Empress of All Seasons

Empress of All Seasons is truly a gem—I couldn’t wait to get home and keep reading! The novel follows protagonist Mari as she embarks on a journey to win the throne of Honoku and, in line with her Animal Wife ancestors, steal the prince’s riches. Along the way, she is confronted with the struggles of a typical teenage girl: love, friendship, and the fight for independence. The battles are intense, the pacing is quick, and more than once the plot dares to unravel with a well-executed flick of Mari’s naginata. This is a book that you’ll pick up to read for a few minutes only to find yourself still hanging onto every word an hour later.

Jean expertly crafts an entirely mystical world while creating struggles and characters that are relatable, and the story’s POV shifting kept me engaged. I was conflicted on Taro throughout and thought Jean did an excellent job wrapping his character up as the plot progressed. I felt for Akira and his need for love—and how refreshing that this quality fell to a male character rather than a woman! I certainly saw parts of myself and my own adolescent insecurity mirrored in Mari. Her realization regarding love at the end of the novel is a welcome twist that sets a wonderful example for young readers.

Jean’s biting social commentary separates this book from the rest. From the horrific treatment of yokai to Mari’s own doubts about her ability as a warrior, she sends a crucial message about the importance of celebrating and supporting difference rather than shunning it. Will definitely be recommending this book to young and old readers alike!

Prose- the prose was beautiful and the character revelations were stunning. So mant quotable lines. The prose kept me reading

Pacing- fast paced and on point. Kept me interested fron start to finish. A certain plot twist turned me off about 75% through but otherwise great.

World building- vivid and intricate world building. I felt like I was right there with the characters. I loved the sprinkling of Japanese but I have a deep undying love for all things Japan.

Characters- I loved the main character Mari in this story. Her character changes so much over time which makes her fun to watch. She's kind but strong and independent. I loved Akira's Akira's character arc although he annyoed me at times. I wasn't a huge fan of Taro's character arc. I thought he had more potential so that disappointed me.

Overall, I loved this story and hope to read more from this author. Great if you want a fast paced YA fantasy with plenty of Japanese mythology and nods to Japanese culture.

Page turner. I was very enthralled with this book. From the moment I read the sample until the last page. That said I was a tad disappointed with the ending only because I felt the author could have written a few more chapters to really delve into the conclusion but it was more disappointment that the book was over than anything to do with how it ended. How it ended was perfect. Excellent page turner that I suggest everyone read.

Empress of All Seasons is an #OwnVoices Japanese fantasy novel, written by Emiko Jean. It has amazed me in many ways from the premise to the last bit of the ending, especially that ending. It is a story that tackles love, friends and family, honor, duty, and morals.

“The rules were simple: Survive the Rooms. Conquer the Seasons. Win the prince.”

A book that had blown me away, right off the bat. The premise alone, who doesn’t want to know those enchanted seasonal rooms? and yōkai, supernatural being that has to be enslaved by the emperor, then thrown a bit of the town between duty love, loyalty, and betrayal, vengeance, and forgiveness. I sense enemies to lovers trope, and gods and goddesses I am nothing but a drooling patsy when it comes to my favorite kind of trope. And It did not disappoint me.

“Funny how love can drive you to hate.”

That was just the premise. Let’s talk about how wonderful the prologue is, it is ensnaring, words flow eloquently, the story itself reveals of what had happened then, it builds up as the novel begins, done in such anticipating capacity, my words won’t do any justice over it. It’s ineffable. You’d just have a hard time trying to put it down.

A rich and very atmospheric book, from the senses that we see and feel. It has described the setting really well, from Mari’s hometown and the City, the travel farther. Filled with mythology and cultures, growing wild with the new ones you meet too, cursed below creatures up to the mightiest gods and goddesses that casts upon curses, are mesmerizing to read. I am magnetized by it all.

It has a reminiscent of The Hunger Games, but Empress of All Seasons surely brought something unique of a perspective in. It is enticing to read the how of these Seasons are and for the competitors, not to mention the traditionally rich and vibrant setting, thrown in there definitely something to watch out for. Possibly clutch your heart with then.

“You must take this leap. The jump always makes the fall worth it.”

I am not overselling things, there are some weak centers in the characters shift, I don’t really mind. I enjoyed the “how” the love growing amongst characters to be something natural especially in the depth of again family, duty, honor, and morals. And as it is set in an era of then filled with rich cultures and influences. It was complicated yet not truly. I adore these characters altogether, they make a pretty great team and opponents I suppose hehe.

And lastly ending was something I really love! It hits me well and struck me as empowering too. I’ll leave it to that. And if you’re really curious it is something for you to find out. It’s worth the time, money, effort, and reading! Totally recommend it for everyone!

Of course, given with the precaution of these; Trigger Warnings: systematic oppression; slavery, forced adoption, childhood abandonment. 

This book was pitched to me as The Selection/Hunger Games with Japanese Folklore and weather magic, so of course I hopped onto the Kindle and bought it immediately.

The world-building was rich and fun. Some of it was based directly off Japanese folklore, particularly the yokai. In this world, yokai and humans were created, but Sugita, a god, made one human in his image and deemed him to be emperor. In the present time, the emperor hates yokai because he blames one for his wife's death, and enslaves them all with a collar that suppresses their power. The collars were created by the prince, one of our POV characters, who regrets how they were used. According to the myths of the world, the first emperor found his wife when she failed to be killed by the elements, and thus the seasonal rooms were created at the palace, each with its own beauties and dangers.

Mari, the main character and a yokai, is the most engaging of the POVs, in my opinion. We see her life before the contest, giving us a good idea of her motivation in winning the contest, even though she knows nothing about the prince and doesn't really want to marry him. Her type of yokai, Animal Wives, marry human men and steal their fortunes. They also hope to get pregnant with a girl, to become the next generation of Animal Wives (boy babies are sent down the river for a fate that is never clarified in the book). The Animal Wives have deemed Mari too ugly to find a husband the normal way, so her mother trained her to win her way to Empress of All Seasons.

What is intriguing is that both of the male POVs are introduced as lovers, not fighters. Akira knows nothing of battle, and probably has the most interesting family history and powers. Taro is the prince, trained to fight, but preferring to invent. Taro also has no intention of ruling and plans to escape (until he meets Mari, of course) before the contest. Yet during the course of the book, they change positions. Taro and Akira both take on the warrior role, wanting to fight more than Mari ever wanted to.

One of my biggest complaints about the book, and probably the main thing that kept it from being 5 stars, is the dramatic emotional and personality shifts the characters take on, often with very little catalyst. Taro's instalove is probably the most dramatic I've ever seen, and I'm not sure when Mari falls in love with him, only she's suddenly saying she did. Taro also swings wildly in the other direction, hating Mari and all yokai based on minimal evidence that she is responsible for his dad's death (Taro doesn't seem to have much affection for his dad, either, making the swing feel even more dramatic) Akira barely gets any training at all, and he goes from lover to ultra-warrior.

I also wish there had a little bit more time spent in each of the rooms, so that we could really feel the season of them. Each room dramatically cut down the number of contestants, but it didn't seem to matter since we only got to know 4 of them at all. The pacing of the novel was brisk, which made it a thrilling read, but it also meant that we had a bad sense of how long anything was taking and felt a little shorted on such things as how long the contest lasted or how long Akira was in training. I don't know if I would have asked for this to be a multiple series book (it could have easily been cut from the point where the season rooms were over and left the aftermath of the contest for a 2nd book), but there was certainly enough material that was sped through that could have made it two books. On the other hand, I appreciate a standalone YA fantasy! And the end might have felt rushed for some, but I felt the mythological way it was presented was kind of perfect for the story.

One final thing that I really liked about the novel was the development of women taking on their own power. Mari and other characters go from feeling like they needed male characters to feel complete (never mind that that feeling is a little rushed for Mari) to realizing that they have their own strengths and don't need those men after all.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, despite a few quibbles.

Recommended for fans of: Japanese folklore and mythology, The Selection and/or Hunger Games, weather magic, standalone fantasy novels, instalove, multiple POVs, brisk pacing, mechanical birds

This is an Asian inspire fantasy told from three different perspectives. You have Mari (a yokai), Taro (son of the sovereign) and Akira (half yokai and half human). The yokai are these creatures that take on animal attributes at will and have increased strength. The yokai have varying levels of aggression and sizes and some of them are just animalistic in general. Mari appears normal and human but she can turn into her beast form at will.

The yokai are discriminated against by the emperor and are forced to be registered and wear a collar that keep their abilities in check which gave the story a dystopian vibe. The yokai are also forbidden from competing for the prince's hand in the all seasons competition. All the competitors have to survive in 4 different rooms each with one of the seasons in it.

Mari, appearing perfectly human competes for the prince's hand. She is able to remain unregistered as a yokai because she lives in a remote area of the mountains.

This book also has myths placed into the book to give you a feel for the culture and some of the background on why they have this competition and how humans the the yokai were created. It was a nice touch and made the story more distinct in its Asian hues.

This book did a very good job world building and it did it without dumping all the information on you at once. It slowly introduced different aspects of the story so I never felt overwhelmed. My biggest complaint about this aspect is sometimes they would be discussing something and I would have to go back and reread it to make sure I didn't miss anything only to find out they tell you several paragraphs further down what they were alluding to. This made the book a little hard to follow at the beginning.

This had many feminist aspects to it. Most of the men in this story were weaker than Mari and did not want a large amount of responsibility. But this also was at the beginning of the book and left plenty of room for character development. It was also feminist in that Mari had to give up being herself for the love interest and she lost a giant chunk of who she was by being in love. This sent a message that she was better off not being in love because she wouldn't be allowed to be who she really was.

I had a hot and cold relationship with Taro, I started out feeling very indifferent to him and then I started to like him but by the end I went back to indifference. I loved Mari and Akira and there were a few supporting characters I also loved.

Overall this book was very enjoyable and I absolutely loved the culture and the setting. It was unique and interesting.

Men are conditioned to take. Women are conditioned to give, Mari’s mother once told her. Long ago, our clan decided to stop giving and start taking.

I am the only person who decides if I am beautiful or not if I am worthy or unworthy.

From the quote above you can tell that this book is about women empowerment. Mari lives in a village on top of a mountain. Unlike the rest of the inhabitants of the village, she is not preternaturally beautiful so her mother trained her to be something else, something more.

I this books is for readers who like to read about strong female characters. I appreciate how Mari was written and how she realized that only she can determine her worth. There's a love triangle which others might be turned off by since it's such a YA trope but at least Mari knows whom she loves and makes it clear and if you like slow-burning love, you won't find it here too. Taro, whom I thought had so much potential, instantly fell in love but in his defense, I seemed like their line was destined to fall head over heels since their very first ancestor. The last thing that bugged me a bit was how we go to the ending. I mean, I like how the story ended but it felt rush like it skipped some chapters of stories. In the end, I did enjoy the book and looking up various kinds of Yokai on the internet to see what they look like.

This is true freedom, to love oneself enough not to care what others think