Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao is the first book in a new fantasy, fairy tale retelling of the Evil Queen from Snow White.
From the moment she was born, eighteen-year-old Xifeng has been told that she was destined for great things. Beautiful beyond measure and raised to be smart and cunning, Xifeng has been waiting for her destiny to begin. She is no longer willing to wait and decides to leave her cruel, broken home and embrace her future.
All her life, Xifen has been raised by her Aunt, a cruel woman who does not spare the cane. She beats Xifen for any little infraction and uses her dark magic to get her way. She was born a peasant, without a Mother or Father and yet her cards say that she is destined to become Empress of Feng Lu. But to do so, she must give up all she holds dear and embrace the darkness that lives within her.
Will Xifen give in to the darkness or will she allow herself to settle for a life of love and happiness? Who is she willing to step on to get her way and how far is she willing to go?
A lot of people gave this one a mediocre to high rating but I just couldn’t do it. I just could not get into the story and Xifeng was probably one of the least relatable characters I’ve ever read — wow that’s harsh but I could not stand her.
You could tell that that author was really trying to make Xifeng seem like she struggled with her decisions and her destiny but this didn’t come off for me at all. She was wishy-washy and I could not believe she never got called out on some of her blatant lies. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good vicious, manipulative female protagonist but Xifeng was too fake for me, she didn’t embrace the darkness like some of my favorite dark females, instead she put on a show. Some of the reviews I’ve read, said that they loved that Xifeng chose ambition over love but she was never going to choose love. From the beginning the lust for power ruled her.
The first half of the book, when Xifeng was travelling to the Imperial City was just so boring and most of her time in the palace was slow as well. The only time the book picked up for me was toward the end when Xifeng’s true character peeks out… for about a second.
Okay, I don’t normally like to bash books so I am going to stop here. This one gets 1.5 maybe 2 stars from me. Not a favorite.
That’s all for now!
-M-