The surge of pleasure at his words was dangerous. “He must have recognized your natural ability. Shen Leung is a skilled swordsman – perhaps even skilled enough to beat Mei Lin and her butterfly swords. He’s an outsider, but unlike Shakespeare’s Petruchio, he’s an outsider with honor. Mei Lin has been fighting his bully boys ever since, when along comes a man who has heard the tales about her and is ready to take on her challenge. But here’s where I start to like Jeannie Lin’s version a bit more than Shakespeare’s (gasp!) – it isn’t that she has a younger sister who is favored and considered feminine perfection, rather it’s that she made a rash declaration when propositioned by a local magistrate to join his household as “glorified servant and bedwarmer” wife number 3. Cue the Taming of the Shrew vibes when I finally put it all together with the title and her declaration that she won’t marry a man who can’t best her. It is quickly established that Mei Lin is not valued by her family and is considered to be the meanest woman around. About that time, I also had vague notions of starting a “Jeannie Lin project” that led to discovering The Taming of Mei Lin as an answer to that wish. But part way through the story – really not very far in at all – the mentions of Ai Li’s grandmother had me wishing I could read her story. I first read a Jeannie Lin book a few years ago and I’ve been curious to read her first book published by Harlequin, Butterfly Swords (2010), ever since. Mei Lin could feel the strands of hair slipping from her knot, tickling against her neck.
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