'An engaging and entertaining read' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 'A sprawling family epic intent on capturing China's mystic flavour. Full of English heroes, Chinese villains and brave, virtuous women' METRO 'An atmospheric novel' BELLA 'The book is at turns harrowing and entertaining, the characters are strongly cast and the sights, smells, colours and noises of rural China spring to life' Courier Mail, Australia

This book is split across two women: Li-Xia, who works her way from being the unwanted daughter of a wealthy man's concubine to the wife of one of the richest Eurasian men in Hong Kong, follwoed by her daughter - the "Red Lotus" of the title.

Whilst parts of it were good, there was little tension or much to fear from the apparent enemies of women, despite Ben's apparent wealth and the hatred of mixed marriages etc all around them. Even the tension between Red Lotus and her "enemy" could have been a little stronger. One of her more minor enemies seems easily brought off with money and some implied blackmail, and is never heard from again - all secondary characters seem to easily disappear and be forgotten throughout the book.

The above could give the impression this is a bad book - it's not, just not a great book.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

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Please enjoy this book, if it is not your genre pass it along to someone else or wild release it. In this way we promote literacy and at the same time we can watch our book continue on its journey

Taken from yesterday's meetup of bcbirmingham at Hudson's to release elsewhere.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

This book is released for the Never Judge A Book By Its Cover challenge, 2010 - Week 20 (author’s name begins with K/E/M/S).

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I haven't yet read this book as I am lending it to a friend but I am looking forward to reading it myself when she's finished!