Ying Yue believes in love. So when the royal matchmaker selects her to wed the crown prince, Ying hopes that love is exactly what awaits her. No matter that the royal family is notoriously reclusive, rarely leaving their walled palace—and no matter the rumors about the previous royal brides, who after their weddings, were supposedly never seen again. Ying knows that she was chosen for a reason. After all, why else would the matchmaker select her, out of all the girls in the kingdom?
Yet upon her arrival at the royal palace, Ying’s dreams of a fairy tale wedding quickly disintegrate. Her husband-to-be is cold, stoic, and utterly infuriating—he and Ying can’t make it through a single conversation without wanting to throttle each other. Left alone in her room with only her own reflection for company, Ying begins to see things. Strange things. When Ying discovers a secret parallel world accessible through the palace mirrors, she thinks she’s found the perfect way to escape her upcoming nuptials. In this mirror universe, the prince is kind and compassionate, and it isn’t long before he and Ying start to fall for one another. But there is darkness in this new world, too. It turns out, Ying was chosen as the prince’s bride for a reason—but not the reason she thinks. The two worlds have a long and bloody history, and Ying has a part to play in the future of them both. And the brides who came before Ying? By the time they found out what their role was, it was already too late.
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Read some great reviews from our Preview readers here:
Fantasy, romance, eastern mythology…Ying Yue is forced to marry a prince in a foreign land. Alone, estranged from her family and suddenly barriers between our world and a darker place of monsters and evil, Ying has to find a way to stop them destroying her world. In the meantime, falling in love …captivating and thoroughly enjoyable, I highly recommend Jo, VIC, 5 stars
Keshe Chow’s The Girl With No Reflection is the perfect alchemical recipe of romance, fantasy, the supernatural, and ancient mythical creatures. In an ancient Imperial Chinese setting, Ying Yue is set to wed Prince Zhang Lin, the Imperial heir. However, the Imperial family is cursed, affecting only the Empresses. Ying Yue must confront mythical and supernatural dangers to determine if she will succumb to the curse or find salvation through a forgotten prophecy. Ying Yue and her fiancé have contrasting personalities, creating intrigue and suspense as they must overcome personal differences and misunderstandings to save each other and their world. The couple’s challenges and conflicts contribute to their character development in a relatable manner. Chow’s descriptive writing and excellent world-building, combined with the fast-paced storyline, make this book captivating and hard to put down. Jamye, VIC, 5 stars
The story of Ying, and Zhang Lin- on a journey to fulfilling their destinies. Sharing the same traits of loyalty, love of family and being the best version of themselves, they experience the new world of mirror people. There is so much depth to the characters, you can feel what they are feeling, as if you were also part of their story. A very well written novel that kept me captivated and engaged from the start to finish. Looking forward to reading more from Keshe Chow, an author to keep an eye out for. Highly recommend Pennie, QLD, 5 stars
I am usually not a fan of fantasy …but I really enjoyed reading this fast page turning about the Chinese myths and land through the reflections Easy to read and follow. With just a touch of romance. From the wonderful cover to the headers of each page it was a joy to read and difficult to put down. I will be careful looking at mirrors I will be looking for more of Keshe Chows books. Pat, QLD, 5 stars
Will I ever learn not to pick up a new book after dinner. I couldn’t put this book down once I started reading. I did try, I promise, but I finished it in the early hours of the morning. I really enjoyed this book and initially it gave me an ‘Alice through the looking glass” vibe with a world beyond the mirror. What if reflections were sentient, what if the didn’t want to be our mirror images? What if they had been studying us for hundreds of years through the mirror and knew us as we knew ourselves? What if they were malevolent? Keshe Chow has woven a great tale in The Girl With No Reflection. Set in a fantasy land based on Imperial China it has all the elements you woule expect in a modern fairytale. It has mythical beasts, betrayal, love triangles, unseen enemies, sactiifce, sorrow, joy and or course true love. What is not to like? I felt for the main protagonist, Ying, in how she was not really how she appeared, a dutiful lady of nobility, but in secret she rebelled. And then with her desire to find another future than she saw planned out for her. Although I felt that at times the plot was a little predictable (after all aren’t most fairytales, and I love that about them) there were some twists and turns that I didn’t seen coming and kept me reading until I had turned the last page. Highly recommended read! Sonia, VIC, 5 stars
I haven’t been so transported into another world for quite some time. I found it hard to put down as every chapter drew me into wanting to read more. This book was full of royal dynasty rules and beliefs, power and control. It had all the feelings of finding true love with all the twisted emotions. Really enjoyed reading, thank you. Nicole, QLD, 5 stars
Fantasy/Romance not my go to genre but thoroughly enjoyed this book! An exceptional coming of age story. Loved the twists and turns as Ying grows from a young sheltered, rather selfish girl into an amazing, warrior woman who no longer can be fooled by deceptive charm and compliments. She rises to the challenges she meets and learns to work with and value those around her who earn her trust and love! I especially appreciated how Keshe took me between the parallel worlds so cleverly that I forgot my real world altogether and traversed her fantasy mirror worlds! Sallie, QLD, 5 stars
This was a fun, easy to read YA fantasy with a unique storyline, which is hard to do in fantasy these days. The writing was a little jarring and I feel my issues with the characters are a result of me not being the target audience…for example, the naivety of the fmc and the way she fell in love so quickly. I did feel like the author was trying to do too much and the characters lost sight of the main plot at times. The target audience will love this and that’s all that matters here. Hanadi, NSW, 3 stars
The title of this book had me intrigued from the beginning. In my opinion this is a Young Adult fantasy book with some romance and a bit of horror. Ying discovers a mirror world similar to her own with everyone’s doppleganger but somethings are different including the Prince and like any good story some things are not as they seem. The story takes you on a journey of discovery, showing you some elements of Imperial China, it has twists and turns and towards the end you won’t be able to put it down. I like the character development of Ying, she grows throughout the book and I enjoyed reading her interactions with both Prince’s. Racheal, NSW, 3 stars
This was an interesting one! Great language, the prose was so pleasant and easy to read without being oversimple. I read this cover to cover within a couple of sessions and was thinking about it a lot in between. If I’d have read a description of the plot, I think I would have found it simplistic and full of shortcuts (which is impressive for a 500-page book) as I think the romance plots and the fantasy backbone to the story both had very accelerated timelines. Actually reading the book, the pace was great and I was swept up in what was happening and even some of the sillier decisions the characters made make sense in the moment. Loved the mythology and society and would be keen to read more stories in this universe. Also love to see what my kids think! Richard, VIC, 3 stars
This book was about the Chinese Dynasty, not something I would usually read. I did like how the book was written, however as I started reading this book I found that I could not get into the Chinese Dynasty, this book was not capturing my attention. I would give this a 3 star read, for someone who enjoys this era they would love this story. Bec, SA, 3 stars
This book was really hard for me to finish. The main character, Ying, is too trusting in my eyes, She accepts everything very easily. When she discovers that there’s, you know, a whole other world, with a person who has been watching her her whole life, (which to me is very creepy) she accepts it like that. Her reflection also says that the people in her world are the opposite to the real people, so kind people have mean reflections and so on. Ying is an amazingly kind person, but she thinks that reflection Ying is also kind. I hated that so much, that Ying only realised her reflection was evil when she saw her choking the real Prince. Overall, I think it was a really amazing idea that Keshe Chow had for this novel, it just wasn’t done well. If the main character Ying was less oblivious to things that people pretty much right out say, then it could have been a really good book. Evelyn, VIC, 2 stars
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