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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 Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #2)

Percy meets one of his half-siblings and has to deal with more implications of his immortal parentage. Grover's search goes awry, Clarisse's quest is similarly troubled, and Percy is failing at his efforts to be innocuous.

I enjoy the dynamic between Percy and Tyson. Not where it is at the start of the book (Percy had to work through some things), but I like where it ends up. Grover's captivity is VERY stressful, and as much as I wish he'd gotten his answer, his quest is too big to be solved in book two, so I think that was the right choice.

There's a lot of terror and pain in this one. These are books for kids, but they are pretty deep. A lot of the depth and complexity comes from understanding the implications of various plot points, but there's enough detail that it's clear that it was on purpose. This applies to everything from Percy's mom's dynamic with Gabe in the last book (a very abusive relationship with her as the victim), to the little hints of her moving on that we get in this one. These books aren't about her, but it feels like she's a full person who just isn't the focus, rather than having thin characterization.

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