Butterfly Swords

Jeannie Lin

During China's infamous Tang Dynasty, a time awash with luxury yet littered with deadly intrigues and fallen royalty, betrayed Princess Ai Li flees before her wedding.

Miles from home, with only her delicate butterfly swords for defense, she enlists the reluctant protection of a blue-eyed warrior….

Battle-scarred, embittered Ryam has always held his own life at cheap value. Ai Li's innocent trust in him and honorable, stubborn nature make him desperate to protect her—which means not seducing the first woman he has ever truly wanted….

My Take:

If you are even remotely familiar with my blog, you probably already know that romances are my guilty pleasure.  Is the setting an English Castle?  Is the castle home to a Duke (feel free to sub in Prince, Baron, whatever...any ol' nobleman will do) who swore he'd never fall in love for whatever reason?  Is the heroine a sassy and remarkably beautiful girl who is the only person who can call said Duke out on his crap?  Do all events miraculously lead up to wedded bliss no matter how unlikely the circumstances?  If the answer is yes to any of these questions, I will probably love the book.  I'm a sucker for 'em, I can't help it.  I do love intellectually stimulating books, but something about these dinky romances just gets to me.  

Well, now for the book at hand--Butterfly Swords.  There were quite a few changes made to the romance formula which made me love the book.  First off, the girl is a Chinese Princess quite proficient in ripping a man to shreds with her Butterfly Swords.  The man is a blond hair blued eyed former soldier, current wanderer from a vague "somewhere over there" in Europe.  This interracial couple makes for an especially interesting story when you add in the fact that the story happened about a thousand years ago and the girl is engaged to the second most powerful man in the empire.  They are then, of course, put in life or death situations where they can barely fight their attraction to one another--chaos ensues.  If you are a romance lover, you'll really enjoy this book.  The heroine is strong, the setting is gorgeous, the pacing is pretty good and the ending is surprising (not shocking by any means, but not what I expected)  I loved the fact that the book was set in China, as much as I love my English Dukes, it was nice to escape the stuffy castles into the refreshing Chinese countryside. I had a hard time rating this book, as I enjoyed everything about it.  However, the one missing factor is resonance.  After I finished the book, I was ready to move on to the next book without so much as a backward glance.  For a book to be rated in those upper ratings, I've got to be up all night thinking about the characters.  With this in mind, I think I'll give Butterfly Swords a solid 3, Find a Used Book Store. 

Do you agree with my review?  Do you think I'm totally off base?  Either way I'd love to hear from you,, be sure to leave a comment and tell me how you feel!

If Butterfly Swords was a movie, it would likely be rated a strong PG-13 for brief but strong sexuality and some violence

***FTC Disclosure:  This book was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, no other compensation was given, all opinions are my own***

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