Now, our lovely main character, Hesina, is starting her journey by visiting one of these sooths in high secrecy. There is a little romance in there, but it is not over the top and it plays perfectly in the whole story. Descendant of the Crane uses an intricate domino like plot structure such that you’ve got an idea that Hesina’s can’t trust everyone that she does, but you can’t really predict when that’ll happen. I am totally in love with the cover and was surprised by how much I enjoyed DESCENDANT OF THE CRANE.

There were times when she wavered but when she made up her mind to do something, she did it formidably.

The plot twists are indeed as good as everyone says, though some of them just didn’t hit as hard as I wanted them to, because at that point I had really stopped caring what was going on. Literally the first thing she notices is how handsome Akira is, even though she's there in a position of power to strike a deal with him for finding her father’s killer. The soothsayer cannot tell her the culprit, but she can point her in the direction of someone who will help her find out.

If it’s any small comfort, Hesina’s journey in DESCENDANT would have always ended the way that it did regardless of if I’d sold in a one book, two book, or three book deal. Joan He made not one fault in this meticulously constructed story-line, this vivid world, and these entirely unique and authentic characters. Also, I think the book does explore interesting themes, like grief, ethics, and especially the idea of broken family. The premise Joan He lays out in Descendant of the Crane isn't shockingly original, but the relatively familiar contours of the plot do not make it any less elaborate. The book begun with treason, was followed by murder, and the stakes were only ever raised from there.

Such was the churn and whirl of my thoughts and feelings that I was genuinely incapable of putting two ideas in a row, let alone come into any kind of conclusion—other than that I desperately need a sequel. If so, the good news is that there’s likely nothing in the book that will 100% disprove what you want. Coronada como Reina (lo cual ya es raro porque esto es un setting completamente chino), Hesina decide acudir a una persona que usa magia prohibida en el reino para entender si la muerte de su padre fue natural. The second is that this is one of those books that I think would have been better as an adult novel.