The Empress of Salt and Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle #1) by Nghi Vo [Narrated by Cindy Kay]

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A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully.

Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for.

At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece.
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First line:
"Something wants to eat you," called Almost Brilliant from her perch in a nearby tree, "and I shall not be sorry if it does."
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Source:
Audio from Libby
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Publisher:
Tantor Audio
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Rating:
4.5 Inventories out of 5
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I loved coming back to the first book after reading most of the others in the series. Cindy Kay is the perfect fit for this series as a narrator. Rabbit's story is heartbreaking and wonderful at the same time. It is definitely easier to read between the lines of Rabbit's tale the second time around but I still loved the story as much as the first.

I really love how this series is cohesive in that it follows Cleric Chih, but each book has a different way of telling stories. Some novellas are about Cleric Chih learning one tale, others they learn many small tales, and others still Cleric Chih's adventure is the story that will be passed on to the Monastery.



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