The Poet Empress by Shen Tao

booksandspreadshee
Dec 29, 2025
4 min read

Title: The Poet Empress

Author: Shen Tao

Publication Date: January 6th, 2026

🦋Court/Political Intrigue

🦋Magic

🦋Forbidden Knowledge

🦋Political Fantasy

🦋Story of Survival

Content Warnings:

Domestic Violence!!
Sexual Violence
Sexual Abuse of Minors
Murder
Physical Violence
Torture
Toxic Relationships
Alcoholism

QBS Rating

Book Description:

" Debut author Shen Tao introduces readers to the lush, deadly world of The Poet Empress, a sweeping, epic and intimate fantasy perfect for fans of The Serpent & the Wings of Night, The Song of Achilles and She Who Became the Sun.

In the waning years of the Azalea Dynasty, the emperor is dying, the land consumed by famine, and poetry magic lost to all except the powerful.

Wei Yin is desperate. After the fifth death of a sibling, with her family and village on the brink of starvation, she will do anything to save those she loves.

Even offer herself as concubine to the cruel heir of the beautiful and brutal Azalea House.

But in a twist of fate, the palace stands on the knife-edge of civil war with Wei trapped in its center…at the side of a violent prince.

To survive, Wei must harden her heart, rely on her wit, and become dangerous herself. Even if it means becoming a poet in a world where women are forbidden to read—and composing the most powerful spell of all. A ballad of death...and love.

The Poet Empress is an epic fantasy that explores darker themes, subjects, and scenes that may not be suitable for all readers. Please see the author's content note at the beginning of the book."

QBS Review:

The Poet Empress is a riveting debut that explores the cyclical nature of abuse and cautions that when the most powerful among us are stuck in this cycle, it is the least powerful who suffer the most.

What I Liked:

💫I absolutely flew through this book. It is definitely a page-turner that was hard to put down. I was easily invested in the story and wanted to know what would happen next.

💫Wei is an absolutely wonderful main character. She comes to court in the hopes of saving her family from famine and poverty. She is incredibly brave, selfless, and intelligent. Throughout the story, we see her embrace compassion over and over again at the detriment to her own safety. But what makes her such a compelling character to follow was her wit and ability to think outside the box in order to achieve her goals. Wei is very strong and I love a woman who saves herself!

💫The magic system was very intriguing and Tao does a wonderful job of painting a picture of poetry magic coming to life

What I Didn't Like:

💫The abuse. While it is always difficult to read a story about domestic violence, this book had A LOT of it. But more than the amount of time we spend hearing about Wei experiencing abuse, it is her reaction (or lack of reaction) to it that didn't sit well with me. Wei's story begins with her having already experienced great hardship, but once in the court she now faces regular sessions with the prince in which he physically abuses her to great extremes. This abuse goes on for more than a year. And yet, we get very little understanding of how this effects Wei as a person. In fact, she changes very little from the start of the story to the end of the story. She speaks about her abuse in a very matter-of-fact way, but does not show the reader any emotion and we don't see how this actually effects her. It is unreasonable to think that nightly abuse would not have a great and deep impact on one's soul.

💫The explanation for the prince's cruelty. Throughout the story, Wei is searching for the answer to what made Terren the way that he is. The answer you get serves as a lesson on cyclical abuse, but it falls short in explaining away his behavior. I don't at all think Tao's intention was for this answer to justify his actions, but I do think the answer was not enough to make me understand the levels of his cruelty. Moreover, it is hard to buy into Terren's story having such a deep emotional impact on him that it turned him into a monster, while we are simultaneously experiencing Wei's abuse and it is not really changing her at all. The message gets lost with these two conflicting realities.

This is the book for you if....

🦋You are a fan of political/court intrigue with magic

🦋You like stories of survival where the FMC saves herself

🦋You enjoy a FMC who can out-smart the powerful men around her

Audiobook Thoughts!

I listened to this novel and the narration from Katharine Chin and Eric Yang was fantastic. Chin does a wonderful job of bringing Wei's story to life and I thoroughly enjoyed her narration. I will be excited to see Chin narrating any future books I listen to. I also really enjoy an audio with additional narrators for other characters' POVs and Yang was excellent with the flashback sequences. If you are considering whether to listen, I do recommend this story as an audiobook!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ALC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.