Song of the Silk Road

Apr 25, 2011 Debbie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Where to begin? I grabbed this book at the Honolulu airport while in a very big rush to walk the thousand miles to our gate. I admit that I totally judged a book by its cover and thought about how I typically love all novels that involve some sort of Asian history. This book was, well, awful. And yet, I still made myself finish it even though I have decided (after making myself finish 'The Corrections') that I am a grownup, and as such, I don't have to complete books I don't want to! However, si...more

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Apr 16, 2011 Patty rated it 2 of 5 stars

I have long been fascinated by China and her culture so this book was immediately interesting to me. I was looking forward to a tale of China's past merged with her future all tied in with a young woman's search for an aunt she did not know existed.

Lilly Lin is seemingly alone in the world. Her parents are dead and she is living in New York and trying to write a novel. Lilly is having an affair with a married man and working as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant when she receives a mysterious le...more I have long been fascinated by China and her culture so this book was immediately interesting to me. I was looking forward to a tale of China's past merged with her future all tied in with a young woman's search for an aunt she did not know existed.

Lilly Lin is seemingly alone in the world. Her parents are dead and she is living in New York and trying to write a novel. Lilly is having an affair with a married man and working as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant when she receives a mysterious letter from a lawyer. If she agrees to the terms set forth by this unknown aunt she will find herself enriched by three million dollars.

That's a lot of money and Lilly could sure use it but the terms are very unsettling. Does she really want the money THAT badly? More importantly - who is this aunt she know nothing about? Lilly meets with the lawyer and is given a "down payment" on the final payout and sets forth on her journey to the Silk Road in China but what she finds and what she learns is not at all what she was expecting.

What I found and what I learned was not what I was expecting either. I wanted to be enchanted with this book and I wasn't. Lilly just wasn't likable enough for me. She seemed to be very self centered and motivated by all the wrong reasons. She made horrible, horrible decisions regarding men and laid the blame everywhere but where it belonged; at her feet. I really just wanted to slap her. I often have problems with books when the heroine is so unpleasant - but Gone with the Wind is one of my all time favorite books and Scarlett O'Hara is one of the most unappealing heroines in literary history. So that tells me that character faults can be overcome. In this book that didn't happen for me. The hero was not a character that I cared much for either so that left me with two people who I really just didn't care about - not good when they are the two main characters in the story.

It did have one whopper of an ending though, one I did not see coming. There is something to be said for that. The descriptions of place are very evocative and I know would love to see the deserts of China.(less)

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Apr 24, 2011 Gmr rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: adult readers

**WARNING: This title is not for younger readers despite the Fiction moniker.**
First off, the cover art. Can I just say that although the set up is simple, it's rather stunning. The shade of green used to color the overall picture and then the stunning pink/red of the flowers provide a wonderfully eye catching contrast. Moving within the cover, we find a journey indeed...

I loved the main characters inner monologue and narration of the scenes. She had an interesting way of viewing the world, both...more **WARNING: This title is not for younger readers despite the Fiction moniker.**
First off, the cover art. Can I just say that although the set up is simple, it's rather stunning. The shade of green used to color the overall picture and then the stunning pink/red of the flowers provide a wonderfully eye catching contrast. Moving within the cover, we find a journey indeed...

I loved the main characters inner monologue and narration of the scenes. She had an interesting way of viewing the world, both poetic and tragic at the same time. However, her verbal interactions with other characters, their actual conversations felt stunted....almost child-like in both responses given and taken.

The descriptions of both time and place were detailed and precise, almost placing you beside Ms. Lin on her journey without missing a step along the way. The author's way with words seems to know no bounds when describing the multitude of Ms. Lin's sexual encounters. Never in my life have I read a book in which this act was described (or performed for that matter) in so many ways. In truth, it was poetic mixing heaven and earth, feeling and fate, BUT for my reading preferences...it was a bit much. I mean Ms. Lin literally falls into bed with almost every man she meets. Most disturbing amongst them was not her married professor nor her youthful lover, but Floating Cloud...who was a monk. Rest assured that this startling sequence of events is laid to rest later on in the text but until then... O_O

The fact that this was to be a journey of discovery was what drew me to this book and yet the only true discovery comes at the book's end with a completely side-swiping turn of events. Really...there is NO way to see this one coming (which certainly speaks to the author's talent for crafting a story); gotta love the unexpected turns that WORK. Moving forward....I suppose she learned a bit about her heart and the workings of the universe along the way, but it doesn't really seem apparent til the final pages and those reactions could have been merely formed from her trips final days in lieu of the events that transpired over the past several months.

All in all, I'd say the journey (when she was on it and not in yet another bed) was breath taking in the visual wonders and history beheld yet often times disturbing, striking a balance between the yin and the yang. Though saturated with a few too many scenes of passion, it seems that the message the author aimed to deliver still comes through. For me, it was this...the universe moves in mysterious ways but never without purpose of intent. (less)

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Jul 25, 2011 Heidi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As much as I enjoy reading about Chinese culture, this book was disappointing. The main character is Lily Lin who is in her late 20s. She received a letter from a lawyer stating that a long lost aunt wants to give her 3 million dollars if she travels to China along the Silk Road and complete some very odd tasks along the way. Once completed, she will get the money. I ended up not really liking Lily because I couldnt believe she would even do some of these tasks. The book to me was so far fetched...more

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Jan 16, 2012 Wendy Hines rated it 4 of 5 stars

Song of the Silk Road is a novel of finding who you are and all of the avenues open to you. Lily Lin, a writer and waitress, is shocked when a letter arrives stating the has inherited three million dollars, if she meets the stipulations. Lily finds this hard to believe, considering she had to scrape the money together to bury both of her parents and also because she has never heard of this aunt, Mindy Madison.

But eventually the lawyer tracks down Lily in person and she decides to try and meet t...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Tom LaVenture rated it 4 of 5 stars

Song of the Silk Road from Mingmei Yip
By TOM LAVENTURE
AAP staff writer

Mingmei Yip has a new novel coming out, Song of the Silk Road (Kensington Publishing, April 1, 2011), a spiritual, physical and emotional adventure of Chinese most remote desert region.
Lily, an unpublished professional writer working as a waitress in New York City, is alone in life, with both parents now passed away – the abusive father gone since childhood and the mother who sacrificed for her to leave Hong Kong for America...more

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Dec 26, 2011 Keilani Ludlow rated it 2 of 5 stars

I would like to have rated higher, I think she's probably a good writer, but I just can't stomach the F-word used repeatedly or the sexual descriptions.

I read the first few chapters, turned off quickly by the F word and the affair between the main character and her married/father college professor. I thought that maybe once he was out of the picture (she leaves the country) then it would be ok, but after skimming through and finding a short masturbation comment and more F word, not to mention t...more

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Sep 03, 2011 Grace Morris rated it 1 of 5 stars

I thought this would be a great novel with some information about the Silk Road and China. Little did I know that it would be more like a Harlequin novel with a lot of sex thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately we were traveling and I had only this book to read or else I would have tossed it.
My recommendation: Give this book a wide pass unless you are looking for something with an unrealistic plot and a lot of fluff.

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Jan 07, 2012 Paige [eastIndies.] rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-own

While I enjoyed the cultural aspects of this story, the plot was very inconsistent at times and the protagonist, Lily Lin's, values were undeniably questionable.
When I began reading, I was immediately drawn into the book by Mingmei Yip's creative voice. Yip's writing style is mostly quite unique to me, with the only exception being that her language was sometimes redundant, with some of the same phrasing appearing quite often within a short amount of pages, or even paragraphs, in between the re...more While I enjoyed the cultural aspects of this story, the plot was very inconsistent at times and the protagonist, Lily Lin's, values were undeniably questionable.
When I began reading, I was immediately drawn into the book by Mingmei Yip's creative voice. Yip's writing style is mostly quite unique to me, with the only exception being that her language was sometimes redundant, with some of the same phrasing appearing quite often within a short amount of pages, or even paragraphs, in between the repeated words. Regardless of the redundancy, Yip's knack for beautiful description was pretty much what carried me through the entire book. In addition, I also appreciated her tendency to bring life to inanimate objects or sayings in such a way that brought attention to ideas that have never seemed of much consequence to the reader before, such as emphasizing the pleasure and satisfaction that simple, every day necessities like food can bring to us--something that we normally wouldn't think twice about. I will admit that Yip definitely has a gift for description, as I learned in one of her other novels, Petals from the Sky.
However, despite the fact that Yip is a gifted writer, and though her plot was creative enough, it contained major discrepancies that disappointed me while reading. A couple examples are as follows. Everyone knows that China is a HUGE country, right (or you would think so, at least)? Well.. Lily and her young lover, Alex, at the onset of the novel, happen to keep bumping into each other everywhere they go as they travel on the Silk Road. Realistically, it doesn't seem natural for two human beings in a country with an estimated 1,336,718,015 (CIA World Factbook) people to just "run into each other" every time they encounter a new path on their (at first) separate journeys. It simply seems too good to be true. In addition to this fantasy, Lily seems to lose her legitimacy as an intelligent character when she decides she might be in love with Alex after having only known him a few days. She knows hardly anything about him when she decides this and her decision actually seemed quite out of the blue to me.
Of course these are just a couple examples of many of the issues I had with the story line. Another problem I had with Lily as a character was the fact that she was just about having sex with every man she met. Her morals just seemed to be dancing around in each bed she went to; Lily's values tended to conform to which ever man she was sleeping with at the time. Because of this, I sometimes could not take Lily's character seriously. Thus, since the novel is told from Lily's point of view, I almost couldn't take the story seriously. Sad, but true. And because I'm me, and have been known to never give up on a book no matter how bad the reading may be, I stuck with this book 'til the bitter end.
And of course the ending was not bitter at all. It wasn't even bittersweet. In fact, it was perfect. And a little bit too perfect for me. Although there were appreciable sacrifices made on Lily's end, I still expected that she would be a little upset over the fact that her original goal of the journey was not accomplished and she had lost many friends along the way. And if she did run into any potential setbacks toward the end of the book, by the last page they had been squared away so neatly that you wouldn't have even noticed that the mini-conflicts could have been devastating to Lily's life at one point in time.
Overall I was a little disappointed with the book. But because of the superb writing style and Yip's creativity in her fabulous descriptions, I managed to enjoy the read somewhat and finish the novel in a timely fashion.
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Aug 02, 2011 Natalie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: asian-fiction

I normally love books about Chinese culture but this was honestly one of the worst books I have ever read in my life, and I'm writing this mainly to remind myself never to read anything by this author again. The plot was weak and unrealistic, as were the characters, and the ending was just ridiculous. That's several hours of my life I will never get back.

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May 13, 2012 J.M. Stetson rated it 1 of 5 stars

I was so tired with re-reading the same old young adult novel that I decided that maybe it was time to try a "big girl" book. So I picked Song of the Silk Road hoping to get myself away from the same old same old young adult book plots. Guess what? I found an adult novel with a young adult plot. How so? Well, it has it's angst, it's stupidity of "Well you're an idiot." sort of main charecter, and (what bothers me THE MOST) she falls in love with someone within just a few days. Granted, she doesn...more

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Oct 26, 2011 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

I gave this book 3 stars because I was compelled to finish it. I took one away for the gratuitous and unimaginative sex scenes and another because I could not picture the story (characters and scenery) in my mind.
If the author had used her extra words on bringing the settings to life instead of the pathetic nature of the men in the story, I would have enjoyed it much more. (Alex is so needy and condescending I wanted to gag!)
The premise of the story really had promise for me and I was looking fo...more

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Nov 09, 2011 Barbara Barth rated it 1 of 5 stars

Quick Summary: Chinese girl struggling to make it in New York has a chance to inherit $3,000,000 from a mystery aunt... but only if she completes a series of "tasks" along China's historic Silk Road.

I let the beautiful cover draw me in. The synopsis in the jacket cover sounded intriguing. There were small alarm bells going off when "seducing a monk" was mentioned as one of her tasks...but I was in a bit of a rush as my kids had already checked out their library books. After finishing the book I...more

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Nov 05, 2011 Rose rated it 1 of 5 stars

The best thing about this book was the cover. I hate to write negative reviews because this is someone's work & their art & after all who am I to knock it? But we do write reviews here & I must be honest about my opinion. This book was awful. The writing was awkward & I found myself searching the inside cover to see if, hopefully, it had been translated from another language thus the bad writing. No such luck. The many metaphors were so awful I cringed every time, the dialogue wa...more

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Jun 27, 2012 Shekenah rated it 2 of 5 stars

A great idea that suffers from poor execution. I've read Yip's previous novels so I am used to her writing style which can be off-putting for some. I enjoyed reading about Lily's journey on the Silk Road. I was engaged and curious about her journey and the tasks she needed to perform. My main issue with this novel is the romance. A large portion of this novel is devoted to the relationship between Alex and Lily but never once did I believe their relationship. I was more interested in Lily and he...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Rachel rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: china

The plot of this book had a lot of potential--but it fell short of a good read in several ways. The premise that a penniless but talented writer is given the opportunity to gain a huge inhertance if she will accomplish the tasks set forth by an unknown relative. The tasks involve traveling to the mysterious far west of China to find and rescue ancient artifacts. Now that is interesting--but I was dissapointed in the book.

First, a travel book should ALWAYS have a map. Some illustrations of the pl...more The plot of this book had a lot of potential--but it fell short of a good read in several ways. The premise that a penniless but talented writer is given the opportunity to gain a huge inhertance if she will accomplish the tasks set forth by an unknown relative. The tasks involve traveling to the mysterious far west of China to find and rescue ancient artifacts. Now that is interesting--but I was dissapointed in the book.

First, a travel book should ALWAYS have a map. Some illustrations of the places visited would have helped, but at least a map to show the locations of the tasks. I want to know where these place are and if they are real--to vicariously visit places out of my reach.

Second, it is best to let the written language flow rather than force in descriptive words and phrases straight from the Thesaurus ("A slight bitter smell of old paper mixed with the fragrance of residual incense penetrated my nostrils." p. 129 The room was filled with the slightly bitter...etc., would be less akward.)

Third, there are many gramatical errors("....have my brains dashed like vomit?" p128 the descriptor is gross, and doesn't match the action, plus it needs a preposition--"dashed out").

Fourth--did she really have to have sex with every male she encountered? The excitement of the adventure should drive the story, not the titilation. The romance between Lily Lin and Alex should have been stronger without the interferance of all the other males. Instead their relationship was thwarted by her distrust of him when she was the one being unfaithful at every turn. Lily's actions do not build sympathy for the protagonist--she is just annoying!

But mostly, the adventures are all explained in a couple pages at the very end. It would have been less abrupt and more interesting if hints about her benefactor had been revealed a bit at a time from one adventure to the next. How could Lily build the compassion needed for the actions required at the end if she knows nothing of the troubles and truth of the old lady's predicament?

I cannot recommend it. (less)

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Jun 09, 2011 Louise rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature-fiction

Twenty-nine-year-old Lily Lin lives in New York and works at the Shun Lee Palace as a waitress and makes $25,000 dollars a year. She lives in a small, rent-controlled studio apartment only 3 blocks from work, had a married boyfriend, Chris Adams, and was happy with her life except for her maxed out credit cards and an unfinished novel she was writing.

A year before, Lily had buried both her parents. Her father died of liver cancer and her mother of a massive heart attack a few months after her fa...more Twenty-nine-year-old Lily Lin lives in New York and works at the Shun Lee Palace as a waitress and makes $25,000 dollars a year. She lives in a small, rent-controlled studio apartment only 3 blocks from work, had a married boyfriend, Chris Adams, and was happy with her life except for her maxed out credit cards and an unfinished novel she was writing.

A year before, Lily had buried both her parents. Her father died of liver cancer and her mother of a massive heart attack a few months after her father passed away. At the time she was attending New York University working on her MFA degree. Since she had to travel to Hong Kong to bury both her parents, her creative writing teacher, turned lover, allowed Lily to graduate although she hadn’t quite completed her novel, which was a requirement for her degree.

Upon returning home from work one evening, Lily found a letter in her mail from a lawyer firm in Manhattan called: “Mills and Mann” informing her that she was to receive a large sum of money – three million dollars! The letter explained her benefactor was an aunt named Mindy Madison. Of course, Lily immediately thought it was some sort of joke as neither of her parents had ever mentioned any aunt. Besides that, Madison wasn’t her mother’s last name which was, Cai and hers was Lin. This was just too good to be true. She stuffed the letter in a book on her desk and put the whole thing out of her mind.

Two days later, Lily arrived home from work to find a message on her answering machine from a David Mann. He said he was from Mills and Mann Associates and was asking her to contact him about a large sum of money from her aunt, Mindy Madison.

The following day Lily went to their office and spoke with David Mann who told her this was very real, but there was more she needed to know. Her aunt had a stipulation in order for Lily to collect the $3 million dollars. Lily had to travel to China, along the ancient “Silk Road” and was required to retrace the same routes her aunt took years before in order to collect the money, but $50,000 thousand dollars would be given to her now to finance the trip. Lily was also to finish this trip and the tasks required along the way in 6 to 8 months. She would get some information now and the rest of the itinerary and instructions when she reached China and met with another lawyer, Mr. Lo in Beijing. Lily agreed to the trip and signed the required documents.

A few of the required tasks were: scraping a small piece of clay from a soldier at the burial place of the famous terracotta warriors; retrieve something at the edge of the Taklamakan desert; and meet a blind fortune-teller on a certain mountain and tell him nothing but lies about everything. A week later, Lily was on her way to China to begin this odd and dangerous adventure.

This was most the amazing journey and the ending will totally shock you out of your seat!! PLEASE DON’T MISS THIS ONE!!! One of the best books I’ve read this year.

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Apr 26, 2011 Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mainstream, literary

Despite her frank, pragmatic outward persona, would-be novelist Lily Lin is a romantic at heart. Tales of her childhood homeland have always captivated her, and she has always held a certain nostalgia for the famed Silk Road. So when Lily receives an offer from a mysterious benefactor that will see her inheriting three million dollars in exchange for travelling the Silk Road–and undertaking a few admittedly odd tasks besides, she scarcely hesitates before booking her ticket. In China she finds h...more Despite her frank, pragmatic outward persona, would-be novelist Lily Lin is a romantic at heart. Tales of her childhood homeland have always captivated her, and she has always held a certain nostalgia for the famed Silk Road. So when Lily receives an offer from a mysterious benefactor that will see her inheriting three million dollars in exchange for travelling the Silk Road–and undertaking a few admittedly odd tasks besides, she scarcely hesitates before booking her ticket. In China she finds herself a world away from her domineering married boyfriend and her minimum wage job: instead she finds herself caught up in the nuances of life in, for the most part, rural China. Her trip takes her to remote Buddhist temples, to Uyghur settlements, and through exquisite, challenging landscapes. And of course, Lily finds herself falling in love…

My thoughts

Books in which the protagonist finds themselves on the receiving end of a life-changing sum of money abound. There’s Patricia Wood’s Lottery, Inheritance by Nicholas Shakespeare (see our review), and Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce. It’s a trope that abounds film and TV (ah, poor Homer Simpson and his elusive millions), perhaps in part because there’s something utterly life-changing about the promise of such huge sums of cash. Money is something that has the potential to change both the how and the why that we live, and its impact can be immense. Curiously, the financial aspect of Lily’s journey is scarcely touched upon throughout the novel. Of her promised three million, she receives fifty thousand up front, and it’s this that she uses during her travels throughout China. Given that even this sum is exorbitant in rural China, there’s never any real sense of need. In fact, despite the fact that Lily asserts that she’s financially motivated, we really only see this towards the end of the novel, when she meets her benefactor. Lily’s journey, rather, seems to be more motivated by the desire to escape from the rather desultory living situation in which she’s found herself.

But Lily’s efforts to escape from her rather vile partner and lead an unencumbered life throughout her travels, she quickly finds herself courted by a young man intent on playing a rather significant role in her life–indeed, this 21-year-old lad drops the “marriage” bomb within a day or so of meeting Lily. His infatuation is so over-the-top that I couldn’t help but wonder whether he himself had a similar quest to Lily’s (this doesn’t turn out to be the case). It’s a sweet relationship for the most part, despite its oddly stalkerish beginnings, but there’s such a sense of convenience to it that I felt myself struggling to believe it. This element of the book in my mind runs counterpart to the love story in Xinran’s Sky Burial, in which a widow searches endlessly for her lost husband in Tibet.

Yip takes us through a fascinating array of cultures and scenery, and the narrative is liberally peppered with all manner of anthropological and ethnographic delights: religious customs, herbal healing, philosophy and ideology, and more. Oddly, these elements are far more enticing than the actual narrative itself, which reads like a poorly plotted road trip novel slotted into an exotic milieu. Lily’s trip, despite requiring her to spend several years in China, only contains three or four actions that she must undertake in order as part of her benefactor’s “mission”, and all of these seem extraneous to the actual themes of the novel– self-discovery. These tasks feel almost as though they have been stitched into the novel as an afterthought, and don’t quite sit neatly against the wider tapestry of the novel. While some of them result in some amusement for the reader, others simply feel like devices to get Lily on her way.

This is in part because of the particular stylistic approach of the novel. Song of the Silk Road is not a translation, but its style is certainly far from that found in a typical western novel. There’s a bluntness and matter-of-factness that I’ve come across in other Chinese novels (and indeed in the Buddhist texts and stories that my Chinese boyfriend occasionally passes my way) that is occasionally jarring to the western ear, and the narrative asides occasionally result in textual bloating. This narrative style also affects our ability to empathise with Lily: heavily self-critical and exceedingly honest in her intentions and goals, she comes across as distinctly unlikeable, and honestly if it weren’t for some of the other characters with whom she interacts along the way, I think I would have struggled to get through some parts of this book.

Moreover, while the Silk Road aspects of the book offer up some truly fascinating insights and experiences, things get messy when Lily returns to New York, and the remainder of the book turns into blatant wish fulfilment and authorial insertion. It’s just so neat and tidy, and while I do understand that Lily gets what she deserves (albeit in rather a different manner from how she imagined she might), I can’t help but feel that the last few chapters of the novel might have benefited from taking a slightly different turn of events. This is a personal taste issue, of course, but there’s a certain “nyah nyah!” to these final chapters that feels awkward to the reader.

Conclusions

If you’re a lover of international literature and you have a yen for travel, then Song of the Silk Road may be something that you enjoy. Despite its slightly wonky narrative and its rather frustrating series of plot coincidences, it brims with cultural insights and explications, and I don’t doubt that many a reader will take something from this novel. If you put yourself in the mindset of a romance reader rather than a mystery or literary reader, you’ll find plenty here to like.(less)

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Apr 25, 2011 Deborah Sloan rated it 5 of 5 stars

I was so intrigued and anxious to read Song of The Silk Road, mostly because of my interest in China's fabled Silk Road and all of the journeys made by merchants taking this sometimes deadly trek to buy or peddle their wares. I'm such a history nut! But I truly found myself really getting into the story line as I read more and more. Just what would you do if you had a chance at a fortune? Would you undertake a journey like this that could be filled with dangers or required you to do something a...more I was so intrigued and anxious to read Song of The Silk Road, mostly because of my interest in China's fabled Silk Road and all of the journeys made by merchants taking this sometimes deadly trek to buy or peddle their wares. I'm such a history nut! But I truly found myself really getting into the story line as I read more and more. Just what would you do if you had a chance at a fortune? Would you undertake a journey like this that could be filled with dangers or required you to do something against your nature?

I think what I found most appealing was the interesting herbalist and all the wild herbs he picked in nature's bounty of China. Learning about these I so loved! And like Lily I grew to love this character in understanding the tragic loss of his family and what it did to him. But like all stories there are surprises here in store for the reader. A bit of intrigue, mystery, and love wrapped up in traces of history and modern day adventures including the infamous Terracotta Warriors! I think this one will not only surprise you but you'll immensely enjoy reading Song of The Silk Road.

As a girl growing up in Hong Kong, Lily Lin was captivated by photographs of the desert—its long, lonely vistas and shifting sand dunes. Now living in New York, Lily is struggling to finish her graduate degree when she receives an astonishing offer. An aunt she never knew existed will pay Lily a huge sum to travel across China’s desolate Taklamakan Desert—and carry out a series of tasks along the way.

Intrigued, Lily accepts. Her assignments range from the dangerous to the bizarre. Lily must seduce a monk. She must scrape a piece of clay from the famous Terracotta Warriors, and climb the Mountains of Heaven to gather a rare herb. At Xian, her first stop, Lily meets Alex, a young American with whom she forms a powerful connection. And soon, she faces revelations that will redefine her past, her destiny, and the shocking truth behind her aunt’s motivations.

Powerful and eloquent, Song of the Silk Road is a captivating story of self-discovery, resonant with the mysteries of its haunting, exotic landscape.
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SONG OF THE SILK ROAD
Mingmei Yip
Kensington Publishing
$15.00 U.S./$17.95 CAN.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7582-4182-5
356 Pages(less)

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Apr 05, 2011 Kate L rated it 5 of 5 stars

I honestly have no idea where to begin with this review, because I loved this book sooooooo much, I'm having trouble putting it into words. Anyone who knows me knows that if I can't find words, it's a big deal. I guess I'll just start with Mingmei Yip's literary voice. It is so difficult to describe, but she has an absolutely enchanting way of writing. I almost feel like I'm being lulled into a trance, a very rich and wonderful trance. Even when the action happening in the book is not super inte...more

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Apr 06, 2011 Julie Smith (Knitting and Sundries) rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, reviewed

This review first appeared on my blog: http://www.knittingandsundries.com/20...

Meet Lily Lin, an aspiring novelist currently working as a waitress at Shun Lee Palace in Manhattan. She lost both of her parents when she was 28 years old. Her lover Chris Adams is her former creative writing professor, and he is also married with a son.

When she is 29, Lily receives a letter that she has a bequest of $3 million dollars from an aunt named Mindy Madison that she had never known existed, and dismisses i...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Star (The Bibliophilic Book Blog) rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

Overall, I did enjoy the book. I just wasn't a huge fan of Lily's. I thought she was a bit shallow and mean when it came to her relationships and I didn't feel like she grew a whole lot during the course of the book. However, I loved Ms. Yip's graceful storytelling. The landscapes and people really leapt off of the pages for me. I loved learning about culture and geography I never knew much about before. Ms. Yip has a wonderful voice and I know she'll go far as a writer.

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Mar 18, 2012 Rachielle rated it 3 of 5 stars

Sexy and provocative! A young lady in New York gets a mysterious offer for millions of dollars if she fulfilled the wishes of a mysterious aunt. Her aunt wanted her to retrace her own travels along the Silk Road. Lily travels to China, where she complies with her aunt's bizarre and cryptic requests. Her adventures in the desert, remote mountains and villages makes her search her soul, find love, and understand the meaning of family.

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Apr 26, 2012 Amber Kent rated it 1 of 5 stars

Where do I start? I love to read Chinese historical fiction, but this doesn't actually seem to be the focus of the book. I stopped reading this just about as soon as I started. Thankfully I read the reviews of the book to see that my suspicions of this not being a good book were true.

Too many good books out there for me to continue reading trashy romance disguised with a "Chinese Historical Fiction" cover and title.

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Aug 07, 2011 Jennifer Wardrip rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: trt-posted-reviews

Reviewed by Monica Sheffo for TeensReadToo.com

Lady Luck hasn't always smiled down on Lily Lin. At just 28, she has lost both of her parents and is working at a dead end job in a Chinese restaurant.

But that all changes when a letter from a mysterious distant relative names her as the sole heiress of a 3 million dollar fortune.

All she has to do is retrace the steps this relative took along the famed Silk Road and complete a series of tasks. So she packs up her life and leaves for an adventure that...more

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Apr 13, 2011 Kristi (Books and Needlepoint) rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: arcs

I don't think that I have read a book set in China before. I really liked the story line as it was peppered with descriptions of beautiful locations and much cultural history. It moved along pretty quickly, changing locales and "tasks" and keeping me interested in to where Lily would have to go next and who she might meet along the way. There were many colorful characters from monks to fortune tellers to other travelers.

After starting it, I was not readily invested in the character of Lily Lin....more

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Apr 21, 2011 Doret rated it 2 of 5 stars

29 Lily Lin lives in NYC. One day she is contacted by a lawyer on behalf of an unknown wealthy aunt. Lily will receive 3 million dollars if follows the same journey her aunt took down China's Silk Road. This started off very well. There was adventure and a bit of danger trying to pull off some of the aunts task. Though it was time to put this book down when Lily slept with her stalker. If a person is travelling and they run into the same person. The first time its a coincidence. The second time...more

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Nov 26, 2012 Robin Conway rated it 3 of 5 stars

I thought the plot of this story was interesting. Mingmei Yips voice was for the most part creative. However, her wording relating to sex scenes was lacking in imagination and left me feeling extremely frustrated! If not for that, I would have given more stars.

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Jul 11, 2012 Sarah rated it 1 of 5 stars

I almost never put down a book, unable to force myself through it, but I could not get past the first few chapters. The writing was so, incredibly stilted. I'm glad that Mingmei Yip has a following, but I will not be joining the pack.

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Jul 15, 2011 CoffeeTimeRomance andMore rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Lily is a character with a multi-faceted personality, and when you think you may have her pegged, she does something that completely throws you off. She can be selfish and cruel in one breath, and then crying tears of joy the next. I find her screaming at people, whether it is in anger or surprise, just annoying, and Lily has a very hard time ever holding her tongue or her temper. Alex’s maturity and strength of character levels out Lily’s emotional upheavals, and it is this balance not only wit...more

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