Rating: 4/5
I received an eARC for my honest opinion.

This book starts off with Alaia and her parents going on a trip for her mother’s last request before she dies from cancer. Everything started out magically and they spent a lot of time together until one day they went out on a boat and nothing from that point went the way that they thought it would. Their boat starts to sink and when they board a raft, they find themselves drugged. When they awaken people from the boat are on a deserted island. Where nothing is as it seems, there are no animals or any people other than other people from the boat.

Everyone on the island soon finds out that they were not just washed up to this island, but everything was planned by an evil man who is running experiments on the survivors to see if he can find the only one that shows the powers of being The Lotus Flower Champion. Not only is Alaia and her mother together on this island with the other survivors but they cannot find her father and for Alaia that is even worse because she has OCD, and she struggles with things not being perfect, she is having to deal with being all around sand, dirty and no clean clothes. Alaia thought this was her hell, but she would soon find out that it was just the start.

I really enjoyed the mix of mystery and mythology in this book. I thought the author’s writing style was fresh and the plot was something that I have not read before. I loved that the survivors had to wait to develop their powers, and having to wait it out to see who got what was done well. I thought the Thia mythology was interesting to learn about and see how mythologies matched the survivors. There was some romance in this book, but it was more of a subplot, it was still there but it was more about Alaia and her disorder along with trying to unlock everyone’s powers.

I thought the author did an amazing job shining the light on OCD, I know a few people in life that have suffered with OCD. So, it was nice to an author add the real struggles that Alaia was/went through in this book. I enjoyed learning how Alaia coped with it, but more than that the strength that she had to help her overcome her moments when it was bad. I also enjoyed that the author added characters that didn’t know about OCD and ones that did and helped Alaia in moments that she was too far gone.

The other characters in the book were well developed and you can easily find their place in this book.

I did find that at times the book did slow-down in pace, and I found myself thinking about other things, but it didn’t last long and then I was hooked again.
If you like YA fantasy, mythologies, great rep on OCD, mystery, all with a little romance. You should pick this book up

I want to thank Entangled Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

At first, I was drawn to the cover of this book (Graphic Designer problems) and decided to check out the description, which caught my FULL attention: "This was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime family trip to Thailand. One last wish for my dying mama. Instead, we're stranded on a lush, stunning island with ten strangers—held captive as Thai mythology unfolds around us…and within us."

Although The Lotus Flower Champion by Pintip Dunn; Love Dunn had a slow start, taking a couple of chapters to set up the world, the story eventually picked up pace and became more engaging but never fully caught me. It's heartbreaking because I did love so many aspects of it!

It is a YA fantasy book with a touch of romance, and I loved the touches of folklore and contemporary references. The book had high stakes for the characters (Your Hunger Games/Squid Games), and the hint of magic and mythology made it even more captivating and a great twist.

I recommend this book if you enjoy magic, competitive life-or-death situations, romance, and the YA writing style.

This is one of the best YA books I've read in a long time! It's like survivor meets Thai folktales! I absolutely adored Alaia and loved the OCD representation.

This is an interesting take on bizarre Thai folktales, but it has a slow start. Once things are in motion in the story I didn't get the promise of Squid games and fantasy. There was never a high stakes feel. A character might get to a point of expecting death or even injury, but it never came nor even any significant consequence. Sure there were scrapes and bruises and a hint of being hungry for a short period of time. Perhaps, that's because it is a YA book? The lack of consequence kind of makes some of the experiences fall flat. I enjoyed watching the heroine's growth and discovery when faced with adversity but did not connect much with the other characters. The strongest character development of the story was Alaia's OCD learning to handle it when she doesn't have time to allow it to get the better of her.
What followed was an adventure for sure, but it moves slow. The interesting twists to figure out what was going on were delightful but it's a lot of effort for a slam-bam finish since a lot of the story happens in the last third of the book.
The writing is enjoyable with the expectation this is a YA novel. This is a clean, adventurous YA novel with fascinating use of Thai folktales.
Thank you to Netgalley and Entangled for providing this ARC for an honest review.

This was both very different from typical YA literature and still felt all the same - the biggest surprise was probably that the main protagonist Alaia has OCD and the book both explores her and her condition really beautifully, making sure that people who not have OCD can understand her struggles and also see how strong she is when she learns how to work with her condition. While Alaia is written quite well and in-depth, this makes all the other not so well characterised castaways seem less than actual people but more like walking two or thee word character descriptions. So it comes to no surprise that most of the personal conflict falls quite flat.
Plot wise there is a lot to say. The book keeps comparing itself to ‘squid game’ and ‘Peter Pan’ and both are not really true. But it tries to follow the typical trope of „castaways surviving in a game-like environment with one big bad who has been controlling everything from the beginning” and is very predictable with it’s plot. Both the romance and th character developments, deaths and who is going to be the Lotus Flower Champion are quite easy to guess from the beginning. The myths are interesting by themselves but a quick look at the source material reveals that the book uses quite many without real depth or accuracy to the real stories to further the plot.

The writing style could use some work in parts but I overall enjoyed reading this book, even if it has its flaws and doesn’t work for me all the way through.

The Lotus Flower Champion by Pintip Dunn is a fantastic Young Adult Novel.

The main character Alaia has OCD. This is a great representation for mental health conditions.

Alaia's mother's dying with is to go to Thailand. That is where things go badly. The ship goes down and Alaia is on an island with 11 other survivors, her mom included.

This is when the magic/myth/lore come in. It was kind of like the TV show Survivor, pushing the survivors' limits to expose Thai folklore secret abilities.

This was such a unique spin on magical abilities and myths.

There were a variety of characters and I really enjoyed each and every one of them.

This is such a fun novel that I really enjoyed.

Dating Makes Perfect was one of my favorite books of 2021, so I was really excited when I saw another Pintip Dunn book available here! The Lotus Flower Champion is completely different from Dating Makes Perfect but it's still a good read! I really liked the book conceptually, my only problem was that I couldn't liked much of the characters, which spoil the experience a little in this style of book in my opinion. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review!

I really wanted to enjoy this book - it has such an interesting premise. The selling point of reading this was "Squid Games meets Peter Pan" aspects of the plot, however, they fell completely flat for me. The vivid setting and descriptions of the backdrop of Thailand and the deeper dive into the folklore was the main thing I enjoyed about this book.

3 ⭐️

The supporting characters, plot and dialogue were the main parts I had a problem with. Even as a YA novel, the dialogue was extremely childish. The first 30% was extremely slow and I really had to skim to get through it. Once the bulk of the plot started rolling, there were several twists I did not necessarily see coming which was a nice change from the extremely predictable beginning.

Overcoming and adapting to topics like grief and mental illness
OCD Representation
Easy, quick YA read
Adventure & Romance
Thai folklore
Hint of Magic

The Lotus Flower Champion publishes October 31, 2023! Great for a younger YA or pre-teen audience.
Thank you to Entangled Teen and NetGalley for this digital galley in return for my honest review.

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. The Lotus Flower Competition was an interesting read, as it was my first time reading about thai mythology, however I don't think I was the best target audience, as I often found myself losing interest just enough that I wasn't itching to pick the book back up after breaks. I feel like the pace was slightly rushed/the story would do well with a slightly younger reader than myself. A more formal review will be available on my IG/TikTok and Goodreads.

This was a really easy read. It dives into Thai mythology when the premise of being stranded on an island to unlock supernatural powers. I actually would have liked a bit more gore considering the story line but nonetheless it was a good young adult novel.

I liked the abundance of characters although it was sometimes hard to keep track of.

The challenges were entertaining but some parts were quite slow. I think I would have liked a bit more natural dialogue about how certain powers manifest according to specific Thai myths instead of one of the characters telling us the answer because she majored in Asian mythology.

The protagonist also has OCD and I think the novel did a good job in portraying the disorder and having to learn to live with it.

4.5 Stars!! I honestly don’t think I’ve ever rated a ya book this highly before but honestly following the characters and their journey was the best thing I’ve experienced. This book had me hooked from the get go and I 100% recommend it. Thank you to the publishers on NetGalley for letting me read a copy of this amazing book!

I really wanted to like The Lotus Flower Champion more than I did. Although it was an easy read, it felt a little rushed. I enjoyed the way that Thai mythology was interspersed throughout and being exposed to some of those stories was wonderful. Alaia is a wonderful character that overcame some very large obstacles (personal and external) that would've taken a weaker spirit down. There were several twists and turns that made you wonder where the story was going to take her which were well thought out. I just felt like this book could've slowed down a bit more to take time with the characters and their feelings and give the story a bit more room to fully develop.

Thank you to Entangled Publishing and NetGalley for providing me this ARC!

Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of the book. The story felt stiff, disjointed and weird. The characters are way too cartoonish, the dialogue is VERY weird in places and their reactions to what unfolds in front of them is unnatural.

the Thai folktales and description of OCD were the only saving grace for this book for me. I would be interested though to read more books from the authors.

No escape. Follow the rules. And don’t count on reality—in this uniquely vibrant romantasy from NYT bestselling author Pintip Dunn and daughter Love Dunn…

This was fine, nothing special. I didn't hate it but I don't know that I would necessarily recommend it.

I didn’t know what to expect when going into this book, I wanted to read it solely based on the cover and I can honestly say that I don’t think I read the description for it before I started reading it. I found this book to have a slower start and it took a couple chapters to set up the world before the story really started to get good. Once we got to the boat, the story just kept getting better and better. This book is a YA fantasy book with a hint of romance and it was as if Lord of the Flies was combined with asian folklore. I have always found asian folklore to be some of the most interesting stories and it’s always weird to see how stories differ in different regions of the world, and the asian ones have some of the best. The fact that this book had such high stakes for the characters and a hint of magic, really kept my focus on never wanting to put it down. I can honestly say that the plot twists really got me, I was caught off guard when everything was revealed. But wow, this book was such a good read, I highly recommend it if you like magic, escape rooms, life or death situations, romance, or high stakes in books.

The Lotus Flower Champion is an enjoyable read. It is described as Squid Games meets Peter Pan. I can understand why, but its a stretch. Once I stopped thinking I was going to get a sense of Squid Games I enjoyed this much more.

Thank you to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for this book.

The book was a hard read for me. I am not into Thai mythology and just had a very hard time getting into this book.

The book s not fast paced and almost totally lost my interest. Not sure what could be done but it just did not engage me and I really tried to become invested.

I found myself putting it away, coming back and, rereading chapters.

I finished, but it just wasn't interesting to me in any way.

Maybe for someone interested in this subject, it would be different.

Two stars for me. Would not recommend.

The Lotus Flower Champion was a wild ride. I can honestly say that for the entire book the only thing I felt like I could predict was who became the champion. The story definitely keeps you guessing as you try to figure out the fate of each of the castaways. There were so many things I enjoyed about this book and a couple things that just fell short in my opinion.

Things I liked:
It was so nice to see representation of what dealing with OCD can look like and how it affects your day today. The character growth Alaia experienced was also written very well. I also really enjoyed the fact like I there were several twists that I didn’t see coming when usually I feel like I can predict what happens next. The use of Thai folktales was really interesting too as I have know prior knowledge to such things.

Things I didn’t like:
At times I felt like the pacing was strange. It felt a little clumsy to read through. If anything this would be what knocked a star off my review and kept the rating from 4 stars to more like 3.5 stars. It took me a while to get interested enough to sit and binge read mostly because of the writing style.

Overall I really enjoyed the story and would recommend for a preteen to teenage audience.

I received this book as an advanced reader copy from Entagled Publishing and NetGalley. All thoughts and options are my own.

Unfortunately this wasn't the "squid games meets Peter pan" that it was marketed as. I think that if it wasn't marketed that way I honestly would have rated it higher but if you go into something with a very specific expectation and it feels to meet that you feel a little dissatisfied with the book. It was also a bit more middle grade than I was expecting.

I absolutely loved all of the folklore. It was the shining star throughout the entire book and I could have read pages upon pages of it. The writing itself was also fantastic. The way things were written out gave them almost a magical feel to it. Add that in with the vivid descriptions and you easily have a very clear picture of what's being described to you and that's something that I love in books. Being able to clearly see what I'm reading in my head as I read.

It's by no means a bad book. I just went into it thinking it was going to be something completely different so I was a bit let down. It's still an extremely enjoyable read.

Rated 3.5 Stars

The Lotus Flower Champion was an enjoyable read but it didn't work for me all the way. The challenges grated on my nerves after a while. I got the point of them and even though I loved seeing the growth, strength and resilience come forth in the heroine I still found them annoying. I wasn't all the way sold on the romance either. It felt lacking in some ways while also being cute and sweet. What I did like was the infusion of Thai folklore into the story and the edge of the seat moments of which there were a few. While this didn't fully work for me I am interested in reading other books by these authors.