Lady Jing is a Celestial in the making (so to speak) und gets paired up (not entirely by accident 🤫) with a human who is the cinnamonest roll you can ever imagine. And their interactions do not annoy me at all (contrary to Lady Jing). 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. b>Her relationship with Mr. Lee is cute, sweet, and real. They like each other but must learn to understand each other too. I’m not a big fan of romance in fantasy books but this one was well-written, and it fits perfectly in the story.

The shabby brown changpao is an odd choice for a deity, but an immediate tell that he's one of the dragon kings. They are easy enough to tell apart in their true dragon forms because of their colour:Shanghai Immortal is a gritty, glittering tale of gods and monsters in a reimagining of 1930s China. The fearsome half-vampire half-deity Lady Jing swaps anger management lessons for a crash course in the mortal realm and you can't help but root for her and the chaos she leaves in her wake. Full of fury, passion, and beauty, this is a debut that will grip you in its fangs and make you bleed-all the while wanting more." - Saara El-Arifi

This adult fantasy book is full of humor, heart, and true diversity of gender and culture. A.Y. Chao is able to make the Hell version Shanghai sound like a place a mortal might actually want to visit despite the creatures (and roosters) that dwell there. It took me a while to get used to this narration. In first person, we get a very emotional and oftentimes sarcastic commentary by Lady Jing herself. It's fast-paced, easy to read, and the story and characters continue to be interesting and entertaining. We follow Jing through her ups and downs in this spectacular world that Chao has crafted and narrated with this book - from her thrillingly dark Immortal Shanghai, a mirror world based on real counterparts of historical Shanghai, to the actual Mortal Shanghai of the time. I truly enjoyed the influence of the author's culture: how much we learned through her Fantasy story alone, and how we actually felt the influence that the real history had on this fictional version.

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A delightfully wild ride through a fantastical Shanghai filled with rich mythology, endearingly snarky characters, and laugh-aloud mischief. Entertaining from start to finish! I’m in love with Shanghai Immortal and I’ve only recently just found out about the book. I hope people don’t sleep on this. Why did I fall for Shanghai Immortal? There is simply this charm to the writing, characters, and setting. Also, I loved all the Chinese mythology and lore embedded into the plot and locations, but they had twists to them. Pawned by her mother to the King of Hell as a child, Lady Jing is half-vampire, half-hulijing fox-spirit and all sasshole. As the King's ward, she has spent the past ninety years running errands, dodging the taunts of the spiteful hulijing courtiers, and trying to control her explosive temper - with varying levels of success.

First I want to thank NetGalley and Hodderscape for allowing me access to an arc of this title in exchange for my honest review. I won't say any more than that. I galloped through the book, delighting in Jing and her adventures, and her slow, wary approach to growing up and into her powers. Along the way we get a thorough grounding in Chinese myth; what I loved most, I think, was Mr. Lee's reason for coming to Big Wang in the first place. That resonated with so many of the Chinese stories I've been inhaling over these past few years. Likewise, I loved the scattering of Chinese vocabulary through the story, exulting in the fact that I recognized all these words. 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 ❤️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. Source: eARC provided by the publisher (this in no way affects my review which is honest and unbiased) But honestly, I enjoyed, devoured and loved this book. Although I'm ashamed to say I was unable to read it in one sitting because of my schedule being too tight because of college, I do believe I had a chill, nothing-to-do day, I would have definitely sat on my couch and read this thing from start to finish in one sitting!! Little Jing or Lady Jing, is a very feisty character, and I love that about her. Despite this strong facade, it is very evident that she struggles with an identity crisis, predominantly because she is half vampire and half huli jing or fox spirit!! You follow her through a story of action and drama and find out her origins. You read through secrets that slowly unfold and reasons being given for various mysteries of Jing's life and character.