A Crane Among Wolves

I feel like opinions on this book will greatly differ depending on what you're looking for. If you like political intrigue, riveting tales of overthrowing tyrants and plotting rebellions, and a stronger touch of romance blossoming in perilous situation, then you'll love this. If you're more into mystery, however, it might not satisfy you entirely because the book tries to cover so many things that the mystery ends up taking the backseat until the very end.

As far as the mystery goes, it was quite predictable and would've been even easier to solve if the book spends more time on it instead of steering the plot into several different directions at once. It starts off pretty strong by mentioning the series of murders, up to the point where a certain royal guard falls victim to it. The scene where Prince Daehyun finds the body is top tier thriller experience, and I was hoping the book would maintain the bone-chilling, harrowing tone… but it doesn't. Instead, it turns to highlight the rebellion instead, and admittedly I lost focus many times because of it. It's good in the sense that it offers the suffocating air of corruption and oppression, but the fact that the investigation is so blatantly pushed aside to make room for this bothered me quite a bit.

“Because rape is about power; it is never about desire or love.”

The romance is also notably more present than June Hur's previous works. Not saying that I didn't enjoy it though, because I did. Both Iseul and Daehyun have massive character growth throughout the book. Iseul starts off as pretty insufferable while Daehyun is used to being emotionally numb. While I do feel like they could've used more build-up to bond beyond having butterflies due to close proximity, they push each other to be better. There are plenty of important messages subtly woven in, and it feels good to see it as a contrast to how King Yeonsan and his officials treat women like dirt.

“Why is it so irrationally difficult for men to simply leave women alone?!”

Overall, it was a pretty engrossing read. It's always fun to see the author's notes too, to see which parts are facts are which ones are fiction. The writing is beautiful and atmospheric, it'll definitely draw you into 1506 Joseon with the tragedies and nightmares it has to offer. Plus points for the sisterhood and especially the beauty that is chapter 42. 🫠

Firstly I want to thank netgalley and the author for an eARC of this book.

In the last year I have read whatever of June Hur I could get my hands on, and up until this one, The Red Palace was my favourite. I fear there's a new first place contender.

I loved this historical mystery romance. From the opening it reminded me of some of the saeguks I had recently watched. This gave me the vibe of a more elevated Joseon drama - rich young characters, seeped in true historical events with an engaging mystery and a sweet romance.

I thought the book was really well written, and a good mystery at its core. The reveal of the killer was definitely surprising. I liked that they didn't show some of the characters to be perfectly good and above reproach, instead showing them as grey characters with personal motivations for doing the things they want to do.

Up until 90% of the book, it was really really good. It was only the last 10% where I think it got tooo much like a drama. The last 4-5 chapters went past in such a flash, I wished we close sat with the events for a bit, see people's reaction to it before getting to the end. But everything happened so so fast, it was a bit too fast. It felt like a rushed ending.

Apart from the ending, I thought the book was really really good.

The cover is so beautiful. I really wanted to like this book so badly, but I found myself wanting to skim and speed through it instead of slowly taking it all in as I had initially wanted.

(Spoilers beyond this point.)

The mystery. I might just not be a fan of mystery, but I didn't like the constant info-dumping. Most of the time, it felt like Iseul just happened to be eavesdropping at the right time and at the right place to have the important information handed to her.

Romance. It didn't feel very convincing. It felt like the author wanted to force the enemies-to-lovers trope, but the two main characters just didn't have a compelling, strong-enough reason to stay "enemies". It was, as lots of enemies-to-lovers trope go, simply because one of the characters was misunderstood at the start. The attraction between them also felt very sudden; it felt like the story was telling us that they had already fallen in love, yet I didn't know the why.

Characters. Daehyun's character was quite flat, and some of the villains felt a bit comical. I wish we had explored more of Suyeon and her relationship with Iseul (which I felt was more interesting than the romance), especially after the coup.

In terms of writing: I was happy to read a book that felt like a K-drama. However, some parts felt a bit clunky to read and just didn't flow naturally. I like dual-POVs, but the POV changes took me out of the story, and even after finishing the book I still am not sure what the motivation behind that formatting is.

Overall, I would still look out for new releases from Jane Hur because I cannot get enough of the K-drama-like feel of her books but would lower my expectations next time.