The Scarlet Alchemist

Kylie Lee Baker

Oct 2023 · Sold by Harlequin

About this ebook

"A dark and glittering jewel of a book." —Judy I. Lin, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of A Magic Steeped in Poison

"Visceral to the core." —Chloe Gong, New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights

New from the author of The Keeper of Night comes a YA fantasy duology set in an alternate Tang Dynasty China, where a poor biracial girl with the ability to raise the dead gets caught up in the dangerous political games of the royal family.

Zilan dreams of becoming a royal alchemist, of providing for her family by making alchemical gold and gems for the wealthy to eat in order to stay young forever. But for now, she’s trapped in her impoverished village in southern China, practicing an illegal form of alchemy to keep food on the table—resurrecting the dead, for a price.

When Zilan finally has the chance to complete her imperial exams, she ventures to the capital to compete against the best alchemists in the country in tasks she’ll be lucky to survive, let alone pass. On top of that, her reputation for raising the dead has followed her to the capital, and the Crown Prince himself seeks out her help, suspecting a coming assassination attempt.

The more Zilan succeeds in her alchemy, the more she gets caught in the dangerous political games of the royal family. There are monsters lurking within the palace walls, and it’s only a matter of time before they—and secrets of Zilan’s past—catch up with her.

Don’t miss the Keeper of Night duology!
The Keeper of Night
The Empress of Time

Ratings and reviews

↠ Content warnings: death, written depictions of dead bodies, child death, resurrection, murder, gore, cussing. ↠ Pages: 424 ↠ My Rating: ★★★★☆ Thank you so much to Bookishfirst, and Inkyard Press for my physical arc copy. I am voluntarily leaving this review. This book immediately interested me upon seeing the description on BookishFirst. I have never read Kylie Lee Baker before, nor asian fantasy (even though The Keeper of Night has been on my TBR for like 4 years now oops). But s

Both the cover and the premise made me want to read this book. The first person point of view immediately connected me to Fan Zilan and I loved her intelligence, sarcastic wit, and loyalty to family. The world building is lush and felt three dimensional and Zilan's talent as an alchemist was completely believable for me. I enjoyed her desire to achieve greatness and rise above the poverty status in which her family lived. I rooted for Zilan as she and her siblings traveled to the capitol

Welcome to the dark world of alchemy, where the dead can rise again (albeit sometimes a bit gooey inside) and those with means can live forever like the Empress has been, eating the life gold created by the alchemists in her employ. Zilan longs to be one of those royal alchemists and escape the bonds of poverty along with her brother and sister (AKA cousins). I really enjoyed that trio and the way they stuck together which made the ending pretty awesome how it was solved. I need the next one now

About the author

Kylie Lee Baker is the author of The Keeper of Night. She grew up in Boston and has since lived in Atlanta, Salamanca, and Seoul. Her writing is informed by her heritage (Japanese, Chinese, and Irish), as well as her experiences living abroad as both a student and teacher. She has a BA in creative writing and Spanish from Emory University and a master of library and information science degree from Simmons University.