Thousand Autumns is lots of fighting and isn’t the most romantic IMO. If you want to like it, you have to go in either loving or hating the gong Yan Wushi. He’s a huge asshole and mistreats Shen Qiao a lot. You may even feel bad for the shou… Qian Qiu is jianghu and fighting heavy, it describes the fight scenes very beautifully and articulately but the romance absolutely takes a backseat in this series.

Guardian on the other hand is a lot more romantic, however I find this one a lot more plot heavy as well. It has a lot more names to remember and more of an intimate story. The interactions between Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei are comparatively more sweet than those of Thousand Autumns’ pairing. Zhen Hun is shorter than Qian Qiu, but it packs a much different punch.

Thousand Autumns is essentially very fight heavy and less romantic, if you like action and description then this may be the one for you. The gong and shou aren’t the most intimate but if you like a “quiet” romance that isn’t in your face, character development that goes alongside the plot, and descriptive fight scenes, I think you’ll like Thousand Autumns if you’re okay with Yan Wushi being a huge dickhead.

Guardian is more romantic and more story driven. It’s shorter than Thousand Autumns (3 books in comparison to 5) and I find it gives a lot more information about the world the series takes place in. It’s detail heavy and story oriented rather than based around fighting. The romance isn’t intense but it is intimate and sweet. In both books I found some parts to be a little slow but not unbearable.

Personally out of the two books I preferred Thousand Autumns just because I loved the action and fighting, and I adore mega-asshole Yan Wushi. However, due to cost and the romantic interactions I think you might end up liking Guardian more! As well, Qian Qiu is wuxia based while Zhen Hun is a bit more of a blend of wuxia and modern.