Finished Like Pearl and Jade by Yue Xia Die Yang and was impressed — I liked it almost as much as her Eight Treasure Tousseau. The female MC did fade a little into the background in the last third as political shenanigans piled up, but not as much as in all-too-many historical romances, and I appreciated that the digs against the patriarchy did build into small concrete actions to mitigate the status of some women. Recommended. FWIW, it’s about a half a Journey to the West long (somewhat less than 300k words in translation).

After which I immediately went on to the same author’s The Times Spent in Pretense, which is a longer (three-quarters of a Journey West) historical romance, which is one of the oddest c-novels I’ve encountered. The opening chapter has the atmosphere of a wuxia, of all things, after which the tone shifts to what I can only describe as a Chinese analog of Georgette Heyer. It’s relatively light (despite a redonkulous number of assassination attempts) with a sheen of satire (not a single assassin has succeeded), and most of all the male MC is outright Heyeresque, one of her Mark II models of the not ostentatiously fashionable subclass. The female MC, otoh, is a trickster figure whose pretenses are starting to get her in over her head, in a Toll Gate / Unknown Ajax sort of way. Her mother, btw, is a female general and total badass.

Not what I expect from a Chinese historical romance. Enjoyable, but unexpected. Am 30 chapters / 20% in.

(“A single assassin succeeded” is my new fave tongue-twister.)

I did not expect that tonal swerve (or indeed either tone). It's not the only swerve, if it comes to that, but it's the biggest so far.

I'm getting at least one laugh out loud moment a chapter.

In addition to everything mentioned, I'm pleasantly surprised at how non-heteronormative it is for a straight historical romance. Plus there's the recurring thread of the female MC's life goal of "raising male pets" i.e. collecting a harem of consorts, which no one in her family seems to have an issue with.