A Great Ya novel. The world building and cultural history was really interesting to read.the writing style is beautiful, and the magic was cool.

This was my first exposure to Elizabeth Lim. A friend told me I’d love her, and I did. This book is a combo of amazing world-building, magic, fantasy, and a little bit of romance thrown in for fun. It’s full of dragons, demons, curses, deception, shifting loyalties, and so much more that’ll have you absolutely guessing at what’s going to come next. I haven’t read a YA this surprising and exciting in a while. It’s the first book in the duopoly, and I’m so excited to see where it goes from here. Where Shiori’s story leaves off hints at an epic adventure to come, as if this first book wasn’t adventure enough!

Shiori is a princess that I can get on board with. The youngest of 7 siblings, and the only daughter to boot, she has spent her life growing up with her brothers. It’s left her a strong, independent-minded, and adventure-oriented young woman, ready to tackle any challenge that comes her way, even when those challenges put the lives of those she loves in impending peril. There’s no one more suited to the task of saving the empire. With her magic just budding, she feels ill-equipped to face the darkness that threatens her world, but through her journey she discovers the vast depths of her own mental and physical strength. She has many traits that will certainly endear you to her.

I couldn’t help but love this book. It pulls on Asian mythology and is a strong opener to this duopoly. The romance is subtle and slow-burning, which has the reader questioning if it’s really going to happen, which is a nice change of pace for YA fiction. The main relationships are familial and we see a ton of Shiori’s interactions with her brothers. There is so much yet to be uncovered in this world and I’m excited to now wait for book number two.

Gauzy, Ethereal, Fairytale. Lim does it again and I can't stress enough how gorgeous this prose is. She writes like an absolute dream, so filled with emotion and empathy it's hard not to get swept away with the characters and their troubles. Absolutely recommend to any reader who enjoys fantasy, fairy tale, and romance.

This book has been on my backlist for so long, and for whatever reason I kept putting it off. With the urging of many of my bookish friends telling me it was a must-read, and being invited to be a part of the book tour for the prequel, Her Radiant Curse, I knocked this one off #backlistbooks23 list and couldn’t be happier about it!

Lim certainly knows how to combine mythology with interesting characters and wonderful world-building, I was blown away by how constantly surprised I was by the twists in plot and how much I came to care for them, especially Shiori! That cover is stunning and I cannot wait to read more from this author now.

With the prequel's release only a few weeks away, I finally sat myself down and finish Six Crimson Cranes and once again bow down to Elizabeth Lim for delivering an incredibly magical tale. Shiori is somewhat of an entitled princess at the start, loved by her father and brothers, and very unhappy about being betrothed. When she discovers her innate magical abilities, she hides them from her family until an incident reveals them to her stepmother, who is also hiding some magical secrets of her own. The Nameless Queen turns Shiori's brothers into cranes and curses the princess - for every word she speaks, one of her brothers will die.

The inspirational fairytale is one that I've grown up with and always had a fondness for so it's no surprise that I loved how it was spun something familiar into a brand new story. Shiori is incredibly headstrong and her character growth throughout all the trials of reuniting with her brothers and figuring how to break the curse hones her determined and stubborn personality. We're transported into the kingdom of Kiata as the disappearance of the royal heirs breeds unrest and Shiori finds herself in the middle of the chaos, with her magic tested and hunted. I would be lying if I didn't also acknowledge Takkan, Shiori's betrothed, who once again reminded me that Elizabeth Lim just writes male characters that raise the bar each time (I'm still not over Edan and now we have Takkan). Needless to say, the characters are easily lovable and with each revealed secret, I was cheering for Shiori to win.

Six Crimson Cranes weaves together familiarity with an Asian-inspired twist and creates a world full of characters that I've grown incredibly attached to and will be jumping into its sequel immediately because I cannot wait to see how their journey continues.

Six Crimson Cranes (Six Crimson Cranes #1) by Elizabeth Lim, 464 pages. Knopf Books (Random House), 2021. $20.
Language: G (0 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - ADVISALBE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
While Shiori (16yo) is not happy about her arranged marriage, she didn’t mean to ruin the betrothal ceremony by running into the lake and nearly drowning. Her father, the emperor, is still not pleased by the offense caused—especially when she claims to have seen a dragon. Now Shiori has to spend every day embroidering an apology tapestry, forcing her to spend time with the stepmother who hates Shiori for no reason and might actually be a demon.
This is the most beautiful retelling of The Wild Swans that I have ever read. I loved learning about Shiori’s kingdom and culture, about the dragons and magic, about the strength of familial love and loyalty to their people. The stakes are high as Shiori gives everything to break the curse placed upon her and her brothers, and I felt the pressure with her through the last battle. The end of this book tied up all the ends of the original fairy tale, making me wonder what the sequel will be able to add.
Shiori is depicted as Asian on the cover, and all the characters are implied to be similar. The mature content rating is for alcohol use, innuendo, and sexual harassment. The violence rating is for assault, blood and gore, and murder.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

I really enjoyed how this story brought together old tales with fantasy elements and a unique storyline. The characters were well developed and the adventure captivating. I want to go and read the sequel!

I LOVED everything about this book. The use of folklore, the dragons, the magic, literally everything. The characters were well thought out and had significant growth by the end of the story. I could not put this book down.


I just reviewed Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim. #SixCrimsonCranes #NetGalley

Six Crimson Cranes takes a well-known fairy tale and expands it, imbuing it with magic, romance, and an East Asian-inspired setting. Unfortunately, despite all the promise and potential of that beginning, the story itself was a let-down for me. The writing felt stilted and flat, I didn't feel invested in the characters as people, and every twist or turn of the plot felt obvious and uninteresting. I wanted to love this book, but ultimately I just didn't really care about any of it.

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy.

I loved this novel with its stories of of mythology interwoven within the read. It contains a heroine who is a strong female character and who is, herself, living a myth. A beautiful story that I could not stop reading - and in which the evil stepmother turns out to be not so evil after all!

Lovely retelling of the The Wild Swans fairytale by H.C. Andersen, mixed with East Asian folklore. And the cover for this book is so gorgeous! I'm definitely reading book two.

(i received this e-arc from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)

i held high expectations for Six Crimson Cranes (considering how much of a high i got while reading Lim's previous Spin The Dawn duology), but i felt let down this time around.

LOVED this. I was so drawn into the world. I loved the East Asian take on a western fairy tale. (Another of my favorite fantasy novels is based on this fairy tale as well.) I loved the way the relationship between Shiori and Takkan developed. Made me want to read more of her books.

Elizabeth Lim has been quite a popular author in the YA genre the past few years. Six Crimson Cranes is another strong work. Lim seamlessly weaves together elements from various fairytales and folklore stories to craft a compelling novel, with a very interesting main character. Great to also see elements of other cultures, diversity, and an #OwnVoices author here.

I certainly thoroughly enjoyed SIX CRIMSON CRANES. I’d already been eager to get to it solely based on the premise and after enjoying Lim’s previous duology, but I definitely didn’t expect to really love it as much as I did. This novel has a very strong anime feel to it, combined with a whimsical fairytale vibe, and I totally enjoyed getting to know Shiori and coming along for the ride that is her story.

A strong contender for my favorite book of 2022! (At the very least, my favorite fantasy!)

Six Crimson Cranes is definitely a masterpiece from author, Elizabeth Lim. I can't wait to see what else she will offer in this universe.

I knew I was going to love this one and I absolutely did!

I loved the world, concept, characters, and more!

I highly recommend for fans of YA fantasy

The story started off intriguing but the narrating voice felt too alien and unrelatable. Part of my lack of feel for the story also stemmed from negative ownvoices reviews for the second book in this series. Thus, even with my lukewarm feelings for the first book, this did not help but kill my excitement to know the rest of the story.

I really really wanted to love this book, but I just really had a hard time getting into it and enjoying myself. I think this may have just been that it took me a while to read because of external factors, but I just never got sucked in to the world. The writing was excellent and it was a nice easy read. I am still interested in reading book two to see if I can pull myself into this world, because I have heard nothing but great things from others who have read it so I think this was just me not enjoying it. This is a book for fans of Elizabeth Lim's previous work, as well as those who enjoy fairytale fantasy retellings!

I absolutely loved this book! Due to non-book reasons I had a hard time getting into it (sometimes life makes concentrating on things difficult), but once I was able to read about a chapter I had a hard time putting it down. I really appreciate how the focus is on growing up alongside family members who are also growing and changing. Though there were hints of romance, that wasn't the purpose of this story, which is sometimes missing in YA adventure. But the balance between growing feelings towards a love interest and righting wrongs that you set in motion yourself was perfect in this book. People who enjoyed The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, and most books by Tamora Pierce would probably enjoy this novel, and I'm betting its sequel too!