Shanghai Immortal: A richly told romantic fantasy novel set in Jazz Age Shanghai

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I opened this book because the main character is a half vampire half-hulijing fox-spirit expecting wild shenanigans and I ended up staying because it was actually a very heartwarming story. Not that Lady Jing doesn't deliver, she's all the sass promised by the blurb, but this book is so much more!! Determined to get revenge on the hulijing immortals who constantly belittle her, Jing tries to foil their plan to steal a dragon pearl from her guardian, the King of Hell. Alongside this, she is charged with protecting a mortal man. However, she soon finds herself distracted by the handsome Tony Lee as they travel across immortal then mortal Shanghai. Jing's inability to believe herself worthy of love and friendship is explored throughout the book and some of the revelations about her childhood abuse and trauma are devastating. I love that she's shown gradually realising her self-worth thanks to Tony Lee's outsider perspective. Where this book lost points for me was the constant bathroom humour and spitting. I don't think I came across the word "piss-fart" ever in a book, and the amount of times it's used gets annoying. There are other ways to make a character crude without being gross. I'm hoping with Lady Jing's development in the book, that hopefully this will die down in the next two in the series.

Anyways: I enjoyed the supporting characters, the mythology, the slow burn, and Lady Jing's development. I didn't have any issue with the way the expositionary details were interweaved with the story and I was satisfied with the climax. I was left scrounging for more romantic crumbs at the end but it *was* tied up so it's all good. The characters in the novels are all amazing. I love all the characters besides Lady Soo and Lady Jing’s grandmother. This novel not only features immortal characters but also a mortal man named Tony Lee. I love the relationship between Lady Jing and Mr. Lee. Although they both are from a different world, so there will be some clashes and misunderstandings between them. But I can assure you things will turn out well for them.Shanghai Immortal is the adult fantasy debut of A.Y. Chao. A great story about Chinese folklore where deities and demons coexist in a 1930s Shanghai full of jazz, humans, and candies. The first part of this trilogy is a love letter to Chinese culture. A fun and magical ride that will make you laugh out loud and fall in love with the characters. The author obviously enjoys the concept of mortal and immortal Shanghai existing side by side and even throws in Hell as another plane of existence. And so the story unravels throughout all of these realms, and you'd do good t Lady Jing is half-vampire and half-hulijing (a fox spirit), sold by her mother to Big Wang, the King of Hell. For ninety years, Jing is raised as the King's ward in Hell, living amongst the hulijing courtiers, who regularly torment her. Now, Jing runs errands for Big Wang.

Shanghai Immortal starts off with our main character, Lady Jing explaining what’s she’s doing waiting for a delivery at 3am in the morning. The story is told in first person so we find out straight away just how much of a sasshole she can be, but she does this mostly by describing who she is and how she came to live with the King of Hell, ‘Big Wang’ as she calls him. For the romance, I was fully invested in Mr. Lee and Lady Jing’s development. The entire time I was just rooting for them to be together even though one of them is a human living in yang Shanghai while the other is a fox spirit/vampire living in yin Shanghai. BUT WHO CARES. They need to be together. Also, the interactions between Gigi and Ah Lang were overtly romantic which made it funny in some scenes, especially when they had the drinking competition. I read an eARC of this book so thank you to Net Galley, the author and the publisher for allowing this. This richly told adult fantasy debut teems with Chinese deities and demons cavorting in jazz age Shanghai. The ancient Chinese myths and legends are integrated beautifully into the story and the little drops of historical and social history, made this book that much better and immersive.

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Wow... I am honestly speechless as to how amazed I was throughout the book!! Despite being a five-star read for me, because I honestly resonated with Little Jing the entire book, I understand that some people might not resonate with her, which might impact another person's reading experience of this book. This book was not what I thought it was going to be in a delightfully unexpected way. It is full of humor and mischief. I love how vulgar, unapologetic and stubborn Jing is. She is one of the most well built, interesting and real characters I've read. And she made me laugh so much, it also made my heart hurt with all she had lived and I felt the sentiments were very relatable, and connecting with her and loving her is so easy ❤️