This was my first experience with Molly X. Changs' work and I must say that I have a new author to add to my 'amazing authors' list! I really loved this story. The writing style is beautiful and immursive, and it makes you feel emotionally connected to each of the main characters. I love that the male love interest is who Fei picks and not just someone who was picked for her. (im trying to not give any spoilers away, sorry if im being too vague). The adventure that you go on in this book is just magical and I enjoyed every minute of it! I can't wait to get this stunning hardcover when it releases!

The world and magic system is interesting. I felt that a lot of information was held back…maybe for book 2?! But either way i think some more was needed in this one. The men were a smidge toxic if one died off i wouldn’t be horrified… BUT it also made for some interesting book drama and twists.

A thrilling and sweeping adventure where a girl tries to navigate destiny and fate. Fast paced with steadily increasing stakes which I thoroughly enjoyed. The Mulan-esque moment brought me more joy than I would've expected. I also enjoyed the incorporation of Chinese (this is my first novel by Molly so I don't know if there are similar moments in her previous books). Such a fun read.

I’d like to preface my review by saying that i absolutely adored our protagonist, Fei, and the world Molly X. Chang has created! Our two male love interests? Not so much. Hopefully they get some better development in the second book and gain half the sense the woman they love has!

Fei has always been trapped. Destined from birth to marry the crown prince and become the Empress of all Empresses, her life has never been her own. While postponing her nuptials and hiding the visions of the future that plague her, she’s slowly began to formulate a plan to cement her escape. At the next hunt, she’ll capture a rare tiger, one that will force the emperor to grant any wish. But when her pursuit of the tiger ends in her saving the ward from the enemy state Yexue, things get a little bit too complicated. Before she realizes it, Fei is torn between Yexue and her betrothed Siwang, and the two sides of the war these men begin. Can she follow her heart? Or will she be forced to yield to the prophecy hanging over her head?

I love a protagonist who is willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to reach her goal, who takes matters into her own hands, and rises above the societal expectations of women. Fei matches this criteria precisely. She’s feisty, she’s smart, and although she isn’t good at things immediately, she does not give up.

The Trojan War meets Vampires and Mulan in this stunning beginning to a new duology, and it releases July 1st! Thank you so much to Netgalley and Random House/Underlined for the e-arc!

Review will be up on socials soon!

A little bit of Mulan, a little bit ACOTAR, plus vampires. I was left feeling disappointed in the end. The two male characters fall in love with her so fast, without knowing her. They both seemed insufferable too, and very shallow. The plot felt a little disjointed, and the visions she’s sees never really come to pass? What is Fate if you are able to avoid it every time?

Arc review! ✨ 3.5 rounded up 🖤

Another pleasant surprise of a book. Welcome to my ramble review fest- this one will have some spoilers so please read with caution.

This story started out great and kept my attention the entire time. I literally read this in the span of a day. It gripped me right away and had my stomach in knots at just a mere 20% in. Oh my heart. I couldn’t put this down and all my normal tasks got pushed to the side so I could sit here and devour this book.

We follow Fei and her struggles dealing with the whole empress of empresses ordeal and wanting to be a free bird and it was so easy to feel for her. The author wrote the character very well in my opinion, they felt much older than they apparently were. This book wasn’t huge in world building but was very character driven. I was attached to them all for sure.

I will be reading book 2 that was hinted in the author notes even though I feel it’s all a bit predictable. It was a good pallet cleanser and I did love the characters. Most Romantasy books are very similar nowadays so I can’t really complain too much anymore. I HOPE the author gets out of the typical Romantasy tropes and brings something new and refreshing with the next book but I’m not sure if that is what we will see. I’ll still read it though!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for a review!

DNF 20%
Look I don’t hate this. I like it even. I will most likely even come back to this! But the problem is there’s really good bits followed by not great bits.
This sentence just gave me such an ick I couldn’t read on I’m sorry:

“The imperial healers said all antidotes at their core are poison, and that the only way to treat poison is with another form of poison.”

Did we need to say this 3 times in a single sentence?

4.25/5 stars

Wow, what a fantastic read. Easily my favorite Mulan retelling that I've read. In general I think I am long past my love triangle days but boy did I eat it up in The Nightblood Prince by Molly X Chang.

Full review to come!

I have to be careful here to avoid spoilers, because I have opinions about the love interests. There's going to be a second book, so nothing is set in stone, but frankly, I am feeling a bit Brewster's Millions about the whole thing. Vote "None of the Above" is my advice to Fei.

Aside from thinking the heroine too good for either MMC, I enjoyed the writing and the world building.

Recommended.

US Release Date: 07.01.2025
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Format Read: E-Book / E-ARC

Synopsis:
The Nightblood Prince follows Lifeng Fei, who is prophesied to be the Empress of All Empresses. She is taken from her family to be raised in the palace, where she will be brought up among royalty and one day marry Siwang Rong, the Crown Prince of a powerful empire. After Fei sees a troubling vision of her future, she becomes determined to alter the prophecy and save the ones she loves. Fei begins to push Siwang away, despite her love for him, in pursuit of the Stargazer, which she believes will end the prophecy. On her journey she encounters a rival prince from another kingdom, who could be the key to her freedom.

Review:
Let me start by saying I don’t typically enjoy love triangles, but I definitely believe that any trope can be done well and this is one of those books where the trope is executed perfectly. I loved that we get a lot of time with both love interests, while also getting to know Fei on her own and not through the eyes of the love interests. Typically with love triangles, there is a clear “winner” that can be spotted early on, but I actually didn’t feel that way here. I do however wish there was slightly more romance, but this is YA so I went into this not expecting too much.

The pacing was fast, and there is not a whole lot of world building, but I found the plot very engaging. I think the story could have been improved by slowing down just a touch, as I felt that by the end of the book I was left with a lot of unanswered questions. As far as I could tell, this is a standalone, so I’m not sure if my questions will get answered via a future sequel. The politics didn’t seem fully fleshed out, so I could have used some more world building in that aspect as well.

Overall, I am happy to have read this one, as I always enjoy seeing a trope that isn’t usually my cup of tea done well. Thank you Random House Children’s for this ARC!

On the night Li Fei was born, so was a prophecy - the girl with the phoenix mark would on day become Empress of All Empresses. In an attempt to control the prophecy, the Emperor removed Fei from her home so that she could be raised as the future Empress and wife to his son, Rong Siwang. But as her ninteenth birthday approaches and the Emperor continues to pressure Fei that a date for the wedding must be set, Fei puts a plan in motion to end her betrothal so that she might have a say in her future. This plan brings her into contact with Lan Yexue, a prince from a rival kingdom with a strange magic.

I felt like this book had a lot of potential, but there was a bit of an identity crisis going on. The author spends a lot of the beginning of the book making it clear that women are the property of men, trophies for them to admire, but that they have no actual voice or power. This patriarchal rule doesn't sit well with Fei, who wants to be powerful in her own right and make her own decisions. You go, girl. But less than a quarter of the way into the book, she's waffling over two separate love interests, neither of whom she seems to actually have much chemistry with, but both of whom are in positions of power and would thus have control over her life.

I also wasn't a huge fan of the author's writing style. I'm hoping that some of it gets cleaned up in editing before it's published but there was some weirdness with sentence structure, choppy prose, and dialogue that didn't really flow. It might be due to English not being the author's first language but it was distracting enough to pull me out of the story.

I did love that, despite being raised as the future empress, Fei grows up with an independent personality and is willing to go against any and all societal norms. She pursues hobbies and takes actions that are considered unwomanly, including hunting, defying the emperor and asking for her bethrothal to be annulled, and dressing up as a man to help her family make money and eventually join the army.

Read if you like:
YA fantasy
Arranged marriage
Prophecies
Love triangle
Hidden magic
Vampires

OMG! This book was everything! I couldn’t put it down until I finished. The world-building was incredible, and so was the writing. The love triangle? WOW. Prince Yexue, you will always be famous, I love him so much. I don’t want to say too much because everyone should go in blind, but Fei is easily one of my favorite FMCs. She’s a feminist and a badass. I support women’s rights, but most of all, I support women’s wrongs.

I’ll write a more in-depth review closer to release day. Huge thanks to the publisher for sending this my way!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

Loved the love triangle, fantasy and romance.

The book cover is incredible and am excited for the hard cover to come out.

If you are a paranormal romance reader, you will enjoy this one!

I really didn't like it. The first third of it was pretty good. The second third was the Mulan section. And then the third third was a political nightmare. The writing could use some work because I could tell the author did not originally speak English from her mistakes in word order/ how things are said, along with spelling and grammatical mistakes that I hope will get ironed out before publishing. The overuse of the phrase "knowing something like the back of his/her hand." Siwang, one of her love interests, is not a person I would like and yet the protagonist Fei seems to love him, without ever saying it out loud. I think her other love interest Yexue is supposed to be the endgame, but he is also manipulative. Overall, the writing is repetitive about how women are treated and how she doesn't have power.

The real nail in the coffin for me was the politics. Maybe because I'm in my thirties and there are real live wars going on that I pay attention to, but the author really did not explain clearly the politics between Rong and the other nations. I get that Rong has been conquering other nations in her name and they are not happy to be under Rong's power. Lan is on of those nations and they are fighting back. Fei's reasoning for the treaty to be signed was simply because people are dying and anything should be signed for peace. But that isn't how war works. It isn't that simple. And it is hard to decide which side is morally correct because we don't have enough details. One nation paying tribute to another would be a huge deal and it seemed like the treaty she wanted Siwang to sign had the countries flip who was paid tribute. HUGE DEAL. Men kept telling Fei she didn't understand the politics and she continuously fought back "for peace" meanwhile her actions showed she didn't understand the gravity of what was being decided by the battles or the treaty.

I was very excited when I was approved for this ARC.

I have never read anything by Chang, but I will definitely be looking more into her works...

I had low expectations for this book, BUT HOLLY CAMOLI WAS I WRONG???????????

I need the FMC to just DEMOLISH everything.

I do have to admit that the "love" interests were a little hard to swallow...I mean?????????? I don't know. Manipulative, but is it worth it?

This is definitely suited for young adults and it works perfectly fine for that audience.

Quick and entertaining read

According to a prophecy on the night she was born, Fei is destined to become an Empress. Since then, Fei has been raised in the palace to one day marry the crown prince. Fei becomes close friends with Siwang, but she has no desire to marry him. When Fei tries to take her own destiny into her own hands she crosses paths with Yexue, a prince from the rival kingdom. With war brewing between the two kingdoms Fei finds herself in the middle of the conflict.

Fei was a strong character who has her own desires for her life, even if it means going against the prophecy and putting herself in danger. It was interesting watching Fei fight for her kingdom and try to bring peace between the rivals. It was also interesting to see how the vampire plot was woven into the story.

This was a quick read that has some action-packed scenes. Overall, an enjoyable read.

3.5/5

First off I love the cover! (@afterblossom_art by beloved).

Main girl Fei is the prophesied Empress of All Empresses and is set to married Siwang who she's known since childhood. Fei is a go-getter and not really interested in marriage, so she decides to kill a legendary tiger to win a wish from Siwang's father the emperor. It doesn't go according to plan and instead she saves Yexue, the prince from another kingdom, setting off the story in motion.
Between the blood in her visions and the blood on the battlefield Fei tries to discover what (and who) her heart wants.

Fast paced and with some fun fantasy elements, The Nightblood Prince leaves the reader thirsty for more.

The story is entertaining and is very much a Mulan meets Helen of Troy/Cassandra-esque narrative. There was a bit more "telling" rather than "showing" for my taste and I had a similar issue with Wicked Gods so maybe it's Chang's writing style that just isn't for me? I do love the added proverbs and I'm sure I would've loved the audiobook to fully understand lol. For me, there was a clear preference with one side of the love-triangle vs. the other but both Siwang and Yexue are morally grey characters! I am interested in the plot line for the sequel as there are more mysteries to solve.

I love Asian inspired fantasy books and this one was great! I loved the take on vampires in this book and I absolutely fell in love with Yexue! I would really love for there to be a sequel to this book but I don’t believe that’s happening. But if you love strong FMC and love interests that would do anything for her then i definitely recommend picking this book up!

The Nightblood Prince follows Fei as she grows and learns more about the prophecy that was told at her birth. She is kept against her will in the palace for entire childhood, and yet continues to let everyone take advantage of her. It was a bit difficult to let her continue to fight the men in her life through inner dialogue, and then give into them every single time they spoke.

Fei, girly, either kill them or marry them.

The way I was screaming when I got the approval, the love triangle was well done and you know who you want to root for and it can go either way.
The cover art is amazing and it fits the book extremely well