The long road is a hard journey for a young girl on her own – but luckily Ai Ling teams up with a strange young man named Chen Young, out on a mission of his own. When Ai Ling’s family is threatened by a greedy lord claiming that her father owes him vast sums of money (and looking for another wife in Ai Ling to settle the debt), she decides that she has no choice but to journey to the Imperial City and find her father.

When her father is summoned to the Imperial Palace for an unknown reason, the months pass without word from him and money dwindles. This wouldn’t bother her as she didn’t want to be forced into a loveless marriage, but bringing shame to her already tenuously positioned family weighs on Ai Ling. When Ai Ling reaches a marriageable age, her parents try to set her up with a good, upward match – but after being publicly rejected by a young would-be suitor at the order of his pernicious mother, Ai Ling finds herself without any offers and without any prospects for marriage. Theirs was a marriage of love, and they raised their only child, Ai Ling, in a home of openness and doting indulgence. Finally, months later, I had a lull in my “required reading” and could pick this one up!Īi Ling is the daughter of a strange match in Xia – her father, a former trusted advisor to the Emperor found and married his wife (Ai Ling’s mother) after being dispelled from the palace. I feel like there’s a dearth of people of color in fantasy, especially in the YA arena, so when I learned of Silver Phoenix and its realm of Chinese fantasy, I was immediately interested. Why did I read this book: I bought Silver Phoenix quite a while back, ever since I saw the cover and read the outstanding reviews (starred Booklist). Stand alone or series: Can be read as a stand alone, but I believe is the first book in a planned series

On a quest of his own, Chen Yong offers that help. There is something of unspeakable evil trying to drag her under.

It is Chen Yong who finds her partly submerged and barely breathing at the edge of a deep lake. Just as she will need the new and mysterious power growing within her. And as pieces of the puzzle start to fit together, Ai Ling begins to understand that her journey to the Palace of Fragrant Dreams isn’t only a quest to find her beloved father but a venture with stakes larger than she could have imagined.īravery, intelligence, the will to fight and fight hard. Something terrifying-a force she cannot comprehend. And deep down she is relieved-despite the dishonor she has brought upon her family-to be unbetrothed and free, not some stranger’s subservient bride banished to the inner quarters.īut now, something is after her.

Bloodlines by Lindsay Anne Kendal