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The Empress of All Seasons by Emiko Jean

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 yokai, 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 yokai 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-yokai 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...
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The Skinjacker Trilogy: Everlost, Everwild, Everfound

I love books and series which establish rules early and then twist what you expect those rules to mean, without actually breaking any of them along the way. The Skinjacker Trilogy by Neal Shusterman is one such series. The trilogy takes advantage of unreliable narrators to create a world where dueling understandings and agendas weave together until each character knows exactly what they ought to in order for the story to progress. But, while a lesser story might let the reader sit smugly, knowing all, Everlost builds the rules Mary Hightower wants you to know, Everwild shows you what Allie the Outcast has managed to find out, and Everfound calmly takes your hand and says that it is more strange and wonderful than any of them could know. When I first read Everlost, when it was just a single book and there was no hint of a trilogy, it was a strange and beautiful book which moved me deeply. I wanted more, but wasn’t expecting it. Discovering over a decade later that there were more books coming, I was not disappointed. I’d be hard-pressed to declare this my favorite book/series by but that is only because his other works are deeply and differently moving, and I will be reading them, new and old, as I have the time in between life and our recording schedule.

CW for child death.

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