The Emperor and the Endless Palace

I think there IS a target audience for this book, it's just not me (and that's okay). I'm not much of a smut/spice seeker and when I requested this book I wasn't expecting A LOT of spice. It took me a minute to get my bearings and Justinian's style of (beautiful) writing and the format of the book. I even had to use the dictionary a few times which is rare for me! Once I did, I enjoyed the story for the most part. I think my biggest issue that was always in the back of my mind was the way that this is being marketed as a Romantasy, with the prognosis hardly mentioning erotica, smut, spice at all. Some of the fellow author review quotes mention it, thankfully. This definitely erotic fantasy with some romance (but mostly lust). I don't think it's fair to the reader to not lead with how sexual the book is. I know the author has been joking on IG about this and There's NOTHING wrong with how sexual the book is; I just think it needs to be obvious from the start so folks know what they're getting into. I think this stands for all authors when you're bordering the line of erotica (and this is far past that line).

So 4 stars for a great story, amazing writing especially for a debut novel, but lack of a star for being mislead. I will definitely keep an eye on this author and would read more of his writing if it was less erotica and more romance and if he never writes that kind of book, that's okay (you do you, boo!) Wish him lots of success as a queer Asian author.

First of all, I think Huang would appreciate that this is the 69th book I've read this year. (Nice.)

I really enjoyed this but I wish it was a little longer! Usually, I think books should be shorter but I wanted more time with all of the characters. I had originally told a coworker when I started it that it was pretty spicy, but the spice was mostly in the beginning and end. I could have had more but I was mollified by lots of LONGING and PINING. Great stuff.

Quit at 5% - just wasn't feeling it.