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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...

Misrule by Heather Walter (Malice Duology #2)

The Dark Grace is dead.

Feared and despised for the sinister power in her veins, Alyce wreaks her revenge on the kingdom that made her an outcast. Once a realm of decadence and beauty, Briar is now wholly Alyce’s wicked domain. And no one will escape the consequences of her wrath. Not even the one person who holds her heart.

Princess Aurora saw through Alyce’s thorny facade, earning a love that promised the dawn of a new age. But it is a love that came with a heavy price: Aurora now sleeps under a curse that even Alyce’s vast power cannot seem to break. And the dream of the world they would have built together is nothing but ash.

Alyce vows to do anything to wake the woman she loves, even if it means turning into the monster Briar believes her to be. But could Aurora love the villain Alyce has become?

Or is true love only for fairy tales?

TITLE: Misrule
AUTHOR: Heather Walter with Ann Marie Gideon (Narrator)
PUBLISHER: Random House Audio
YEAR: 2022
LENGTH: 480 pages (12 hours 40 minutes)
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy, Romance
RECOMMENDED: N/A

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

DNF 5 hours 22 minutes in (40%).

The first one wasn't really my thing, and I think I don't like "will they get back together" plots where their original romance was brief and one person truly became awful in the meantime. I didn't finish THE HOLLOW HEART by Marie Rutkoski (book two of the Forgotten Gods duology) for basically the exact same reason.

Graphic/Explicit CW for self harm, death.

Moderate CW for grief, emotional abuse, physical abuse, kidnapping, confinement, alcohol, fire/fire injury, vomit, gore, blood, violence, torture, war, slavery.

Minor CW for pregnancy, child death, parental death. 

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Pale hands reach upward with a thorny vine wrapping around them, at the end is a purple flower.


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