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.