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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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Wicked Saints by Emily Duncan (Something Dark and Holy, #1)

A girl who can speak to gods must save her people without destroying herself.

A prince in danger must decide who to trust.

A boy with a monstrous secret waits in the wings.

Together, they must assassinate the king and stop the war.

In a centuries-long war where beauty and brutality meet, their three paths entwine in a shadowy world of spilled blood and mysterious saints, where a forbidden romance threatens to tip the scales between dark and light. Wicked Saints is the thrilling start to Emily A. Duncan’s devastatingly Gothic Something Dark and Holy trilogy..

TITLE: Wicked Saints
AUTHOR: Emily Duncan
PUBLISHER: Wednesday Books
YEAR: 2019
LENGTH: 385 pages
AGE: Young Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
RECOMMENDED: No* (I loved this book but did not finish the sequel and do not plan to read the third book at this time. After reading this originally I found out that the premise of the series relies on a bunch of antisemitic tropes. Due to this and the fact that the second book was confusing and I did not enjoy it at all, I do not recommend this book/series. I’ve left my original review intact below.)

Queer Rep Summary: Lesbian/Sapphic Secondary Character(s).

If you like magic, blood, forbidden glances over a multitude of wounds (literal and otherwise), beleaguered princes, and a darkly brooding danger boy chased by a conflicted magic girl, read WICKED SAINTS. 

This is one of those books where I loved how it felt to read it, but when I try to list what occurred the intricacies escape me and it feels like only a couple of things actually happened. I think the prince is my favorite character, mostly because his goals make more sense to me personally, but both MC's are cool in different ways. I was a little concerned that the "lovers" part of "enemies to lovers" was happening a bit quickly, but then the book reminded me that it's a trilogy and things have time to get complicated, in this case by means of a dizzying but oddly inevitable ending. 

CW for alcoholism, religious bigotry, kidnapping, confinement, blood, self harm, domestic abuse, violence, gore, torture, murder, child death, death.

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A city of towers and spires overlooking a dark forest.


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