This is incredibly hard to rate, I really loved the first 3/4 of this book. The ending was just a bit of a mess for me, it felt incredibly rushed and really could have used at least another 100 pages to actually tell the story instead of just wrapping it up super quick. That said I did really enjoy the characters and the story in the first 3/4 enough to give it three stars.

Mari is such a great character. She lives in a village made up of Animal Wives, yōkai who look like beautiful woman but hide a dark beast just under the surface. An Animal Wife's responsibility is to go off and convince human men to marry them before stealing off with the man's fortune. This she brings back to the other Animal Wives and continues in this fashion until she gives birth to a daughter, then her responsibility is training this new Animal Wife. Mari grows up being told by her mother and the other Animal Wives that she's not pretty enough to be a real Animal Wife. Her beast doesn't even fully shift her form as it does for "real" Animal Wives. So instead of the traditional method of making off with a man's fortune, her mother decides to train her to become the next Empress and make off with the Emperor's vast fortune. The Empress is determined in a competition between girls from all over the Empire who must brave the mysterious Seasonal rooms where dangerous yōkai lurk and even the weather is out to get them. I really liked Mari as a character, growing up surrounded only by women made her such an ally of her fellow women. Even when she was in competition with other girls she couldn't stop herself from trying to ensure their safety. I also liked that beyond the physical training her mother gave her she wasn't made out to be anything special. It's established she's no exceptional beauty and we see during the trails that she's not the smartest competitor. The secondary characters are equally interesting and I really enjoyed most of them. Akira, also known as the Son of Nightmares, is a half yōkai. He's grown up in the mountains near Mari's village, they meet when they're young and he becomes one of her only friends. It's clear early on in the book that he loves Mari and though she cares for him deeply she does not love him. I was worried about how this would work out in the book because a lot of times it's shown that the "nice guy" who's always there eventually gets the girl. I'm very happy with how everything worked out and felt Akira's journey was an important one. His identity of being half-yōkai and half-human causes him grief. He struggles to figure out who he really is and where he belongs in the world. Asami is another side character, I can't talk too much about her beyond the fact that she is another competitor but she was so great to read. I really liked her small arc. Hanako was amazing, she's a big part of Akira's arc and I really enjoyed when she showed up on the page. Finally, there's our Emperor to be, Taro. He feels like a somewhat familiar character, a future ruler who does not want the responsibility. Taro is a tinkerer, he loves to build and create things. He's got lots of clockwork creatures he works on and sadly tries to rely on for companionship. I really enjoyed Taro's objections to the competition, he doesn't wish to be a prize to be won. It's so interesting to see this reversed as a lot of stories revolve around female characters as prizes for men.

The story is also sprinkled with some chapters revolving around the Gods of the Realm. I'm a huge fan of mythology and I loved this intimate look at the mythology surrounding this world. I really thought this was potentially a five star read it's just such a shame that the ending was so rushed. We don't even see what I thought was framed as the battle between Mari and the ultimate big bad of the story. The outcome is just told to us in a quick line.