Week 38 Review: Empress of All Seasons

From Goodreads:

In a palace of illusions, nothing is what it seems.

Each generation, a competition is held to find the next empress of Honoku. The rules are simple. Survive the palace's enchanted seasonal rooms. Conquer Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Marry the prince. All are eligible to compete—all except yōkai, supernatural monsters and spirits whom the human emperor is determined to enslave and destroy.

Mari has spent a lifetime training to become empress. Winning should be easy. And it would be, if she weren't hiding a dangerous secret. Mari is a yōkai with the ability to transform into a terrifying monster. If discovered, her life will be forfeit. As she struggles to keep her true identity hidden, Mari's fate collides with that of Taro, the prince who has no desire to inherit the imperial throne, and Akira, a half-human, half-yōkai outcast.

Torn between duty and love, loyalty and betrayal, vengeance and forgiveness, the choices of Mari, Taro, and Akira will decide the fate of Honoku in this beautifully written, edge-of-your-seat YA fantasy.

My Review:
This book was so good, and very much not what I expected! Like, the trials to become the Empress of All Seasons, when that ended, there was still a good third of the book left, I'm pretty sure, and I had no idea where it was going to go next! 

This world of the yōkai, and a government that wants to enslave them, and to have a Animal Wife in disguise to compete to become the empress, yeah, that was such an intriguing concept! And with Mari, Taro and Akira, there were a bunch of complicated relationships and emotions, with each other and those around them! 

One thing that gets me is the timeline. I was listening to it on audio, so I might have missed something, but how long of time does it take to do the trials? Because I have no idea. But it felt really quick-and made Mari and Taro's romance feel rushed. And make his actions at the end, which already felt like a totally 180 of his character, to not feel like what he would actually do. 

That ending though? That was brutal. I love happily ever afters, so that ending hurt, but it worked really well. I just wish there hadn't been that much of a cost. She and her mom had only just reconciled, so that hurt! 

Loved reading this book, and I can't wait to read more by Emiko Jean! 

Author: Emiko Jean 
Read: September 18th, 2023
Source: Library 
Reason Why: Love her writing and it sounded really great, and it's a SAC 2023 Book! 
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Published: November 6th 2018

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars