Explore our new BookBrowse Community Forum!

What readers think of Peony in Love, plus links to write your own review.

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reading Guide |  Reviews |  Beyond the book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Peony in Love by Lisa See

Peony in Love

A Novel

by Lisa See
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • First Published:
  • Jun 26, 2007, 272 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Feb 2008, 320 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About This Book

Reviews

Page 1 of 1
There are currently 4 reader reviews for Peony in Love
Order Reviews by:

Write your own review!

sam

peony in love
This is my second time reading this book. If I was able to I would marry it. It is just so amazing the way Lisa See writes. The pain Peony goes through trying to make Ren fall for her and know that she still loves him. Also having to watch Ze burn all her hard work in the first copy of the Peony pavilion she is so strong even in death. Lovesickness may have taken her life but she lives in her project. You could not ask more of her. In the end she got what she wanted and was shedding light on the Wu family house as she should have.
Judy

Fascinating
I highly recommend Peony in Love. I love the way Lisa See can portray a long-ago Chinese culture that is firmly grounded in historical fact but brought to vivid life by a compelling story and such engaging characters. I loved this about Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and was happy to find it in Peony in Love, too. Peony in Love is a fascinating story of a time in China when women wrote and published poetry and other literature in spite of a culture that over most of its history treated women as property with no rights or autonomy.
Beth

Enjoyed
This is another interesting and fun book to read from Lisa See - author of "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan," Like that book, "Peony in Love" goes into the history and culture of China while also presenting characters that are well developed and worth knowing. "Peony" offers a somewhat different perspective on the life of women in dynasty China - I don't want to spoil the novel by giving away too much information. It would be an excellent choice for any reader who has enjoyed her other books or other Chinese historical novels - i.e. those of Pearl Buck, Amy Tan and Maxine Hong Kingston.
Power Reviewer
Elizabeth

Not as good as Snowflower and the Secret Fan...STRANGE
This book was very strange...how the young girl starves herself to death because she doesn't marry the man she loves.

Then all the strange things start to happen after death....it was bizarre how she could see people and go into their lives and make things happen.

It was too sci-fi for me...not sure it really was science fiction, but that is what it seemed to me.

I read the entire book, but not with the same "gusto" as I read Snowflower and the Secret Fan.

The ending with that tablet was strange as well. Great to learn about the culture, though, and the thoughts about what happens after death.
  • Page
  • 1

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Graveyard Shift
    Graveyard Shift
    by M. L. Rio
    Following the success of her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio's latest book is the quasi-...
  • Book Jacket: The Sisters K
    The Sisters K
    by Maureen Sun
    The Kim sisters—Minah, Sarah, and Esther—have just learned their father is dying of ...
  • Book Jacket: Linguaphile
    Linguaphile
    by Julie Sedivy
    From an infant's first attempts to connect with the world around them to the final words shared with...
  • Book Jacket
    The Rest of You
    by Maame Blue
    At the start of Maame Blue's The Rest of You, Whitney Appiah, a Ghanaian Londoner, is ringing in her...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

Beware the man of one book

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F the M

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.