K.J. Charles's Reviews > The Hidden Moon

Oh my goodness I loved this. The Pingkang Li books are among my favourite Jeannie Lins--the historical setting is incredibly well done, the characters are flawed and problematic and come from/live in a brilliantly seedy world of courtesans and crime and everyone scrabbling to make it, the mystery subplots are engaging, the setting is bright and real and vivid, and the romances are stellar.

I have wanted this story painfully since The Liar's Dice which introduces high-born, fiercely intelligent Wei-wei, who likes to sneak out in her brother's clothes at night, and the gangland enforcer and thug Gao. (You don't *have* to read that, or indeed the other books in the series, to read this, but you'd be a fool not to because they're great.)

The Hidden Moon was everything I hoped for--Gao is fantastic, grim and hurt and yearning and a bit scary, Wei-wei is clever, naive, determined for herself but not prepared to let down her family. The romance is fantastic and swoony and full of fabulous pining, the mystery develops really well, and the other characters from the series work really well without unbalancing the book, which is a harder thing to pull off than you might imagine. And the cover is gorgeous, what more do you want?