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Of all the books in Laurence Yep's long, generation-spanning, loosely-linked historical fiction series about a Chinese family's relationship with America, I'm pretty sure that The Serpent's Children and Mountain Light are the only two that directly follow the same characters - Cassia, the mom of the protagonist from Dragon's Gate, is the narrator of the first book and the secondary lead in the second, and in both she is AMAZING. I just have to laugh at the cover of Mountain Light, which is all 'man protect Cassia!', because all that ever happens in both books is Cassia kicking everyone's ass. Cassia is pretty much a wuxia heroine, I'm not even kidding.

So The Serpent's Children starts with tiny Cassia and her even tinier brother Foxfire, children of "the Gallant," their village's most awesome warrior who has gone away to fight in the revolution against the Manchus. After their mom dies, the kids quickly run into trouble with their other relatives, who want to take them in and bind Cassia's feet so she can make a good match. Cassia is not down with this - bound feet will not help her fight for the revolution! - so, in a step that moves her straight through 'spunky' and into 'EXTREME,' she locks herself and her baby brother in the house, grabs up a giant butcher knife, and informs all her relatives that she will stab them in the face if anyone comes any closer.

. . . they mostly leave her alone after that.

( More, mostly unspoilery, about The Serpent's Children )

I love Cassia, but to be honest The Serpent's Children feels sort of like half a book, so I wanted to wait and see what happened in Mountain Light, which is . . . A STAR-CROSSED ROMANCE. I was extremely curious, because, as I've said before, I'd never seen Laurence Yep write romance ever and I wanted to know how he'd do it. The answer is, HILARIOUSLY.

( More, mostly unspoilery, about Mountain Light )