Through her eyes we were shown the lush world of 1920s Shanghai, and I loved it! She would go to clubs, to the International District, to poor shops. The main perspective is Juliette’s, even if we follow Roma in some scenes as well (as well as a few secondary characters), and I adored seeing her move through different societies so easily. We see many different parts of the city, such as the French Quarter with its snobbish French and the opium pens filled with addiction. Let’s break down a lot of my thoughts for this book now. However, the book is a truly enjoyable read, and I look forward to reading the next book! The mystery was perhaps the hardest to read, as it was pretty gross at times. Literally 90% of the issues they had outside of their family was because of misunderstandings. For the most part I enjoyed the romance between Juliette and Roma, though there were points I was frustrated by their lack of communication. I enjoyed the friendship between Roma and his two friends. The background characters, though simple, were interesting. I was a huge fan of the characters, even if Roma and Juliette were really the only characters who were highly developed. Saying that, sometimes the flowery writing did bog down the writing a bit, but never enough for me to start disliking the book. I have read several books on Shanghai during this era, and this book perfectly captures the intricacies of that time and place. It is a slow burn, focused mostly on the political conflict in Shanghai between different gangs, foreigners, Nationalists, and Communists.
I really enjoyed this book, which is surprising because usually I’m very critical of Shakespeare retellings. Juliette and Roma, once lovers now enemies, must struggle against the dangerous politics of Shanghai to save their city from a new, terrifying threat while navigating the dangerous water of power. A monster is coming, and people are dying. However, something is brewing below the waters of the Huangpo river. Synopsis: Set in 1920s Shanghai, Juliette Cai and Roma Montagov have lived their lives under the careful watch of their families, the Scarlet Gang and the White Flowers, both powerful gangs seeking control in Shanghai. Anyways, I wasn’t planning to review this book, but I had a lot of thoughts about it, so here we go. I promise, next week there will be no book reviews. I feel like I’ve been coming out with so many book reviews recently.
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