Song Ling Xin is a young woman whose sheltered life is aimed at befitting her to be chosen as Empress of China. Any romantic thoughts must be kept for the Emperor in the Forbidden City. But a mischievous fox spirit is about to intervene. The VIXEN perhaps admires Ling Xin, who secretly walks on the walls around her garden.
One day the girl notices Zhi Hao, a keen young scholar, arriving to seek the tutor Master Gao next door. At night the fox spirit pushes them together to converse. Zhi Hao has heard the two girls, Ling Xin and her cousin Li Fei, talking and singing, but good manners mean he doesn’t intrude; he just works through his Shao-lin exercises in the garden. Now a beautiful silk-clad girl falls into his arms. This series called Forbidden Pleasures demonstrates how hard it is to ignore the call of love.
This lively historical romance looks at the contrasting roles of the emperor’s staff, from outside the walls of the Forbidden City. I’ve read a book about a girl who gets taken in to live at the palace; this isn’t that story. Jade Lee might be reminding us that although we recently had to endure a couple of years of lockdown, some women had to live that way their entire lives. If a young woman is rejected by the Emperor, her family may consider her disgraced. If young men like Zhi Hao can’t pass the three-day imperial exam, their prospects are basic, but success means a job in the bureaucracy. The Imperial City of Peking was a prison and a means of betterment for nineteenth-century Chinese people, even those like Ling Xin whose father was a bo jue or earl. Status was precarious and depended on family favour.
With sexy talk and activity, though strictly forbidden, the young people meet night after night. We know they are bound to get caught. I was also interested in Li Fei, and the few options open to her if she was not destined for the emperor’s service. The novella-length story includes some of the training young women gained to be strong and useful wives, folklore and culture. I will look forward to more in the series. VIXEN kept me engaged and hoping for a good outcome.
Zhi Hao has one goal: to pass the imperial exam, and eventually become a magistrate.
That will get him the salary to support his parents and sisters. Eventually, he wants a wife and children, but not now. So, he is completely unprepared when a mystical fox spirit, in the shape of a beautiful woman, comes to seduce him. One night’s weakness might end his bright future, and yet he is unable to resist.
Ling Xin is no vixen. She’s a woman competing to become Empress of China. She knows everything a young woman is supposed to learn, but then, so have all the other women in the running. What she doesn’t know is how to seduce a man. And she’s heard that the emperor isn’t impressed with purity. What she needs is a crash course in temptation, and the only possible tutor is the sexy scholar next door.
It’s a dangerous game they’re playing, one they can’t win. If they’re caught, they’ll both die. If they’re not…she’ll still be in the Forbidden City, lost to him.
But passion has its own demands…and love, its wondrous possibilities…
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