and her new husband go. However, if he doesn't present a princess candidate to the imperial court, his family's reputation will be ruined.
So when he encounters Yan Ling, a beautiful serving girl at the tea house he rests after sending his sister off, he hatches a plan. Not many people have actually seen his sister in the last few years. If he manages to train Yan Ling enough in courtly manners and etiquette to pass for a young noblewoman, they can pretend she is his sister, and he won't have to worry about the wrath of the emperor.
Of course, they don't have a lot of time, and Yan Ling doesn't even know how to read and write, so a lot of work has to be done. To complicate matters further, it turns out that Fei Long's recently departed father had a massive gambling problem and has left the household with massive debts that are now Fei Long's responsibility to deal with. A high-ranking city official also wants to monitor the progress that Fei Long's "sister" is making, to make sure she is a suitable candidate to send off to secure the alliance.
Of course, despite their initial social standings and animosity, Fei Long and Yan Ling fall for one another, and both try bravely to resist the attraction, as their love is impossible, and they only have a few months together before Yan Ling needs to be sent off to a foreign country to marry someone else.
This is my second Jeannie Lin novel this year, and while it was fine, I didn't enjoy it as much as The Dragon and the Pearl. It's another of the novels that originally were published by Harlequin, and anyone looking for high spice should probably look elsewhere. This book is mostly pining.
I really liked the bits with Yan Ling working to become delicate and sophisticated enough to pass for a noblewoman. The subplot with Fei Long dealing with his father's gambling debts and dealing with a mob boss and having to do a bunch of archery dragged the story out, however. Could have done with less of that.
Judging a book by its cover: This cover feels pretty generic, except for the fact that it has Chinese people in historical costumes on it, rather than white people in period garb readers are probably more familiar with.
Crossposted on Cannonball Read
