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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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Azura Ghost by Essa Hansen (The Graven #2)

​Caiden has been on the run for ten years with his unique starship in order to keep his adversary, Threi, imprisoned. But when an old friend he'd once thought dead reappears, he is lured into a game of cat and mouse with the one person whose powers rival Threi's: Threi's sister Abriss. Now with both siblings on the hunt for Caiden and his ship, Caiden must rescue his long-lost friend from their clutches and uncover the source of both his ship's power and his own origins in order to stop Abriss's plan to collapse the multiverse.

But his old friend has changed far more than Caiden could have ever imagined, and if he wants to save her, he's going to have to call on his old crew to help him get her back. But what if she doesn't want to be saved?

TITLE: Azura Ghost
AUTHOR: Essa Hansen
PUBLISHER: Orbit
YEAR: 2022
LENGTH: 528 pages
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Science Fiction
RECOMMENDED: N/A

Queer Rep Summary: Trans Secondary Character(s), Ace/Aro Main Character(s).

*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.

DNF 38% in.

I tried to get into this, but it just didn’t happen. I liked the first one, but something about this just didn’t work for me.

A big part of the issue is that I can’t form mental images of things I haven’t seen, and as the locations and action became more strange and more focused on technically-not-magic space power battles and pocket universe stuff it creates long stretches when the only thing I could focus on is Caiden’s thoughts about things. You may recall from the last book’s review that I don’t really like Caiden, and I didn’t like him any better here.

Partial CWs for grief, alcohol, blood (graphic), violence (graphic), gun violence, medical content, medical trauma, suicidal thoughts, suicide (backstory), death.

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A large silvery ship with glowing engines flies directly towards the viewer


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