Thorn of the Night Blossoms

By: JC Kang

Narrated by: Natalie Naudus

Length: 2 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's Summary

If Memoirs of a Geisha had ninjas....

In the legendary Floating World, wars are waged with wit, the strongest soldier can be bound with threads of silk, and flesh is the currency by which life, death, and freedom can all be purchased. 

Half-elf Jie doesn’t mind her temporary assignment as a Night Blossom in the most sought-after house. It’s perfect cover for her real work as an assassin in the emperor’s service, and keeps her close to one who matters most. Her life belongs to her clan, but her heart lies with clan junior, Lilian. 

Lilian’s talents trade stealth for sensuality, poison for poetry. With looks as sharp as any blade, she can coax information from any man, and still leave him paying for the pleasure. She’s enthralled many a noble, none more important than the warlord who can calm a brewing insurrection. Only her sweet whispers can secure his obedience to the throne. 

But now, his increasing abuse has Jie seeking a new assignment for Lilian - even if it means their separation. When killers target clan sisters, and the seeds of rebellion find fertile soil in the Floating World, Jie must choose between loyalty and love.

©2019 Dragonstone Press, LLC (P)2019 Dragonstone Press

Thorn of the Night Blossoms

Thorn of the Night Blossoms: Children of the Black Lotus

Epilogue Thorn of the Night Blossoms: Children of the Black Lotus

It started out slow
but half way through picked up
It is interesting so far

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Beautiful prose and well-written tale

Kang paints a beautiful picture. Though the content is borderline... Kang finds a way of making it so beautiful. I’ve said beautiful a lot, but it’s the word that comes to mind.

This is short, but very worth it. Naudus performed it with elegance and grace.

Snag it and thank me later.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

background

this listen gives some background into Jie past. Worth listening and/or reading to get more insight into Jie's life.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Loved it

I wasn't sure what to expect going into this book but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story is really good and the narrator does a great job with the voices. Definitely recommend this one

I'll be reading the next book

This is my first intro to Kang's work, although I own several of his books I just haven't gotten that far through my TBR pile. When I saw this short was available I figured this would be a good time to check it out.

I'm not quite sure why I had such a disconnect with the story in the beginning, maybe it was the narrator who just didn't work for me for some reason (although she seems to be very popular) or it could be the setting of the story. Things picked up around the 60% mark for me.

I found myself cringing at the situations in the story, repeatedly, but that made me appreciate how things wrapped up at the end even more. I'll definitely be going the kindle route for the next book and see how that goes.

Assassins & pleasure houses mix surprisingly well

A short tale (novella length) about assassins posing as prostitutes in an Asian setting.

This one really drops you in it. There are a lot of terms and names flying around in the first chapter. So many that, without any prior knowledge of the setting (I think this is part of a much larger world the author is creating), it took me to the end of the first chapter before I had my bearings. Things were a lot smoother after that once I had gotten my head around what everything is called and the like.

We follow a half-elf assassin named Jia who is posing in a pleasure house to gather information and the like for her clan. She's head strong and loyal and and suffers from bouts of overconfidence that may well jeapordise everything.

It's a novella so there's limited character development but what we do get is very good. The plot obviously whips along at break neck pace, and so a lot of the information we need is dropped as exposition. It stands out a bit, but then it's a novella so you have to expect it.

It was fun a listen and the narrator did an excellent job. I'm looking forward to novellas 2 and 3... and luckily I was provided with all three so I'll be jumping straight in to book 2. I might do a longer review once I've gone through them all.

3.5 stars.

brilliant book

I read this series first, but hearing them on audible gives a new view of them. This is the first of "scions". very good series, fully up to standard expected od J C Kang.