The Hand, the Eye and the Heart

What I liked
- it was a fast paced, straight forward adventure story which I was looking for
- i appreciated the lgbtq+ explorations, even if they probably don't represent how everyone (or even most) feel
- I like how some plot points happened in a pretty lowkey way, unlike what you'd expect from a Mulan-inspired story. Like the two moments of “born as a girl” realization

What I didn't
- it started out feeling a bit childish, even though that went away the more I read (although all things considered, it might be fit for a younger audience as well. To be clear: this isn't an issue, but wasn't really what I was expecting)
- the plot felt VERY forced (and this is one of my biggest dislikes in books). It kept feeling just so very convenient. The plottwist were a bit over the top, although they were weaved into the story from the beginning nicely
- the happy happy ending that took away all the struggles the book covered. Wu Jiang could have been the perfect morally grey villain - I was questioning in the final scene whether it could be right to kill the empress. The ending would have been much more powerful had hua zhi been conflicted for the rest of the time as she realized the empress she had helped survive wasn't able to keep peace as well as she should have. If the rest of her life hadn't been such a fairytale fake. But noo, she is very happy and has many kids who are also very happy. Good for them I guess