Review: True Love Isn't About Getting; It's About Giving
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 25, 2012
I've enjoyed reviewing most of Ms. Lin's Tang Dynasty novels and short stories:The Taming of Mei Lin,Butterfly Swords,The Dragon and the Pearl,The Lady's Scandalous Night,My Fair Concubine, andAn Illicit Temptation.  However these are part of a couple of extended series involving the same basic events and cast of characters; how would Ms. Lin fare in writing a standalone short story about two characters we've never met before and would never meet again?  (I haven't yet reviewed her contemporary standalone short storyPieces of Paper: A short story set in Tokyoeither.)As it turned out, I needn't have worried.  In just 56 pages and 6 short chapters Ms. Lin spins an entrancing (and fully complete tale) about a couple of do-not-belongs (a dirt poor farm boy prodigy here to retake the triennial national exams along with China's finest young scholars having failed his first time out and a musician in the pleasure district desperate to pay off her crippling debts and thereby gain her freedom) thrown together by the circumstance of a stolen rare book long enough to recognize kindred spirits in each other before the very same circumstance tears them apart.How do you evaluate the truth of love?  By the sacrifices one willingly makes for it.Exquisite.  It's just a darn shame I don't read books like this as far as you know.Note: Ms. Lin claims herein that her portrayal of drunken, pleasure-seeking scholars contrasted with the behavior of our studious hero was partially inspired by her own college experiences,...which leaves one to wonder if Ms. Lin was the kind of student who fell asleep with her head in a book, or....Note: For full disclosure I received this ebook from the author in return for agreeing to review it.