Empress of All Seasons

In Honoku, humans exist alongside yōkai, supernatural beings "as limitless as the magic within them." The human emperor hates the yōkai and wants them killed or enslaved. Akira, the child of a yōkai and a human, believes neither group will ever accept him. But Mari, an Animal Wife yōkai, does accept him, and he is in love with her for it. Animal Wife yōkai are preternaturally beautiful, with the ability to transform into dangerous monsters; they "trick men into marriage and then steal their fortunes." But Mari is plain and capable of only a partial transformation, growing talons from her fingers. When it became clear that Mari would not be beautiful, her mother taught her how to fight in order to "conquer the Seasons, become Empress, and steal the prince's fortune."

Every generation, a competition is held to find an empress: the young woman who survives each of the palace's enchanted seasonal rooms wins. All of Honoku's young women (except yōkai) are eligible to compete, and Taro, the prince, is the prize. Mari travels to the palace to survive the Seasons; Akira follows her to prove his love. A chance meeting between Taro and Mari kindles a romance, and Taro, who has always been against the competition, begins to hope Mari will win. Meanwhile, Akira falls in with a group of revolutionary yōkai who are planning to assassinate the emperor.

Told in the alternating voices of Akira, Mari and Taro, Emiko Jean's (We'll Never Be Apart) Empress of All Seasons builds a lush, Japanese mythology-inspired world. The three teens are inextricably linked, each individual's fate reliant upon another's choices and so, as the stakes rise for one, they rise for them all. An enchanting, gripping novel. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness

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