Hi friends, happy Wednesday! Today I will be posting my last review of 2022! Today I will be reviewing F.C Yee’s novel, The Iron Will of Genie Lo.

You can read my review of book one: The Epic Crush of Genie Lo

The Iron Will of Genie Lo by: F.C. Yee: Now that Genie is the Guardian of California, as appointed by heaven, she must ensure all the humans are safe from all yaoguai and spirits on Earth. All she wants is a weekend off, but when a cosmic force of destruction comes threatening she must keep guard. Her boyfriend, Quentin, and goddess, Guanyin, try to help but it should be the Jade Emperor who takes care of problems this big, only he’s left. Tired of his unreliability, Genie wants to change the way things are done, but that’s easier said than done and full of sacrifices she will have to make. This was the sequel to Genie’s story and the reader did like this one better than the first; they just wished they had liked it more. There were so many aspects to like, but they just fell flat for this reader. The plot was action packed and was always moving. The Chinese folklore again was phenomenal and the reader really loved reading it and learning about the different gods. What the reader just couldn’t stand were the relationships between some of the characters. In this novel, Genie and Quentin are dating and there just didn’t feel like there was any chemistry between the two of them. They always seemed to be fighting about one thing or another and it was not fun to read. The one thing about their relationship the reader thought was really important was how they worked with each other to figure out what worked for them in terms of being together. Genie tells Quentin she doesn’t want to merge with him and spend every second with him, that they’re still whole people while not in the same room with each other and that felt like such a positive thing to enforce; your romantic relationship shouldn’t be your whole life. The relationship Genie had with her parents was also off-putting because it felt like she was also always fighting with her mother. By the end, it was good to see the two of them reconcile. The relationship that the reader did like was between Genie and Guanyin that was really well done and beautiful. Genie did a lot of growing, literally, in this novel but she also figured out a lot about herself and that was heartwarming to read. In the end, this was still a really well written duology, with a great story and beautiful folklore.