4 stars

Honestly, going into Empress of All Seasons I expected another mediocre YA fantasy and that was exactly what I got – for the most part.

The book adheres to a lot of genre tropes. Of course there is the typical enslaved race that has some kind of special powers/ are magicians/ completely overpowered but still managed to get enslaved/ whatever, and the main character is one of them who also falls in love with the son of the ruler of the oppressing race. Throw in some sort of competition, a romance that has to have some dumb and forced misunderstanding in order to add conflict and artificially bloat up the story and a twist villain that is revealed in the third act (and that is pretty obvious already early on, at the latest at the moment when

Spoiler

Satoshi enters Mari's rooms to talk to Sei. Honestly, with the way Umiko and Euko's story went, I thought that this was heading in a different, even darker direction. Oh well, I'm glad that I didn't have to read another gratuitous rape scene as I've had my fill of it after Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House

and you get the first three quarters of exactly that: generic YA. Credit where credit is due, though, the setting is nice and a welcome change of pace from the usual medieval YA setting most white authors prefer.

Also, the challenges in the seasons felt way too easy, although I’m not sure either how the author could have made them more impactful. And all of the characters deaths felt hollow

Spoiler

and there were quite a few. But I didn’t feel moved by Asami's or Nori's or Taro's or Mari's mother's or best friend's death. Ah well, I guess I’ll have to read Hunger Games again to check that I’m not just secretly dead inside

.

I even expected a

Spoiler

happy ending for Mari and Taro. Thank good that there wasn’t, because I would have been really frustrated. Taro irredemably blew his chances (and any sympathy I had for him) when he revealed himself to be a racist (against yokai obviously) and also a lunatic/ maniac

.

So, why did I change my mind?

Well, without spoiling too much: The ending was refreshingly different, especially the lore about the gods which I absolutely loved.
Other than that, the book’s well executed, the pacing is well done and the writing is nice. Concerning the latter, I have a small nitpick though: for whatever reason the author seems to dislike pronouns and excessively uses the character’s names, which only really became apparent to me in the last third. Don’t believe me? Here are two examples (not my best, but at least they don’t spoil anything major):

"Akira grunted as a passerby rammed into his shoulder. Seeing Akira’s samurai dress, the man muttered a hasty apology.
Akira scanned the throng."

And

"Yuka began to run, baby tucked in her arms. She leaped, tossing Mayumi in the air. The baby giggled, somersaulting through the sky. Yuka transformed into her beast. Just as Mayumi was about to hit the ground, Yuka grabbed her daughter."

See where I’m coming from?

Tl;Dr: Although it‘s not a must-read, Empress of All Seasons doesn’t fail to entertain by being a fast, enjoyable read without the trite and hollow kind of ending that seems to be the genre standard. I enjoyed it very much and it was exactly what I needed to get me out of my reading slump!

This novel is magnificent. Jean weaves fragments of Japanese culture into an empowering story of a young woman named Mari and her quest to overcome the expectations placed on her and pursue the life she wants for herself instead. I couldn't put this book down, couldn't turn my eyes away from Mari's struggle, couldn't keep myself from falling in love with Akira, from sympathizing with Taro, from aching for all the sorrows each character was forced to face as the story progressed. It was fascinating to read a story so steeped in a culture that I know so little about; it's the mark of good writing (in my opinion) that I felt as strongly as I did about the characters so early into the book. I think it will turn some heads once it is published.
(Many thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my truthful review.)

This book almost got two stars but was saved by the ending and the fact that it won't drag into another book. Obviously since it's fantasy there's a lot of unrealistic things but the fact that someone masters a very complicated weapon over maybe, what, three-ish days? Crazy talk.

The ending felt rushed and left me wanting…something.

AAAAAA i loved it!!!!!!

Strong start, great world building, compelling mythology and then... man, does the pacing ever get weird. I was looking at how many pages were left and figured there would be a sequel, but instead the book wrapped up extremely abruptly. It's my biggest pet peeve in novels... take the same amount of time with your ending! It's just as important and the rest of the book. More so, in fact. It's the difference between me hugging the book when I finish it or going, "huh" before I put it down. This book gets a "huh."

Taro, as a character, was very uneven. I found his later choices very hard to reconcile with his earlier character development. I liked the messages about being your own person and sisters doing it for themselves, but those messages don't need to come through character assassination. It cheapens them.

So, yeah, 3 starts because the first 3/4 of the book was awesome.

Interesting idea and I liked Taro being upset that he was the prize to be won at the end. New twist on an old concept. Mari was believable as was Akira and Tami, even Sei. What I struggled with was the ending that just felt rushed. Also how old was Mari meant to be? Did she and the other Animal Wives age slower than usual? So fine but not thrilling

Set in a different country and time - Japan in the past - the book starts off telling us how the world came to be (moulded by gods and goddesses). Small stories involving the gods and their whims are sprinkled throughout the book as mini-explanations. I don't know if these are true Japanese fables/legends or made up, so I shall have to do a little research.
The book focuses on two types of beings that inhabit the world: The Yokai (which seem to be demon-like animals) and Humans. But there are also some yokai-human hybrids and our heroine is one of these, tasked with completing the trial of seasons in order to win the hand of the prince.
It took a while to get into the book, and it was only once the trials started that my attetion was truly caught and I felt for our heroine when the inevitable happened.
The ending however was a big disappointment the rogue shogun arrives and saves Mari (some more detail required here) then the rest of her life is tied up in a few paragraphs and could do with more development.