She Who Became the Sun

Update after reading the sequel - went from 4 stars to 2.25 on this. I wish I'd skipped the duology. The writing itself was interesting enough I'll try another book later.

Interesting debut. I liked this enough to go straight into the sequel, but if I hadn't waited until the sequel was out and there was any delay, I don't think I would have gone on. I wasn't that interested in Ouyang - sympathetic and glad when he got revenge, but just wasn't interested in that storyline; I liked Zhu Chongba better before the sudden promotion to army commanding, though the decisions were still interesting. I know nothing about the history this is based on, but it was still interesting enough to keep me reading - though, again, I don't think I'd go on to the sequel if it wasn't already out, based on this.