A young woman chosen as the crown prince’s bride must travel to the royal palace to meet her new husband—but her world is shaken when she discovers the dark truth the royal family has been hiding for centuries—in this lush fantasy debut perfect for fans of Song of Silver, Flame Like Night and Violet Made of Thorns.

Princess Ying Yue believed in love…once upon a time.

Yet when she’s chosen to wed the crown prince, Ying’s dreams of a fairy tale marriage quickly fall apart. Her husband-to-be is cold and indifferent, confining Ying to her room for reasons he won’t explain. Worse still are the rumors that swirl around the imperial palace: whispers of seven other royal brides who, after their own weddings, mysteriously disappeared.

Left alone with only her own reflection for company, Ying begins to see things. Strange things. Movements in the corners of her mirror. Colorful lights upon its surface. And when, on the eve of her wedding, she unwittingly tears open a gateway, she is pulled into a mirror world.

This realm is full of sentient reflections, including the enigmatic Mirror Prince. Unlike his real-world counterpart, the Mirror Prince is kind and compassionate, and before long Ying falls in love—the kind of love she always dreamed of.

But there is darkness in this new world, too.

It turns out the two worlds have a long and blood-soaked 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 discovered what their role was, it was already too late.

The Girl With No Reflection, Keshe Chow
6 August, 2024

The opening of The Girl With No Reflection was amazing, but it fell away fast.

Right off the bat, Ying is attacked by something from the water. The action is written so incredibly well and I truly felt fully immersed in the danger of the moment.

But then it passed.

And the immediate calm of safety felt odd. We’re meant to suspect the prince because of his cold nature and rumors about the ruling family. It was weird that Ying didn’t even confide in her maid that she thought she saw something, or that she was attacked.

The malevolent reflection kept showing up on any reflective surface, which did keep the tension up.

But that dropped away too once Ying and mirror Ying swapped places.

Everyone in the mirror world is the opposite of how they are in the real world (obviously). The mirror prince is nice, the real prince is mean. Ying’s real maid is her best friend, her mirror maid is distant.

With that bit of worldbuilding confirmed it felt obvious that everything and everyone should be a suspect but Ying very happily goes along with everything.

Then she gets attacked by a giant fish, then there’s another period of immediate calm. And then she looks through the mirror to the real world to see her reflection murdering the prince and I simply was not surprised.

In the end, I didn’t finish (and I don’t assign stars on the blog here for books I don’t finish, new policy for me).