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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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October Reviews (2024)

Greetings

Welcome to the Books That Burn Fortnightly Roundup! Releasing every two weeks (one week early for Patrons)… except when there’s a death in the family and I need to skip a few weeks. My father-in-law passed away at the end of September. This has thrown off a lot of things, like the newsletter schedule, and required interstate travel to attend the funeral.

I hope to stick to the usual fortnightly schedule going forward, especially now that I have some excellent book news to share.

News and Events

I’m part of the 2024 Book Bloggers Novel of the Year Award (BBNYA) as a blogger, and am participating in the spotlight tour posts. Because I haven’t fully read most of the books in the tour I’ve chosen to spotlight ones which are by content or genre similar to books I would generally choose to review. Some of them might even get full reviews later, as putting together the spotlight posts alerted me to some I want to try myself.

You can find all my BBNYA posts at this link.

This whole process has been a lot of fun but also a lot of work, and I’m deciding whether I want to participate annually.

I track upcoming book releases by authors we've previously covered on a shareable google calendar.

Notable NOVEMBER Releases:

  • All the Painted Stars by Emma Denny

  • Dead Girls Don't Dream by Nino Cipri

  • Clever Cintha by Robert Collins

Recent Reviews

A DARK AND DROWNING TIDE by Allison Saft is Fantasy/Romance, with queer character(s), marketed as Adult. Lorelei is ostracized for being Jevani, but when her mentor chooses her for an expedition and then turns up dead, she has to figure out which of the other students might be responsible. Told in Third Person with Single POV.

A CROWN SO CURSED by L.L. McKinney, book 3 of The Nightmareverse is Fantasy, with queer character(s), marketed as Young Adult. Alice has to defend her family when the Nightmares get stronger and stranger. Told in First/Third Person with Ensemble POVs.

SWORDCROSSED by Freya Marske is Fantasy/Romance, with queer character(s), marketed as Adult. Matti is getting married for duty, but starts to fall in love with the con man he blackmailed into giving in him fencing lessons. Told in First Person with Single POV.

RUNES OF FALL by A.K. Faulkner, book 9 of Inheritance is Fantasy/Romance, with queer character(s), marketed as Adult. Quentin has to come to terms with the idea that some villains will never stop until they're dead. Told in Third Person with Ensemble POVs.

WHEEL OF FATE by A.K. Faulkner, book 10 of Inheritance is Fantasy/Romance, with queer character(s), marketed as Adult. Laurence and Quentin are barely back from the desert when Ru contacts them to say Amy has been kidnapped. Told in Third Person with Ensemble POVs.

Reviews forthcoming for The Companion by E.E. Ottoman and The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard.

Rereads and Older Reviews

I finished my Inheritance re-read, this time I had the audiobook for WHEEL OF FATE (review linked above), which means I’ve now read the whole series as audiobooks at least once!

Current Reads

I’m still re-reading the October Daye series (in the middle of BE THE SERPENT at the moment).

HOW TO BARE YOUR NECK AND SAVE A WRECK by D.N. Bryn is excellent so far and I have high hopes for the rest.

Songs and Playlists

Sometimes I make book playlists, either chronological or character-vibes. You can find all of those here.

This fortnight’s featured playlist is: Lord of Ravens

In Case You Missed It

This time last year I read THE SUGARED GAME by K.J. Charles.

Pluggables and Podcast News

As for the podcast, hopefully you're enjoying our most recent episode. 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 and even more planned reviews.

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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