This chapter has an incredible scene involving Xiao Yao, Xiang Liu, and Jing. We need more scenes like this. I felt like Once Promised was always about the big picture in both novel construct and story perspective. The battles between the three Godly kingdoms, the grand and epic love between Xiao Yao’s parents, all the various princes and princesses struggling between … Continue reading →
A major breakthrough happens in chapter 28 of Lost You Forever and it’s not on the romance front. Zhuan Xu’s quest for the Xuan Yuan throne reaches a pretty startling decisive point and how it goes down is completely unexpected for everyone involved other than the still wily as a fox Yellow Emperor. One wonders if the formerly ambitious and … Continue reading →
What makes Lost You Forever that much more impressive is that Tong Hua does serious mythology building and tells a story beyond romance and love triangles and who loves whom. That stuff is great but I’m just as keen on the world of the various God kingdoms and the conflicts between gods and demons and the general immersion into a … Continue reading →
This chapter of Lost You Forever is beautiful and bittersweet for all three male leads. Each had a chance with Xiao Yao at some point in their interactions with her and either blew it (Jing), never did anything (Xiang Liu), or can’t do anything (Zhuan Xu). Chapter 26 sticks them all together with her at a wedding and boy is … Continue reading →
This is the chapter in Lost You Forever where the shit hits the fan for Xiao Yao and Jing. It’s high time these two faced the enormity of the pressures against them getting together rather than stubbornly cling to the hope that Jing can just somehow make it happen. I think Jing’s intelligence is no less than Zhuan Xu or … Continue reading →
When the Gods live so long in Lost You Forever, months is really days and years really months and hundreds of years merely a year the way we experience it. Hence waiting has less duration and more a feeling of holding onto a hope. Jing’s fifteen year promise with Xiao Yao is long over since she’s slept thirty-seven years in a … Continue reading →
I think it ironic that in Lost You Forever Xiao Yao has three amazing leading man in her life but really none of the three comes equipped with everything she wants in her life. At most we can say one has more than the others, or really it comes down to what she prioritizes first. Xiao Yao keeps saying that … Continue reading →
In all of Tong Hua‘s historical novels, she chooses to write about characters who often have epic identities, but in doing so each is bound by responsibilities and ties that cannot be easily forsaken. What makes Lost You Forever interesting is that we get to sneak a peek at how these awesome characters like Xiao Yao, Jing, Xiang Liu, and … Continue reading →
A fair word of warning – this chapter of Lost You Forever is intense. Jawdropping calamity of the first order arriving with almost nonstop action a few paragraphs in and doesn’t let go type of intense. Next chapter is easily one of my personal favorite chapters in the entire novel, but before we get there we need to experience what … Continue reading →
This chapter of Lost You Forever is delicious because it’s lifted straight from a romance novel’s heart thumping goodness, i.e. there’s making out straight ahead. It’s also a Jing-centric chapter and one that is much needed ever since Xiang Liu debuted his Fang Feng Bei alter ego and waltzed into Xiao Yao’s life and sorta parked himself in her heart in a … Continue reading →
When I read Tong Hua‘s other novels, it was easy to have favorite chapters and even favorite volumes, but that didn’t happen with Lost You Forever. There is always something to savor in each chapter, each with a crescendo and a comfortable lull that is pivotal to building the narrative. That probably also comes with loving all the leads so … Continue reading →
This chapter starts the second volume of the novel Lost You Forever. This volume has the English title Love You Forever and really does spend a lot of time on that pesky feeling called love. I think it’s safe now to reveal my personal preferences in this novel, I kept it close to the vest so I don’t influence readers … Continue reading →
This chapter 17 of Lost You Forever marks the end of Volume 1 of the novel. Volume 1 was simply titled Lost You Forever, but Volume 2 is further titled Telling of a Sorrowful Love, while Volume 3 has the additional title of Longing Without a Horizon. That gives a glimpse of what is to come, but before we get … Continue reading →