I'm crazy about Elvis wearing the Phoenix suits (Black, Silver and Red). ♥ ♥ ♥ 1975-1976 ♥ ♥ ♥

~ by Kylie Chan ~

Book One: White Tiger

Book Two: Red Phoenix

Book Three: Blue Dragon

These books are very easy reads. Wish fulfillment galore with an ordinary Aussie gal who becomes a live-in nanny/teacher to a sweetie-pie daughter of a hot, rich, mysterious, male, Chinese martial artist who has a supernatural secret.

Great for people who are keen on: Chinese mythology, hot martial arts guys, martial arts, training to become a badass warrior woman, romance, found family. It's very specific but gosh it does tick all my boxes. It balances action, mystery, and romance really well, in my opinion.

Ahhhhhhhh I hope I got this right! Apologies if I didn’t...

Dark Heavens Trilogy: White Tiger, Red Phoenix, Blue Dragon - Kylie Chan

Re-read: Feb 2020

So I really enjoyed this trilogy. There are not a lot of Chinese based fantasy novels in English, so I was really interested in these. Set in Hong Kong, they explore Chinese mythology as set in the modern day. An Australian preschool teacher - Emma, gets caught up in the supernatural life of her employer - John, who it turns out is a Chinese god - Xuan Wu. Like I said the most interesting part of these books was the window into Chinese mythology. I particularly loved how it was melded into the modern day and turned into a fantasy story. It was so fun reading about how the gods and demons all used the mortal plane in different ways. Despite all their powers and non-human true forms, the supernatural characters were surprisingly human. I’m not sure if that is just how it was in Chinese mythology (I mean look at the Greeks), or if it was just a choice by the author so they could be more easily written characters. I also enjoyed the look at Hong Kong the book gives you. It’s obvious that the author had lived in Hong Kong for some time, and that familiarity is well woven into the books. There is a lot happening in Dark Heavens, unanswered questions and mysteries, action on the lines of gods versus demons, and of course romance. The romance between Emma and John, is well not that interesting to me personally (heterosexual romances are not for me), but it is a central pillar of the plot and a lot of what happens, happens because of that romance. One more interesting takes, is the magic system. Magic is accomplished through the use of energy that resides in the body of the user. For most the energy used used is chi, but gods can access more energy sources, including godly or shen energy. It’s a fun take that is fitting with Chinese mythology. There’s obviously a lot more I can say about Dark Heavens, I especially love martial arts stories where someone learns marital arts á la Karate Kid, but I think I’ll leave it here.