New Book Release: The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang

📝 What is The Emperor and the Endless Palace about?:

Spanning eras and landscapes, two men are endlessly reincarnated. Their lives are entwined by fate. From ancient palaces to modern rave scenes, their love endures across lifetimes, but as they realize the overwhelming power of their connection, they face the looming threat of its consuming nature.

📚 Genre: LGBT Romantasy

🎧 Format: E-Book

💞 Feels: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I enjoyed trying to suss out who was who in the three timelines. And how will the main couple meet in each timeline, how are they different and the same in each life.

I wasn’t able to figure out who each character from the first timeline was in the two other timelines, but maybe I’ll figure it out in a re-read down the line. Now that I know who the main characters are and the basic story I can delve a little deeper into the different writing styles. The foreshadowing and hints in the book were clear.

The story was rather plain, but dressed up in fantastical elements to attract the eye. I don’t know if the story lives up to the dressing (or the cover). The ending doesn’t live up to the pretty cover. The story is unresolved, which left me unsatisfied.

I want to see other lifetimes where they’ve loved each other successfully…but that probably would end the reincarnation loop. Original timeline lovers, from 4 BCE, were my favorite probably because they don’t have any baggage to overcome yet. It’s still to come down the line. The conflict and reason for their endless reincarnations seemed paltry to me. Figuring out who the characters were in the timelines kept me turning pages.

Then I noticed the writing style would change occassionally depending on the time period…I’ll have to check a finished copy, because I wasn’t sure if this was due to me reading an advance reader or if it was intentional. I think it was purposeful, and perhaps a stylistic choice based on the timeline. 4 BCE and 18th century timelines had dialogue written in italics, while the modern day storyline had dialogue in quotation marks. There was also a moment where the story was occurring in verse or poetry. Interesting experimentation was happening with the writing style, my lit minor heart palpitated. 🥰

Since there are three timelines, I think it would’ve been good to show the timelines from three different perspectives. As it is now, two timelines are from one character’s POV and the third timeline is from another character’s perspective. We should have heard from the three characters. But one of the characters didn’t get to voice his thoughts and feelings. And that leaves me with some questions about who knows what’s going on in this story.

I have questions that I feel are still loose ends:

• Does Winston know what’s going on? Was his memory really erased? Is he continuing on the same path in each timeline whether he has knowledge or not?
• Who is Garden in the past?
• Who is the Emperor’s Grandmother in the present? Is she still his Grandmother or did her fate change in the 18th century timeline?
• Who is Calvin in the past? Or is he “the plot twist” in the present timeline, and so he’s not part of the story in the past?

✅ Spinoff novella nomination:

There wasn’t enough of Dong Xian, Liu Xin and Jujun. I would’ve been happy if the book had just been this timeline, but I’m a historical fiction girlie, so I guess there are past and present timelines for different preferences. Their present day personas, just seemed watered down. But they did need the unequal power dynamics to be leveled amongst them.

What are you reading? Let me know in the comments.

shop for the emperor and the endless palace by justinian huang: