What Janine is Reading: Jeannie Lin’s Pinkang Li Books

Several years ago I fell in love with Jeannie Lin’s Lotus Palace novels. Whether you consider them romances or mysteries (I think of them as romances), the setting, a pleasure quarter called the Pinkang Li, part of the Tang Dynasty capital, Chang’an, during the 840s CE, is beautifully rendered and immersive. It serves the backdrop for two gorgeous, romantic novels in the series, The Lotus Palace and The Jade Temptress and now for two more books.

One of the fascinating things about the setting—am...