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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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Clear Your Shit: Helping the Witch (Final Boss Battle)

We have the Wizard cornered now! Literally. He's backed himself all the way into the far corner of the tower between two colossal shelves. Heather flanks him on the right, waving the feather in his direction. The wizard rolls his eyes and turns cautiously to me. I hate to admit I'm starting to agree with him. I don't think feather Heather has been toting around with her has any sort of power. She is at least keeping him from escaping in that direction, so I focus on him. As I'm trying to decide the best plan of attack without hurting that poor, innocent witch another book falls. I notice it moments before the Wizard, who's forced to separate from the witch to not have it crash down on his silly pointed hat. Heather quickly jumps in and pulls the witch to safety. Perfect! I come at him, swinging my club... and miss him completely. Instead, I clip the corner of the shelf, and an avalanche of books pile on the Wizard. He's knocked out cold. The witch inches back in his direction and nudges him with a booth before giving a satisfied nod.

"Thank you! The Kingdom's guards can take it from here. He has a lot to answer for." She smiles sweetly but begins pushing us in the direction of the door. "Now. I still have a lot of books I need to organize and send." Just before she slams the door on us she grabs the book that helped her escape, looks it over briefly, and thrusts it at me. "This is yours." The door slams shut and I'm pretty sure I heard a lock slide into place. I look down at the book in my hands. Valiant by Holly Black. This is mine? There's a small scrap of paper sticking between the pages with my name on it. It must be another of my orders. When did I get this again? Heather shrugs at me, also at a loss as I slip it into my bag. We stand outside of the tower for a moment, unsure where to go next when Heather points up smiling happily. It takes me a moment to realize what has her so excited. The books. Or the lack of books really. It seems the witch is getting the rain of books under control. I listen for a moment and notice the sporadic thumbs and books from inside the tower has almost disappeared as well. Whaddya know? That was a lot of work for a very simple solution.

We set off in what is hopefully the direction back home.


Narrated by Alu. Follow her on Twitter and check out her website: Tome Reader Reviews.

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