Description from Goodreads
It is the 19th century, and China is in chaos. One woman will rise from poverty to change its history for ever.To rescue her family from poverty and avoid marrying her slope-shouldered cousin, seventeen-year-old Orchid competes to be one of the Emperor's wives.When she is chosen as a lower-ranking concubine she enters the erotically charged and ritualised Forbidden City. But beneath its immaculate façade lie whispers of murders and ghosts, and the thousands of concubines will stoop to any lengths to bear the Emperor's son.Orchid trains herself in the art of pleasuring a man, bribes her way into the royal bed, and seduces the monarch, drawing the attention of dangerous foes. Little does she know that China will collapse around her, and that she will be its last Empress...My Thoughts on the Book
While I enjoyed the setting of the book, as well as the prose that was so flowery, beautiful, and lyrical it sucked me in, the characters and the plot left me a bit underwhelmed. The pacing was also a bit all over the place in some cases in my opinion. Empress Orchid is supposed to be based on/inspired by real people and/or events, but how accurate it is, can be up to debate.
It's an okay read, but if you don't read it, you don't miss out on too much, I think.
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