This story started out enchanting, and I enjoyed the quietness of the plot, but the story just felt like it dragged and didn't really go anywhere until close to the end.

here's a fact about me: before the lotus palace, i had never read a romance novel. ever. i really try not to be a book snob/supremacist/whatever you want to call it, but romance novels always seemed "lesser" to me somehow. too fluffy, too insipid, not intelligent enough. jeannie lin kicked down my front door and threw those opinions in the trash can. yes, this book was fluffy, and it was sentimental, and it prompted a few eye-rolls. but here's where i think jeannie lin differs from a lot of romance writers: she has a beautiful way with words. her prose is so lush and evocative and descriptive, and it brought the already magical world of the pingkang li to life. the glitter and glamour and silk and pearls, the salty air by the docks, the fragrance of peony blossoms and cedarwood - i felt it all. for as many books as i read, it's rare for me to feel transported like this.

on to the stuff that i didn't like. something that irked me from the beginning was the amount of freedom and independence that yue-ying seemed to have. would a female servant really have been able to leave the pleasure house to wander the streets with an aristocrat? would she really have been able to talk to constables and government officials unless she was explicitly summoned? i get that yue-ying is "free" - but she's a woman in an ancient society. i'm no expert on ancient china, but i AM an expert on ancient rome (my BA says so), and that sort of thing would just would not have happened. for all their differences, i can't understand how the societal rules would have differed so much. luckily, there's a thing called Suspending Disbelief, and once you do that, this particular problem is easier to ignore.

the main reason why i avoid romance novels is because i find them overwhelmingly cheesy, and the bai huang/yue-ying romance bordered on cheesy a lot. their early banter was cute and fun, but once things got going, i feel like the fire went out. we just got a lot of sex instead, and while some of it was beautifully written and (yes, i admit it), made me Feel Some Things, more often it just felt like pages and pages of the plot standing still. once the murder was solved, too, the last 30-40 pages seemed to drag. and that takes me to my last, and biggest, qualm with this book: the deux ex machina of the last 5 pages. 5 pages! we almost made it! the ending was 100% fanservice, and while i'm never opposed to a book ending happily, this was too sugary sweet for me. but Suspending Disbelief, right?? in another parallel universe, this totally could have happened.

"You're blushing."
"The day is uncustomarily warm," she returned without pause.
"Is this love?" he asked simply.