Review - Strike the Zither (Kingdom of Three, #1) by Joan He

 

 

 Title: Strike the Zither (Kingdom of Three, #1)

Author: Joan He

Pages: 359

Publisher: Text Publishing

 Release Date: 1st November 2022

 

Blurb from Goodreads:

 A dazzling new fantasy from New York Times and Indie bestselling author Joan He, Strike the Zither is a powerful, inventive, and sweeping fantasy that reimagines the Chinese classic tale of the Three Kingdoms.

The year is 414 of the Xin Dynasty, and chaos abounds. A puppet empress is on the throne. The realm has fractured into three factions and three warlordesses hoping to claim the continent for themselves.

But Zephyr knows it’s no contest.

Orphaned at a young age, Zephyr took control of her fate by becoming the best strategist of the land and serving under Xin Ren, a warlordess whose loyalty to the empress is double-edged—while Ren’s honor draws Zephyr to her cause, it also jeopardizes their survival in a war where one must betray or be betrayed. When Zephyr is forced to infiltrate an enemy camp to keep Ren’s followers from being slaughtered, she encounters the enigmatic Crow, an opposing strategist who is finally her match. But there are more enemies than one—and not all of them are human.

 

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My Review:

 *I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Text Publishing and NetGalley*

Zephyr is a renowned strategist who serves Xin Ren, a young woman who fights for the empress against those trying to usurp her.

Zephyr would do anything for Ren, even seemingly betray her in order for her plans to come to fruition.

While in the enemy camp, Zephyr trades barbs with their strategist, Crow.

Can Zephyr help Ren to save the empress and the realm?

The blurb for this book intrigued me - I liked that the protagonist was a female strategist. However, I ended up being disappointed.

Zephyr was a mixed protagonist for me - I liked how loyal she was to Ren, and how far she would go to make sure things happened exactly as she wanted. However, I also found her perhaps a little arrogant and didn't really connect with her. I felt she could have done with fleshing out a bit more, as could Ren, who seemed two-dimensional at times. I liked Lotus, Cloud, Dewdrop and Tourmaline as they had a bit more personality.

The setting was interesting and I would have liked to find out more about the empress and their history/family.

The plot was up and down for me - straight away the reader is dumped into the story and for a while I wasn't entirely sure what was going on. It felt like I was expected to know everything about the situation straight away, which was jarring. Parts of the book felt rushed and I struggled to get into the storyline. I did consider DNFing, but I persevered and there were several things that I didn't foresee, but I wasn't invested enough to be shocked.

I liked the themes of honor, loyalty and sisterhood.

I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy this more.

Overall, this was a mixed read.