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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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Timekeeper by Tara Sim (Timekeeper, #1)

I was in an accident. I got out. I’m safe now.

An alternate Victorian world controlled by clock towers, where a damaged clock can fracture time—and a destroyed one can stop it completely.

A prodigy mechanic who can repair not only clockwork but time itself, determined to rescue his father from a Stopped town.

A series of mysterious bombings that could jeopardize all of England.

A boy who would give anything to relive his past, and one who would give anything to live at all.

A romance that will shake the very foundations of time.

TITLE: Timekeeper
AUTHOR: Tara Sim
PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster
YEAR: 2016
LENGTH: 414 pages
AGE: Young Adult
GENRE: Fantasy, Historical
RECOMMENDED: Highly

Queer Rep Summary: Gay/Achillean Main Character(s).

A slowly-growing mystery and a sweetly anguished romance, TIMEKEEPER is perfect for anyone who wants some steampunk with their time-manipulation, the stuff of ancient deities in their veins. 

The characterization and worldbuilding are great, I like the ways it implies that the world is different from ours without the characters saying it outright (because of course they don’t have ours as a point of comparison. The particulars of the MCs position are more explained because the story really needs that, but things like “what would the existence of the clocktowers change about reality” are mainly implied. The blend of these is nice, I liked trying to puzzle out some of the changes but if you don’t want to devote that energy to scrutinizing the background details the story will still make sense. 

The romance is sweet, I especially like the moments when the MC figures out that something is playing out differently than he might expect because of who and what the love interest is. I love a good interstitial between chapters and the ones here were great, building up the shape of the world in ways that complemented the main story. There also were some heisty elements, and a fantastic sequence with time manipulation which was one of my favorite scenes in the whole book. 

CW for panic attacks, sexism, homophobia, blood, violence, explosions, parental death (not depicted), major character death, death.

BTB 2021 Reading Challenge (QAOC)

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A large clock face with scratched and shattered glass.


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