Lisa See is one of my favorite authors of historical fiction and Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is her latest book. Set during the Ming Dynasty it tells the story of Tan Yunxian, a female doctor whose remedies are still used today.

Xunxian and Meiling come from very different backgrounds, one is raised by her grandmother who is a doctor and the other by her mother who is a midwife. Despite their different circumstances, they form a deep friendship that is tested many times throughout their lives.

See fills the book with many details about Chinese medicine. Yunxian took detailed notes of every patient she treated that later became a book of remedies still revered today. But the heart of the story is one of friendship and family, of class and ultimately of women helping other women at all costs.

I felt that See put in too many details about Chinese medicine and it sometimes took away from the heart of the story. Although I found it fascinating, I wasn’t pulled in to this novel or these characters in the way I have been with See’s previous books. A good, but not great read.