[Book Review] Last Days of the Morning Calm by Tina Jimin Walton

Synopsis (from Goodreads) :

Korea, 1895: Court intrigue and foreign powers threaten the centuries-old hermit kingdom. In a prominent manor, Ji-nah, the young, sheltered ward of the master, and Han, the servant she sees as an older brother, are left in the iron grip of Tutor Lim’s power when Master Yi is called away. When Ji-nah and Han uncover the tutor’s broader conspiracy with the Japanese to overthrow Queen Min, they resolve to save the queen, whose fate seems tied to their master. In the last days of their fallen kingdom, they struggle to rebuild their lives and nation, and find hope in a new world order.

Steeped in the forms and rhythms of Korea at the turn of the century, Last Days of the Morning Calm is a dramatic coming-of-age tale whose tenor captures the spirit of the times.

My rating :

4/5 stars.

My review :

What a compelling read!

Korea isn’t something foreign to almost everyone in the world now. For me, at first, I was attracted to the country because of kpop. Yup, no surprises there. Luckily, I went through that phase and now, I’m attracted to Korea because of its own specialties. One of them will be its history – all countries have their own ‘behind the scenes’ before they actually begin, thus Korea isn’t an exception.

I will begin my review by showering endless praises for the book cover. This historical fiction book has a beautiful book cover! When I first saw it, I became instantly attracted and I knew I had to get it the moment I saw the lady on the cover itself, wearing a hanbok. The synopsis helps in persuading me to read this book as well. So, after all these praises, to what point this book reached to my liking?

For me, the overall story was well written. I loved how the story went from dramatic to even more dramatic, which made the story even more interesting and definitely made me to continue reading this book. The world building, as expected in a historical fiction book, was satisfyingly acceptable. One thing for certain, I loved the family relationships in this book. They were absolutely heart-wrenching yet pure at the same time. This book didn’t contain any romance, and I loved this book for that! I’ve been looking for a book with less romance or ‘romance-free’ in it. If you’re looking for something like that, too, then I’d highly recommend you to get this book.

Furthermore, the flow of the story was a bit fast paced, hence the short amount of pages. Nevertheless, the author still managed to put everything in to make this historical fiction even more captivating. I also loved the conflicts in this story – how Korea was threatened by foreign powers, how the country dealt with them, etc. This is a story where you would feel a sense of melancholy hug you tighter than it should. I appreciated the ideas this author brought up and managed to combine them together into this book. Overall, I simply believe the plot was well crafted, and auspiciously well written.

Let’s move on to the characters. One of the main characters that I dealt with was Ji-nah, and to be brutally honest, I didn’t really like her at first. Fortunately, she had some character developments and she eventually became better. Some other characters in this book were amazing with their very own ways. However, there were some of them who did not get their own lights to shine. I was a bit upset by some characters who didn’t appear positively well, and personally wished they could grow greater with better character growths. Nevertheless, they were all brilliant, and I loved them. The villains in this book were awesomely evil, too, which was definitely well-fitting. To close this topic, I was satisfied with the characters and how they turned out – except some of them who deserved to shine! – and I hope everyone will love them, too!

This author had an appropriately comfortable writing style, and it clearly showed in this book of hers. I didn’t have any difficulties to understand the story, thanks to her writing style. The writing style would be well suited for readers of all ages – the story becomes a lot easier for readers to indulge themselves into its world. This is something that I truly love. Thank you, author.

To wrap this up, this book now has a special place in my heart, as I’ll always remember how it gripped me every second to read it. I wish it could be longer, as I think it’ll be more intriguing and entertaining to have more conflicts and more unique ideas to be poured out. If you’re looking for a good book to let waves of melancholy and many different waves of emotions hit you with utmost indulgence, do take this book as a consideration.

My final rating for this book is 4 out of 5 stars. Highly recommend!