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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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Early August Reviews (2023)

Greetings

Welcome to the Books That Burn Fortnightly Roundup! Releasing every two weeks (one week early for Patrons).

News and Events

We're back! Taking July off from posting reviews let me reassess the schedule now that I've gotten through the backlog of reviews I generated in 2022. The new plan is to post two main reviews a week (on Sundays and Wednesdays), with occasional Friday posts for DNFs, blog posts, etc.

Recent Reviews

IF I SEE YOU AGAIN TOMORROW by Robbie Couch is Speculative Fiction, with queer character(s), marketed as Young Adult. Clark has relived the same Monday 309 times, then on day 310 something completely unexpected happens. Told in First Person with Single POV.0

IN WHICH A DEMON KING DOES NOT HAVE A ROMANTIC INTEREST IN HIS HUMAN GARDENER by Aurora Lee Thornton, book 1 of Demon King is Fantasy/Romance, with queer character(s), marketed as Adult. The demon king finds a human who has secretly been taking care of the garden and gets him set up officially, all while explaining to the curious nobles that he is not romantically interested in the human. Told in Third Person with Dual POVs.

IN WHICH A DEMON KING HAS A REALIZATION AND ATTEMPTS TO COURT HIS HUMAN GARDENER by Aurora Lee Thornton, book 2 of Demon King is Fantasy/Romance, with queer character(s), marketed as Adult. The demon king realizes he does have a crush on the human gardener and looks into courting rituals. Told in Third Person with Dual POVs.

COULROTOPIA by Matt Doyle is Horror, with queer character(s), marketed as Adult. A robot clown circus turns horrific when a programming error makes them try to murder everyone. Told in Third Person with Ensemble POVs.

Reviews forthcoming for SURREALITY by Matt Doyle and SLEEP NO MORE by Seanan McGuire.

DNFs

I had a few books I quit early on:

  • SING ME TO SLEEP by Gabi Burton

  • THE HOB'S BARGAIN by Patricia Briggs

  • A BROKEN BLADE by Melissa Blair

  • THE IMMEASURABLE DEPTH OF YOU by Maria Ingrande Mora

I wrote a formal DNF review for FORGED BY BLOOD by Ehigbor Okosun.

No Review (Nonfiction, Graphic Novels, etc.)

I read THE BLACK COUNT by Tom Reiss, a biography of the father of Alexandre Dumas (the novelist)... Alexandre Dumas (the general). Not to be confused with the son/grandson, Alexandre Dumas (the playright).

Rereads and Older Reviews

I'm re-reading the Murderbot series in preparation for the newest book, coming out later this year.

Current Reads

I'm currently reading two different books by Martha Wells, ARTIFICIAL CONDITION from the Murderbot series, and her new stand-alone fantasy book, WITCH KING. I'm also reading ARCs of THE TAINTED CUP by Robert Jackson Bennett, THE SPIRIT BEARS ITS TEETH by Andrew Joseph White, and WAKE THE DEAD by Sophie Whittemore (this one is published already, I was just slow to get to it).

I'm also paused a little ways into JADE LEGACY by Fonda Lee. I'm having trouble because of how realistically the traumatic brain injury is portrayed, since I previously had one it's difficult for me.

In Case You Missed It

This time last year I read THE INTUITIONIST by Colson Whitehead, a mystery involving an elevator inspector.

Pluggables and Podcast News

If you're looking for a place to buy any of the books I've reviewed, please consider our Bookshop page (if you use our links to purchase any books we get a small commission). Let us know if there's a category you'd like to see curated and we'll see if we can get some titles together.

The 2023 prompts are now available from the annual reading challenge! It runs from January 1st to December 31st this year. Find info and links here.

As for the podcast, hopefully you're enjoying our most recent episode, the first of two discussing BATTLE ROYALE by Koushun Takami. If you'd like to receive episodes early, as well as bonus content, please consider supporting us on Patreon. Patrons receive this newsletter one week early, as well as a list of upcoming podcast episodes.

Patrons pledging $20 or more each month receive a bonus episode. Patrons pledging $50 or more can vote once per month on what we'll cover in the podcast. You can find all of those polls here. Patrons at any level receive the booklist with our planned episodes for up to three months at a time.

Thanks for reading, the next roundup will be in two weeks!

-Robin

Co-host of Books That Burn

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