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A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang

Historical fantasy

A Song to Drown Rivers

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This is an early release that's only available to our members—the rest of the world has to wait to read it.

by Ann Liang

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Quick take

Beauty is a weapon in this epic story about a powerful girl who uses her wiles to act as a spy and seduce a king.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Sad

    Sad

  • Illustrated icon, Forbidden_Love

    Forbidden love

  • Illustrated icon, Based_on_a_Classic

    Based on a classic

  • Illustrated icon, War

    War

Synopsis

Her beauty hides a deadly purpose.

Xishi’s beauty is seen as a blessing to the villagers of Yue—convinced that the best fate for a girl is to marry well and support her family. When Xishi draws the attention of the famous young military advisor, Fanli, he presents her with a rare opportunity: to use her beauty as a weapon. One that could topple the rival neighboring kingdom of Wu, improve the lives of her people, and avenge her sister’s murder. All she has to do is infiltrate the enemy palace as a spy, seduce their immoral king, and weaken them from within.

Trained by Fanli in everything from classical instruments to concealing emotion, Xishi hones her beauty into the perfect blade. But she knows Fanli can see through every deception she masters, the attraction between them burning away any falsehoods.

Once inside the enemy palace, Xishi finds herself under the hungry gaze of the king’s advisors while the king himself shows her great affection. Despite his gentleness, a brutality lurks and Xishi knows she can never let her guard down. But the higher Xishi climbs in the Wu court, the farther she and Fanli have to fall—and if she is unmasked as a traitor, she will bring both kingdoms down.

Content warning

This book contains scenes that depict the death of a child.

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of A Song to Drown Rivers.

A Song to Drown Rivers

CHAPTER ONE

They say that when I was born, all the wild geese flew down from the sky, and the fish sank beneath the waves, having forgotten how to swim. Even the lotus flowers in our gardens quivered and turned their heads away, so ashamed they were of their own diminished allure in my presence. I have always found such stories to be laughably exaggerated, but they prove the same thing: that my beauty was something unnatural, transcending nature itself. And that beauty is not so different from destruction.

This was why my mother insisted I cover my face before leaving the house.

“Do not draw unwanted attention to yourself, Xishi,” she cautioned, holding up the veil. It rippled and gleamed in the midday light, the edges glowing white. “It is dangerous, for a girl like you.”

A girl like me.

There were a thousand meanings tucked in those words, and I tried not to dwell on them, even as the old memories boiled up in response. The clucking, red-cheeked village aunties, who once came over to visit and marveled at the sight of me. She is so pretty, one of them had murmured. Someone of such exquisite loveliness—she has the power to topple kingdoms and overturn cities. She had meant it as a compliment. Another had sought to introduce me to her son, who was thrice my age, worked as a woodcutter like my father, and had a face that reminded me of a bitter gourd.

“Come here,” Mother said.

I stepped forward and let her wrap the veil around my head, feeling her thin, calloused fingers—worn from scrubbing raw silk in the day and scrubbing rusted woks in the evening—fiddle with the strings. The fabric fell gently over my nose, my lips, my chin, cool against the sticky summer heat. I supposed I ought to be thankful for her desire to shield me from outside eyes. Zhengdan’s mother all but dragged her out onto the streets and paraded her good looks for everyone to see. And it worked. Already, seven of the men in our village had shown up on their doorstep, bearing lavish gifts and begging for her hand in marriage. It was Zhengdan who told me this late at night, her mouth puckered in disgust, her hand clenched into a fist beneath mine.

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Why I love it

The best part about working on the BOTM Editorial Team is finding a book that we love and sharing it with our members. The worst part is waiting for the books to drop each month, because when I love a book, I just want to shout about it from the rooftops. So, this is me (virtually) shouting from the rooftops: You need to read A Song to Drown Rivers. Seriously, it is that good.

Inspired by the legends of The Four Beauties of Ancient China, our story begins in a small village with a young woman named Xishi who has been told often that her exceptional beauty will allow her to marry well. Enter Fanli, a military advisor for her kingdom, who is on a mission to find a beautiful bride to marry off to a rival king…and to turn that bride’s beauty into a weapon that will take down the kingdom from within. After meeting Xishi, the two agree to work together and Fanli trains her to become the ultimate spy. However, once Xishi makes it to the palace, she learns that the task ahead of her is far more dangerous than she could ever have imagined.

Ann Liang has created a beautiful, emotionally charged story in A Song to Drown Rivers that captures the complexities of what it is to be a woman, to love, and to sacrifice, and just how blurry the lines of friend and foe can become if we look closely.

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