This is a retelling of The Prince and the Pauper. A young girl is forced to enter the palace as a concubine in the Emperor harem. This book is filled with descriptive characters in a vivid setting. I like learning about the historical details in the novel! Thus, I recommend this novel for fans of The Duke and I, The Silver Phoenix, and A Forest of a Thousand Lanterns! I can’t wait to read the sequel! I hope it ends happily!

In the early chapters, its easy to see the inspiration of The Prince and the Pauper though it isn't long before the stories diverge in pretty significant ways. This book is really more about our hero accidentally becoming successful in her new life, rather than the original story's message of everyone facing challenges and learning to appreciate your life as it is.

This is a fantastic story of a Chinese girl from a poor family in the shade of the Forbidden City. She is bribed to stand in for a Manchu girl whose wealthy mother doesn't want to send her daughter to the Emperor's consort selection.

I enjoyed every minute of the read, from the dire poverty of a land struck by drought, to the opulent lifestyle of the court. More horses please in the next book! More nature! Interpersonal politicking and a vile assassin leap off the pages, rustling silks and tinkling porcelain. Enjoy.

I read an e-ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.

This was actually a pretty great story! I was skeptical because I heard it had a love triangle, which is always a hit or miss for me. So you can guess that I wasn't on board with it. But I really loved Daiyu's character, and I can't wait to get my hands on book 2 pretty soon! The writing is so lyrical!

"may the the empress live a thousand years!"
I read this in one sitting and i was sucked in, basically after a few pages. Daiyu is easy to like and understand. She has very much character development across the pages... she grows like a lotus flower, but slowly... and finding her place nessesarily, learning and growing as she goes. It is so many characters there, but they are easy to reconize and understand. The Emperor is an character we don`t see much of, neither is is brother Prince Honghui but they are interesting in the few pages that are there. We get to see how much the emperor has to do, how he struggles and what he was to do to manage control and we get to see some of the prince, who loves from afar. I look forward to see what intruiges, politcal things and more happends in the next books.

Daiyu is an ordinary girl who is given a chance to help her family. Daiyu resembles a girl chosen to be one of the emperor’s consorts. Daiyu is led to believe she will go in place of the girl, then be sent home. She is chosen to stay. She must adapt to a life much different than one she ever imagined having. Forbidden love, attempted murder, and a new empress all follow.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book just wasn’t for me! I’m really sorry! It sounded great, but I just couldn’t get into it, no matter how hard I tried!
I do wish you the best with it and I thank for the chance to review it!

I binged this in one night it was so great! I loved the story and the culture. All the court intrigue was so fun to read about and the characters were pretty great. I wonder what happened to the real Linhua after Daiyu replaces her. There's a couple small plot inconsistencies but overall an interesting story! I thought Daiyu's storyline with the Prince was a bit unnecessary though, or rushed. It seemed like it was there for conflict convenience and not character development. They basically experience insta-lust lol. I really want to read the rest of the trilogy to see what happens though!
There are a couple things that threw me off though. On page 76 they say Daiyu is a 5th rank concubine but on page 85 she says she's 6th rank. Also how they tell time is inconsistent because they use "hour of the tiger" but don't really tell you when that is until halfway through the book and then they use times like "8 o'clock" again but will occasionally switch to "hour of the pig" or something like that.

Thank you NetGalley for the eArc in exchange for an honest review.

I requested this on a spur of the moment type thing and I'm really glad I did.

I enjoyed the pace of the book and I enjoyed the characters especially Daiyu and her abundance of empathy for the empire.

I wasn't sure about the love triangle as I'm not a huge fan of them in the first place but the characters involved, I just don't know how it's going to work and not be cringe worthy.

The other issue was I was unsure of how much time had passed during the progress of the book.

That being said I'm looking forward to reading the sequals.

I found this book to be far more enjoyable than I was actually expecting it to be, requested on impulse I am so glad I did. I loved characters and the story is good. I do like a love triangle and I am eager to how it will work out. Overall, the book was very entertaining and easy to read. I am excited to see where the story is going to go in the next book.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

*Received a free ecopy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

Real rating: about a 2.5

Daiyu's family never has enough coin for food, so when a Manchurian noblewoman offers to pay her to be a body double for her daughter and go before the Emperor of China to be selected as his consort, Daiyu takes the money. Unfortunately, Daiyu is an illiterate Han Chinese commoner who must masquerade as a refined Manchurian lady, or else risk the death of her and her entire family.

The premise was interesting enough, but the execution stumbled. Daiyu is very "good," after all: she's compassionate and polite and caring. This means that she ends up being an extremely passive protagonist, victim to other people's whims. I cannot help but compare her to Xifeng from Julie C. Dao's Forest of a Thousand Lanterns because they come from very similar circumstances, but they have entirely different approaches to life. Good fortune falls into Daiyu's lap, as much as she bemoans her circumstances, whereas Xifeng schemes her way to the top. I just feel kind of uninterested as I watch Daiyu gain the emperor's favor because she never wants it. She's entirely aimless in this book and that makes her a bland character. Oh, and she's prone to making stupid decisions, but she's sixteen, so I guess it's fine.

That being said, I did like how detailed the setting was, and how the book went out of its way to elaborate upon the various social issues that the Qing dynasty might have experienced. Daiyu is Han Chinese and part of the overwhelming ethnic majority in China, while the rulers in Peking are of the Manchurian ethnic minority. Daiyu feels resentment at her family's poverty while the Manchurians live lavishly, although she later learns that even Manchurian commoners have it rough. She learns about the complex game that is the imperial harem (although she manages to bypass a lot of obstacles by mere chance) and learns the weight of power.

Still, I dislike the fact that there's a forbidden romance between Daiyu and Honghui. It just feels scummy and makes me nervous. Certainly, it's not fair that one man can monopolize dozens of women for his harem, but their relationship is so stupidly risky that I don't understand why they keep doing it.

Overall, this was an okay book. I'm a little interested in the sequel, but alas, I'll have to see if Daiyu's character shapes up more.

The Empress in Disguise is an interesting read. The story starts out with the main character a poor 15-year-old girl, who gives up her life to save her families. As the story progresses she becomes a concubine to the emperor, and as the reader we see the inner workings of a concubine’s life in this story. How politics are different for the women, and their inner circles. In the end I found the book enjoyable, and finished it rather quickly. The only problem I found was how the flow of time is not mentioned very well, but over all a solid story. One that I think I might continue with its sequel release.

@Thanks NetGalley for giving me the access to read this wonderful story. It was such an emotional journey. I loved every line of this book. I give 4 stars to this wonderful book.

I dnf’d this, because I was only a little ways in and found the pace too slow. I found the characters uninteresting, the plot basically unable to keep my focus, and was really sad after having read the description and enjoying the beautiful cover.

Empress in Disguise (Empress in Disguise Trilogy Book 1) is a powerful and unique read which shows great diversity with it's plot. The characters are all strong and individual, each adding their own layer to the story. As the opening book of a trilogy it's extremely engaging and makes you want to read the rest of the series to see how certain story arcs play out.

I am so excited that this book is part of a trilogy, and yet so crushed that I have to wait for the next instalment.

Empress in Disguise is the story of a poor 15yr old girl from Peaking that helps take care of her family, doing whatever it takes to help them survive, even if that means selling her shoes for money to buy food.
One fateful night she goes looking for other alternatives to make money, knowing that they have no worldly goods available to sell, so she looks to herself. On her walk that evening she is nearly hit by a rickshaw. Scared off her path, she returns home, vowing to try again.

However, the next day the woman from the rickshaw manages to track her down and proposes a solution that would not only ensure her family is taken care of, but that the wealthy woman's family is also protected. Feeling the weight of the impossible situation, the young girl agrees and is whisked off to learn how to present herself to be considered for selection of consort/concubine in the Emperor's harem.

What follows is a tale of pride, familial love & fidelity, and of a search for identity.

Fun, engaging, and unique.

I received this book in order for an honest review, all opinions are voluntary.

I truly enjoyed this book. It was a very quick-paced book, which made it hard to put down and ultimately wish for the next one after I finished it.

Set in ancient China, the young Daiyu makes a big sacrifice in order to provide a better life for her poor family. This choice throws her into a lavish world full of court intrigue and the reader has to learn to navigate it along with Daiyu.

If you are looking for a gripping and new take on the well known love triangle, this book is for you!

Daiyu is a poor girl who often has to go out of her way to provide for her family. After a particularly bad period, her parents and siblings are starved and Daiyu sells her shoes so they could have enough food to eat for a week, but that isn't enough.

With a new baby in the house there's too many mouths to feed and none of the girls are likely to get married with their unbound feet (a practice their mother fortunately couldn't stomach doing to them) so someone has to do something. That someone is Daiyu who decides to sell herself but it doesn't go as planned.

She accidentally runs into a Manchu Lady, Ula Nara Mingxia, who needs help. It seems simple enough, all Daiyu has to do is pretend to be her daughter, Lihua, for a day during which the Emperor is selecting his new concubines, be dismissed and allowed to return home. In exchange her family will be well compensated.

It doesn't take long for Daiyu to agree, as selfless as she is, and she immediately sets out on a journey full of twists, turns and palace intrigues with jealous women looking to one up each other at every corner. The more Daiyu rises in the ranks, the deeper the hole she dug herself into becomes. Will she manage to continue fooling everyone into thinking she's Lihua for the rest of her life?

I'm blown away. Everything was so vivid in this book and the emotions so raw. I ended up crying more often than not. It's a sad story if you think about it. But sad things can be beautiful too.

I love Daiyu, she's so caring, so human and it's a miracle no one's figured it out yet. But I do suppose that not everyone starts out at the same level, Manchu or not, so maybe that's why she gets so many passes.

Her transition from position to position didn't feel forced to me, but rather natural.

The romance developed pretty fast, I guess that's what happens when someone saves you from certain doom.

And the Prince...as soon as he was announced I just knew.

What I'm upset over is just how easy it was for Daiyu's friends, who knew about her struggles (as much as she could share that is), to abandon her when she started ascending. I like her maid but the poor girl deserves someone in a similar situation to talk to every once in a while.

I still liked most of the characters and will continue to do so until we get a villain. There are glimpses of one but I could be wrong.

The descriptions were out of this world and the plot was captivating. Some of the lines reminded me of beloved C-dramas, but there were also spelling mistakes that took me out of the story a few times. This is probably fixed by now.

While I do wish the book was longer (I couldn't get enough) I'm happy the authors manged to accomplish everything in a limited number of pages. I can't wait to read the next instalment.

*Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

First of all, the book suffers poor edit, there are a lot of spelling errors that are so glaring I wonder if it has been done. Secondly, the story premise sounds good, but it fails to deliver. Daiyu, the main character agrees to a deal, knowing that things might not go her way, but for her family's sake, she goes ahead anyway.
At the beginning, she was assigned to the "fifth" rank, then after that she ends up being the sixth, despite the fact that the author wrote "there are five ranks in the harem.".
My other gripes include the fact that Daiyu says that her sponsor had to enter the palace to meet with the empress, yet throughout the book, she's nowhere to be seen. Like... not even during banquets?
Then we have the palace intrigues, and the supposedly love triangle, look I get that Daiyu is supposed to not want or care about these things, but that does not mean you want your readers to not connect with her. The attempts are half- hearted. the results disappointing.
Empress in Disguise could do with another edit, and possibly a rewrite to tighten up the story and quicken the pace. It has promise, but if it cannot deliver, then there is no point.

Before I begin my review for Empress in Disguise (Empress in Disguise book one) by Amanda Roberts and Zoey Gong, I would personally like to thank the author, publishers and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC and I have reviewed it honestly.

An epic, historical YA fantasy tale with tantalising tastes of The Selection, Throne of Glass and Mulan. A chance encounter with her wealthy doppelganger has Daiyu taking her place in the upcoming selection for the Emperors consorts. Empress in Disguise takes you on an exotic and exciting journey through historic China, traditions, gowns and glory, scandals and a forbidden romance. Utterly unforgettable.

Empress in Disguise features, but is not limited to, the following themes:
○ YA historical fantasy
○ YA romance
○ Chinese history
○ Empress/Emperor
○ Concubines and consorts
○ Poverty to royalty
○ Forbidden romance

My overall rating for Empress in Disguise is…

4.5 Stars!

Fans of the Selection are absolutely going to love this book! Empress in Disguise was intriguing from page one and grew into an intoxicating tale. Daiyu is an adorable character you can't help but love and sympathise with. Roberts and Gong have created a fascinating book with fact, fiction and fantasy. I can't wait to continue this series!