Song of the Crimson Flower

A lush fantasy with a wonderful, whirlwind beginning and an interesting, complicated twist between the two main protagonists — but, for me, one that began to unravel in the middle. I was grabbed for the first one-hundred pages or so, engrossed in the confusion and the distress, in the discovery of the river witch, and the [spoiler] there. But once the actual “quest line”, as it were, started, although I'm appreciative of the appearances and cameos of previous, beloved characters ... it felt a bit too lacking of urgency for me. I didn't realise we only had two days left until it was mentioned — and then, we only had thirty pages left too! And I didn't feel hurried nor worried, and neither did the characters.

The main romance arc ... left me with a little wanting for more. There were good moments of banter, and engrossing moments of bonding, especially in the beginning, but I felt as though the initial sort of conflict wasn't ever resolved, and the big “things have changed!” moment, fell flat for me. I was a bit more engrossed in the secondary romance arc than the main one! I also sorely missed world and environment details as we dove further into the book.

Overall, a quick read, and a delightful, more light-hearted faerie tale than the previous two novels. A bit lacklustre with the dark under-tones (which I enjoyed so much!) and the pacing was a bit off for me, but it wasn't a bad book either! It just didn't hit the buttons that the other two did for me.