Threads of Silk

By: Amanda Roberts

Narrated by: Leanne Yau

Born in the middle of nowhere, Yaqian, a little embroidery girl from Hunan Province, finds her way to the imperial court, a place of intrigue, desire, and treachery. From the bed of an Emperor, the heart of a Prince, and the right side of an Empress, Yaqian weaves her way through the most turbulent decades of China's history and witnesses the fall of the Qing Dynasty.

©2016 Amanda Roberts (P)2017 Red Empress Publishing

brilliant

no new idea exists under our sun. I am inspired and awed by colorful tales told about a feminist who left her final judgment to the reckoning of time.this empress and her embroidery maid are honored in this story and make me grateful to he who I am on this earth.
subject, author and narrator are all top quality.
thank you for writing this story. ♡♡♡

A Great Story in Historical Context

Overall enjoyed this interesting story about embroidery and a girl's rise from poverty in the 19th Century China. Great details about silk, silk worms, eunuchs and the ancient art of embroidery as well as palace intrigue in the Forbidden City.

Several times the dialogue of the character made her seem unnaturally clueless. Overall good narration but at times a bit over-dramatic and shrill. Despite this, we stuck with it and enjoyed the story.

A peek into late 1800's Chinese culture

This is a fascinating story about a talented Chinese girl who made beautiful silk embroidery that sold well and supported her parents. They despised her for being a girl and thought of her as worthless, so they sent her to become an apprentice of a well known embroidery master and didn’t see her for 10 years. Her talent… and bounded feet called the attention of the emperor and she was taken to the Forbidden City…

Leanne Yau’s narration is excellent - I enjoyed the British/Chinese accent, as well as the character voices.

I received this audio-book free for an honest review by the author, narrator, or publisher. Thank you!!!

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First-Rate Historical Fiction

This novel ends with the selection of China's last emperor, a boy of only three years. The epic story is told in the first person by a female Han servant to the Manchu dowager empress and covers the last half of the 19th century and the first few years of the 20th century. This is a tale rife with court intrigues, power struggles, illicit love affairs, and unspeakable violence. It rings true in every event. The most fascinating aspect of this novel for me was the clarity of explanation of the Boxer Rebellion. I feel as though I now have a much better understanding of how those bloody days came about and how they actually unfolded. This is a first-rate work of historical fiction. The writing is excellent. The history as presented feels authentic. The narration is absolutely impeccable. I cannot think when I have enjoyed any audio book more.

Loved it

Embroidery and Chinese history. The last empress. Appropriate for teens Lovely stories. Three more words.