The release date for the English version of 'Empress Orchid' by
Anchee Min is Apr 2005. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
Orchid, seventeen, runs to be one of the Emperor's brides in order to save her family from poverty and to escape being married to her cousin with the sloping shoulders. Upon being selected as a subordinate concubine, she gains entry inside the highly sensual and ceremonialized Forbidden City. However, underneath its flawless exterior are rumors of murders and ghosts, and hundreds of concubines will do whatever it takes to conceive the Emperor's child.
Orchid becomes skilled at making men feel good about themselves, bribes her way into the king's bed, and entices the ruler while attracting the notice of hostile adversaries. She had no idea that she would be the last Empress of China when everything collapses around her.