Book Review and #Giveaway: Song of the Silk Road by Mingmei Yip

About the Book:

As a girl growing up in Hong Kong, Lily Lin was captivated by photographs of the desert—its long, lonely vistas and shifting sand dunes. Now living in New York, Lily is struggling to finish her graduate degree when she receives an astonishing offer. An aunt she never knew existed will pay Lily a huge sum to travel across China’s desolate Taklamakan Desert—and carry out a series of tasks along the way.

Intrigued, Lily accepts. Her assignments range from the dangerous to the bizarre. Lily must seduce a monk. She must scrape a piece of clay from the famous Terracotta Warriors, and climb the Mountains of Heaven to gather a rare herb. At Xian, her first stop, Lily meets Alex, a young American with whom she forms a powerful connection. And soon, she faces revelations that will redefine her past, her destiny, and the shocking truth behind her aunt’s motivations.

About the Author:

Mingmei Yip was born in China, received her Ph.D. from the University of Paris, Sorbonne, and held faculty appointments at the Chinese University and Baptist University in Hong Kong. She’s published five books in Chinese, written several columns for seven major Hong Kong newspapers, and has appeared on over forty TV and radio programs in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, and the U.S. She immigrated to the United States in 1992, where she now lives in New York City. 

My Opinion:

I have long been fascinated by China and her culture so this book was immediately interesting to me. I was looking forward to a tale of China's past merged with her future all tied in with a young woman's search for an aunt she did not know existed.

Lilly Lin is seemingly alone in the world. Her parents are dead and she is living in New York and trying to write a novel. Lilly is having an affair with a married man and working as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant when she receives a mysterious letter from a lawyer.  If she agrees to the terms set forth by this unknown aunt she will find herself enriched by three million dollars.

That's a lot of money and Lilly could sure use it but the terms are very unsettling. Does she really want the money THAT badly? More importantly - who is this aunt she know nothing about? Lilly meets with the lawyer and is given a "down payment" on the final payout and sets forth on her journey to the Silk Road in China but what she finds and what she learns is not at all what she was expecting.

What I found and what I learned was not what I was expecting either. I wanted to be enchanted with this book and I wasn't. Lilly just wasn't likable enough for me. She seemed to be very self centered and motivated by all the wrong reasons. She made horrible, horrible decisions regarding men and laid the blame everywhere but where it belonged; at her feet. I really just wanted to slap her.  I often have problems with books when the heroine is so unpleasant - but Gone with the Wind is one of my all time favorite books and Scarlett O'Hara is one of the most unappealing heroines in literary history. So that tells me that character faults can be overcome. In this book that didn't happen for me. The hero was not a character that I cared much for either so that left me with two people who I really just didn't care about - not good when they are the two main characters in the story.

It did have one whopper of an ending though, one I did not see coming. There is something to be said for that. The descriptions of place are very evocative and I know would love to see the deserts of China.

Song of the Silk Road is available on Amazon.com

One lucky reader is going to win a copy of Song of the Silk Road!

How do you win? It's easy!

But first some rules:

US only

No PO Boxes

One copy per household

18 yrs old+

MANDATORY ENTRY:

Let me know if you have read any other books by Ms. Yip. Please leave your email address so I can contact you if you win.

EXTRA ENTRIES:

1. Sign up for the Book Trib Blog 

2. Follow BookTrib on Facebook

3. Follow @BookTrib on Twitter

4. Follow @BrokenTeepee on Twitter and tweet the following (once per day)

#win Song of the Silk Road by Mingmei Yip from @BrokenTeepee @http://tinyurl.com/3vmdwzr #giveaway

5. Share the giveaway using the share buttons at the end of the post (except StumbleUpon)

6. Like Broken Teepee on Facebook

SEE THE EXTRA ENTRIES PAGE FOR ADDITIONAL WAYS TO ENTER.

All entries need to be in by 9PM MDT on April 28th when I will go to Random.org to choose the winner. He/she will have 48hrs. to respond or I will choose a new winner.

Good luck everyone.

Disclosure:  I received a gratis copy of Song of the Silk Road. Any opinions stated are my honest opinions and were not impacted by my receipt of the free book. I received no monetary compensation for this post.