The emperor and his son are chosen by the Gods to rule the country.

But her mother has a different path in store for her. Mari, however, is only half yōkai and never was beautiful enough to be able to get men to marry her. The Animal Wives is a clan of beautiful yōkai women who make men fall in love with them so they can steal their fortunes. Mari is yōkai, which are supernatural monsters, demons and spirits in Japanese folklore. This book tells the story of Mari, and Animal Wife who’s not beautiful enough to do what she was born to do, the emperor and his son Taro and Akira, the Son of Nightmares. It was my first ever readalong and it was so much fun, so I’ll definitely be joining in more in the future. I wasn’t planning on reading this book in December, there are so many books I wanted to finish before the new year, but Jane Kelsey hosted a Readalong on Goodreads and I felt like I just had to do it. So when I got Empress of All Seasons in my Illumicrate box, I was excited to read this and see where it would lead. I loved the Asian influences and folklore in that book, because I had never read anything like that before. Girls definitely wasn’t my favourite book of the year, but I also definitely didn’t hate it. After reading Girls of Paper and Fire I was intrigued.

That is how Illumicrate described this book in their information about the November box.

Our featured book is a wonderfully-written, Japan inspired fantasy standalone, about a girl who hides who she is to win the highest prize in the kingdom.

Empress of all seasons emiko jean