I liked this story, the relationship between the two main characters, the one between their mothers. However, as I went to write a review, I see that some Asian readers are offended by the way their culture was used. I don't know enough to rate the appropriateness, but I cannot recommend it until this is resolved/explained.

Where to start with this book, I really enjoyed it and the format it was written in. Although it was a bit of a slow start as could be expected in the first book in the series, by the end I really got into it and was sad that it had ended. The format of a letter narrated by Shefali allows things to move at a slower pace while still feeling natural and allowing the reader to discover how the world was changed by these girls.

The story of O-Shizuka and her best friend Shefali makes for compelling reading and while there was romance there it was allowed to naturally mature as the girls mature. This story also focuses on the importance of family and family life and how it adds to a person's character.

I also enjoyed how the elements of the culture were interwoven with the fantasy elements that only added to the story. The reader can imagine this almost as a history of O-Shizuka that had been written in ages past and while she might come across as a wilful spoilt brat there is a heart of gold underneath.

I will definitely be reading the following books to discover how the girls overcome the various obstacles set in their way. I was happy with how it ended and for a minute I thought there was a cliffhanger coming. I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads but it was more a 3.5 but that was mainly due to the slow start that took a little bit to hook me in. I will definitely recommend this book to others.

I really wanted to love this book. I mean, I was sold with the whole Asian lesbians pitch but I just... couldn't get into it at all.

One of the major problems for me was the framing device, where the protagonist receives a letter from her best friend (and implied love interest) and then who-knows-how-many-chapters are this letter telling us about the relationship between the two characters, their families, etc. I think framing a novel within a letter is a fine idea but... this framing device felt totally unauthentic. The letter was written in 2nd person, telling the protagonist about things they did together. In what world does someone write another a letter saying "remember when this happened? This is how you felt during that time! Here's exactly how it happened, which I must tell you for some reason even though you were there literally living it!" And this doesn't just happen once, it happens over and over again. So what was the point of the framing device being a letter when it obviously doesn't make sense for it to be a letter? It just felt like lazy, inauthentic writing and totally sucked enjoyment out of the story.

There were other things too. I just found it super difficult to connect with, or care about, any of the characters. Especially the two main characters, which is a shame.

This wasn't for me. Though I am a great fan of literary fantasy epics I couldn't settle into the rhythm of this book. I'm not a reader who shies away from being dropped into the middle of the story, but there's being dropped and then there's being catapulted into a bottomless sea without a life preserver, getting rescued by a passing ship then not being able to speak the crew's language. I made it forty pages in before I just got tired of having no idea who the characters were, what the history of this land was or what in the hell was going on.

The relationship between the two narrators was utterly mystifying. I had no sense of time or place, what anything looked like or what was happening. It was just total narrative chaos.

Apologies, but I gave up on this one.

The synopsis reads: "This is the story of an infamous Qorin warrior, Barsalayaa Shefali, a spoiled divine warrior empress, O-Shizuka, and a power that can reach through time and space to save a land from a truly insidious evil." But this is also a story about so much more than that.

The Empress is an isolated and much feared individual, but as she reads through the written history of her own past, we get to view the person she was and how she altered into the person she became. Her childhood friend Barsalayaa Shefali is the one who penned this history and their shared story is both an epic adventure quest, the sweetest of budding romance stories, and the fantastical memoir of two fearsome and unstoppable females.

The narrative structure is what immediately grabbed my attention. I found it much like the beloved The Name of the Wind, where the reader is introduced to a present-day character and their, and another's, shared history is relayed to the reader in the form of letters and memories. This unusual format paved the way for a novel that continued to challenge the expected.

Kingdom fantasy is my ultimate favourite genre. The one overwhelming flaw of the high fantasy genre, however, is its lack of diversity. There are numerous fat tomes detailing the fantastical lives of questing knights, and silver-bearded wizards. There are also, in more recently penned fiction, a fair amount of bad-ass female assassins, witches, and warriors. But I have found a severe lack of books that primarily focus on characters that are not white and heterosexual, in non-Western inspired settings. It was refreshing to find an alteration to this status quo, here.

I realise what a massive hypocrite I must sound like! In numerous reviews I have slated fantasies that derive from their central quest to become absorbed in a pointless romance. And yet here I am shipping the heck out of this thing! That's because this gets the division of interests just right. This isn't a fantasy world which gets stifled by an obvious love story, but a story where every facet is allowed to grow simultaneously, and in which the romance actually serves a purpose to the story-line. There was no plot filler or romance for romance sake, but a sex-positive, non-cliched, and utterly adorable f/f romance that enhanced and worked cohesively with the already gripping plot. It also helps that every one of the central characters were the most fearless, bad-ass group of women that I have ever encountered in this genre!

This gave me everything I so adore about fantasy - a unique and richly textured world and a heart-stoppingly tense adventure - but it also gave the genre a necessary revamp, and provided subtle differences to the conception of the world and the inhabitants within.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan - Tor/Forge for providing me with a digital review copy of this book.

Over the course of this novel the history of two women is related in a letter from one to the other. There are deviations from time to time to allow action sequences to be described, but more than anything it is the retelling of the circumstances involved when two women fall in love and the life altering experiences that follow. I found this book to be more of a love story than an action filled fantasy novel.

This fantasy land seems to be an amalgamation and interpretation of Japan, China and Mongolia without the geographic barrier of an ocean. The writing is wonderfully evocative of the language of those cultures. The two women are both daughters of warrior women who were friends and wanted their daughters to be friends so there was as much time spent during childhood as was practical given the large geographical spaces involved. O-Shizuka will become Empress when her uncle dies and she takes the throne, Oshiro Shefali was born into the life of roaming the steppes. These two children first met at the age of five and promptly proved how independent they were of anyone except each other when they ran away on a lark and killed a tiger - at the age of five. From then on the hunting and killing of demons is done by Shefali.

Personally I would have appreciated more action in the book and a little help from the author to let me know what some of the words she was using meant without having to get through large portions of the book before I figured it out for myself. In this type of novel a glossary of words and terms is never excess baggage for a book. I also wanted to know what the symbolism of the two pine needles was. It might have indicated a deep love would grow between the two girl babies but I'm not quite sure. This author has a beautiful way of using words, I could almost imagine I heard gentle music in the background as I read, but I don't think the description of the book does it any favors. This wasn't the book I was expecting to read.

The Tiger's Daughter
Their Bright Ascendency #1
K. Arsenault Rivera
MacMillan-Tor/Forge, Scheduled release date Oct 3, 2017
ebook, 512 pages
Genre(s) Fantasy, Romance F/F
Source Author's Rep (NetGalley)

Other books in this series: Unknown

Synopsis:
The Hokkaran empire has conquered every land within their bold reach—but failed to notice a lurking darkness festering within the people. Now, their border walls begin to crumble, and villages fall to demons swarming out of the forests.

Away on the silver steppes, the remaining tribes of nomadic Qorin retreat and protect their own, having bartered a treaty with the empire, exchanging inheritance through the dynasties. It is up to two young warriors, raised together across borders since their prophesied birth, to save the world from the encroaching demons.

This is the story of an infamous Qorin warrior, Barsalayaa Shefali, a spoiled divine warrior empress, O Shizuka, and a power that can reach through time and space to save a land from a truly insidious evil.

A crack in the wall heralds the end…two goddesses arm themselves…K Arsenault Rivera's The Tiger’s Daughter is an adventure for the ages.

About the Author:

Puerto Rico born and New York raised, K is a lifelong fan of all things nerdy. She drew on her love of tabletop gaming for her debut novel, THE TIGER'S DAUGHTER. An out and proud lesbian, she lives in Brooklyn with her partner and roommate.

My Disclaimer:
I was provided a free copy of this book by the author's representatives, NetGalley and MacMillan-Tor/Forge. I am voluntarily providing an honest review in which all opinions are fully my own. I am not being compensated in any way.
~ Judi E. Easley for Blue Cat Review

My Review: ✰✰✰✰✰
I wanted to really wallow in this book, but I had a deadline for it so I had to push myself and keep going. It is so awesome and I know I'll have to go back and read it again just to have that wallow that I wanted the first read through.

The book is written in a letter form from one woman to another. It covers the story of their growing up from the age of three when their mothers introduced them until they were grown women. Their mothers were best friends through their lives and ensured that their daughters would be as well.

The young women were more than friends. They were the closest of confidants. They became lovers and the only one each other trusted in their embattled lives.

The whole book is closely based on Asian cultures. Mostly Japanese and Mongol, I think. The name changes are slight and the cultural identifiers are strong, but Ms. Rivera has made this a matriarchal society and allowed women to be strong and speak out. She has also allowed same gender relationships, which is what we have with our two main characters, O-Shizuka and Barsalayaa Shefali.

With over 500 pages to do it in, the characters are well developed and their interactions are outstanding. The storytelling is amazing and you feel as if you are right there sometimes. It is written mostly from the point of view of Shefali, who is totally in awe of the fact that Shizuka loves her and of Shizuka herself in some ways. She is a goddess after all. And Shefali is so humble in so many ways, so down to earth and practical. Their journey brings them full circle and back together finally at the close of the letter. It is a wonderful story and one worth at least one reading, if not more. I plan a second reading very soon. I hope you plan to read this at least once as soon as it's released in October. I highly recommend it.

This is a debut novel and shows amazing talent. I definitely want to read whatever Ms. Rivera writes next. I loved this first book and it was a nice long read with lots of details to keep me busy and interested. I'd say she has a long, successful career ahead of her as long as she has lots of stories stored up in her head. Release date for this first book is October 3, 2017.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review



3.5 stars



The Tiger’s Daughter tells the story – in retrospect – of the friendship and romance between Shizuka – Imperial daughter of the Empire and later empress – and Sherfali – daughter of the Cheiftainess of a nomadic warrior tribe of horse people. If you have any clue about East Asian history at all you’ll recognise the influences of Mongolia, China and somewhat randomly amongst the other influences, Japan. I’ll get to that.



The two girls become friends at around eight years old, much in same way I befriended someone when I was three – by punching him in the face. True story. (He’s still one of my closet friends now. He’s certainly my longest serving friend after 35 yrs but I digress.) Their mothers are both expert warriors/ leaders in their own right and despite the conflict and casual dislike between their cultures, wish for their daughters to form a strong bond. Both said mothers hunt the demonic entities that prey on mortals so you can see why two people from such different backgrounds bonded. The POV shifts from Shizuka present tense after she has become Empress, to Sherfali past tense but told in an epistolary fashion, recounting episodes from their shared child hoods. If you can get over the info-dumpiness of the first section, and the somewhat idiopathic reasoning behind Sherfali recounting things that Shizuka must surely already know, then you can probably find your way into the story with little difficulty. Be warned though, this is most definitely fantasy of a literary bent, concentrating on the relationship between the two girls, the general atmosphere and the love of language. The story is simple under the literary trappings and lovers off fantasy and historically inspired fantasy may find the staid pace and lack of twists and turns dull. For me it hit just about the right note but I will admit that it was a long read considering the size of the book.



A word about source material. The book has been called out by some much better informed readers than I (and I did actually study Chinese, Japanese and Mongolian history some years ago) as twisting historical inspiration in a way that was insensitive at best and offensive at worst. I don’t feel qualified to do more than make a brief comment to the effect that yes in some instances this does seem to be the case however I believe this is more to do with the author making human mistakes rather than genuine insensitivity or malice. East Asian history is complex and the mindset of the time is very different to a comparable western mindset. (Bear in mind that if China had not closed its boarders to the rest of the world in the eleventh century, then China would probably have ended up ruling the world and the British Empire wouldn’t have happened. China was so far superior to the western world technologically at that time that there wouldn’t have been anyone to offer opposition.) Having said that, this book is not about China, or Japan or Mongolia. I think the problem is that the author has drawn on historical references and more importantly linguistic sources willy-nilly and this has rightly caused offense. I was very annoyed by the reference to Naginata being the ‘weapon of cowards’ and easier than the sword – for one thing there is a long and proud tradition of women bearing polearms and they were absolutely deadly. (It makes sense if you are naturally smaller and weaker to even the playing field by keeping your enemy at a distance.) For another, having studied both sword and naginata, I can honestly say that they are equally difficult and dangerous so that statement, made by Shizuka which in fairness says more about her character at that time of her arc than anything else, is utter rubbish. So I really can see why that and many other issues have upset readers better informed than I.



However, it is intended to be a fantasy culture in a fantasy land not a direct representation. If the author had not got so close to the source history and still missed it may have gone down better. Despite annoyances I still found much to admire and enjoy in this book. I loved the relationship between the two MCs. I liked the dark fantasy element. The MCs are engaging, especially Sherfali in my opinion. It was also refreshing to see a lesbian romance in a fantasy novel like this. If you’re at all interested and you like literary language in your fantasy, don’t mind a sedate pace and a slow burn story, give this a try. Personally I found it well worth the effort and would read the next book in the series.

The Tiger's Daughter by K Arsenault Rivera is the first in a new and debut secondary World Series. It's set in a mostly historical Japanese- and Mongolian-inspired secondary world with magic and supernatural beings.

The Hokkaran empire has conquered every land within their bold reach―but failed to notice a lurking darkness festering within the people. Now, their border walls begin to crumble, and villages fall to demons swarming out of the forests.

Away on the silver steppes, the remaining tribes of nomadic Qorin retreat and protect their own, having bartered a treaty with the empire, exchanging inheritance through the dynasties. It is up to two young warriors, raised together across borders since their prophesied birth, to save the world from the encroaching demons.

This is the story of an infamous Qorin warrior, Barsalayaa Shefali, a spoiled divine warrior empress, O-Shizuka, and a power that can reach through time and space to save a land from a truly insidious evil.

The Tiger's Daughter is told through a very long letter from one main character, Shefali, to the other, Shizuka, with the framing narrative occasionally showing us what Shizuka is doing while reading the book-length letter over a few days. Shefali is, to over-summarise, the daughter of the leader of the nomadic Qorin and intended to eventually take her mother's place as ruler (spoilery events notwithstanding). Shizuka is the niece of the Hokkaran Emperor and by the time of the framing narrative has already become Empress. The main story (of the letter) follows a large chunk of their childhood, from Shefali's point of view, and culminates in some significant events in their late teens. The conclusion sets up what I assume will be the second book so well I am kind of annoyed at how much I want to read it (and how long I'll have to wait).

This book was a good read overall but I had a few minor(ish) issues with it. The first was that my copy — a very early ARC, so this might not be the case in the final version — did not come with a map. I wouldn't usually think of this as a problem, but since the fantasy realms were very clearly based on the Japanese Empire and the inhabitants of the Mongolian steppes, my mind naturally jumped to something approximating the real-world geography of historical Asia. About halfway through the book someone mentioned that the Hokkaran empire lay to the west, and the steppes to the east and I realised the geography wasn't at all how I'd assumed, distinctly marking it as a secondary world rather than an alternate reality. I had some hints of this from the inferred relationship between the Hokkaran empire and the conquered Xianese based on the etymology of people and place names, but that aspect also wasn't made entirely clear until near the end of the book (and isn't really relevant to the story, for all that I was curious). Having the pseudo-Japanese empire be dominant in pseudo-Asia, including ruling over the pseudo-Chinese, is a potentially interesting choice, but not one which is explored in very much detail.

On the topic of the different races and so forth in the book, I should mention that there is a lot of casual racism on the part of the characters, particularly in terms of slurs thrown at other races. The main characters aren't racist, but they do encounter it often. Especially Shefali since she looks different to the dominant/ruling Hokkarans and also is mixed race. Although the various slurs are likely to upset some readers, I thought it was clear that it was various peripheral characters being racist, not the protagonists or the narrative itself.

There is also a bit of interesting discussion of language, which was examined a little. Shefali speaks Hokkaran as well as Qorin, but she cannot read Hokkaran script, only Qorin letters. The weird thing there was the way Shefali's failure to learn Hokkaran writing sounded a lot like dyslexia — with the characters moving around in her eyes — but then she had no issue with Qorin script. Shizuka, on the other hand, doesn't speak Qorin and, while she does learn the Qorin letters to better communicate with Shefali, she's never criticised for not bothering to learn the language despite how much time she spends among the Qorin. It was clear that a general Hokkaran haughtiness towards lesser peoples was why most Hokkarans didn't bother learning Qorin, but that doesn't at all explain why Shizuka never learnt. Something I would have expected Shefali to be at least a little bit critical of.

Another thing that bothered me was some of the descriptions of lesbian sex. There were altogether too many long nails, some mentioned during the sex scene, which made me cringe. There was also an issue with <spoiler redacted> which must have made it even harder/slasherier to have sex, and yet? *sigh* I spent a lot of time wondering whether <spoiler redacted> was a "not all the time" thing, and from unrelated scenes I don't think so but I couldn't be sure. I also don't think this is a letter I should've been forced to wonder about. So if you're only interested in good lesbian sex scenes, this is not the book for you (also, there was only one particularly explicit scene, FYI).

Back to the main aspects of the narrative. This is not a short book and it is a little on the slow side. I was never bored while reading, but there were only a few sections that made me want to keep reading instead of sleeping. Because the story spans such a long space of time, I was often not really sure where it was going to go next. Having gotten to the end, I think I know what the next book will be about — and I will be disappointed if I'm wrong — but I can't be sure.

For all that my review contains several criticism, I did ultimately enjoy The Tiger's Daughter and after the ending I definitely want to read the sequel. I recommend it to fans of BFF (big fat fantasy), especially people looking for non-European fantasy worlds. It's nice to have so many prominent and empowered female characters with a lot of agency, and while the story isn't cheerful by a long shot, it isn't tragic in the fridged lesbian sense either. (I don't want to spoil the end, but I feel that's important. There's also the part where you know both characters have to live long enough to a) write the book and b) be reading it.) As I said, I intend to read the sequel, whenever it comes out.

4 / 5 stars

First published: October 2017, Tor Books
Series: Yes, book 1 of 3 in the series: Their Bright Ascendency
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

As a history teacher, I totally dig the Mongolian Empire. So I was beyond geeked when I received an ARC of The Tiger's Daughter from Netgalley. The description of the book gave me the impression that the plot was about Mongolian warrior princesses fighting demons along the border of the Great Wall of China. Unfortunately, the book focused on a very slow developing forbidden lesbian relationship between two young girls near the steppes of somewhere that sounds Asian. Seventy five percent of this book is about these two girls realizing they have romantic feelings for each other and twenty five percent of the book is demon fighting. I think this book needs to be categorized differently. I did not sign up for some never ending description of two girls crushing on one another, and frankly it was too drawn out.

This book a definitely page turner! The story written as a letter makes the it more dramatic. I totally recommend.

I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.
I was sitting on this book since early May thinking I have plenty of time to read it way before the release date and I also wasn’t in the mood to read fantasy. Finally in the beginning of August I started it. Well, I wanted to love this book o much but despite my best efforts I couldn’t. Yes, it has a lot of brilliant elements to it, a lot I’m going to mention later but overall it didn’t make as good of an impression as I would have loved. Honestly for me it was a bit boring.
But first and foremost start with the good. The first thing anyone notices about thos book Is the cover. It’s such a stunning yet simple image that it old the book for me even before reading the synopsis. I known for my tendencies of buying books just by the first impression the covers has on me and this one definitely would fall into that category.
The other thing that I found absolutely enamoring is the great, creative and imaginative solutions used in the writing style. The words used create a beautiful pictures and most of them are rarely used in modern YA literature, I’m not talking about the ones the author created for her Asian inspired language.
Then the whole narration of the story through letters and tales told by one character to the other just so unique and interesting. For some reason for me it created a memoire like atmosphere. I really liked this structure but it has its drawbacks too. I think it takes away from the intensity the plot a bit how it gets to the reader, to me by secondhand. It also was hard to tell when the author means thing metaphorically or literally.
The plot takes place in a world loosely inspired by historical China, Japan and Mongolian settings and it a highlight for me because I love stories taking place in them. Unfortunately, the already slow paced storyline got even more dragged out by, in my opinion unnecessary and overly detailed, explanations of the language and descriptions of inconsequential places. So yeah, the biggest problem for me with this book was that its really slow and I just couldn’t get into it.
You can safely say that Tiger’s daughter is a character driven book. The story is told from the two main characters point of view but we get marginally more of Shefali side.
Both of the characters are really complex, fleshed out and since we follow their stories from a really young age it is also interesting to the change they go through over the years.
Shizuka, the daring, disciplined, somewhat cold and quite self-absorbed warrior princess and Shefali, her doting and persistent friend, companion and so much more. They take on the threats of their world to save their people, inspired and influenced by their larger than life mothers.
The connection is clear between them from the beginning but the romance part of it progresses to quickly after a point in my opinion. It’s not just fast but the relationship gets much more attention than I expected. I don’t read a lot of LGBT but I don’t have a problem with them because love and romance are the same no matter the gender of the participants. It’s more like that the focus on their relationship is so strong that the whole heroic part gets kinda lost along the way, at least for me.
This story was just an okay read for me and I expected more but I think it will benefit more if I buy a physical copy for myself after its published because for some reason I struggled to read it in an e-copy. Its long and the format is a bit dense. A more careful reading might change my mind.

I'm very conflicted about this book. On one hand, I feel like this should have been one of my favorite diverse reads of the year, but I was around a third in and I could not continue. There were so many characters, and the writing style was odd, to say the least. I might pick this one up at a later time, but as of right now, I feel like I was wasting my time with this.

Unfortunately this novel did not resonate with me and I did not even come close to finishing it. I did not connect with the Empress as she seemed spoiled and selfish. Even though I usually love epistolary novels, the format in this book seemed forced and unnatural. This seems to be a case of a novel with an excellent premise that is just not to my taste.

Unfortunately, I had to stop reading this title because I found too many things wrong with it. For one, as a fantasy book, it should be it's own world, not basically a copycat of Japan and China. Fantasy books should be ORIGINAL in setting. I can understand that some things will not be completely original, but the world should most definitely be.

There was also the issue of how the characters described themselves. One described her face as "flat faced," which I could not believe. I don't know any Asian people (or anyone for that matter) who would describe themselves such a derogatory way. It left such a bad taste in my mouth.

As much as I was looking forward to this one, I could not continue.

Set in a speculative, alternate-history Asia, this book follows the adventures of two girls who are heroes to their people, as they battle against demon hordes. There was a lot to love; bad-ass women (their mothers in particular), a poetic lesbian romance, a really interesting enemy (the demons), some really excellent fight scenes and some truly lovely writing... but, also, a weird format that started to grate after awhile (most of the book is written as a love letter from one character to another, which is intriguing at first but the second person viewpoint gets old quickly), an under-developed threat (presumably being saved for later books - I wish authors wouldn't do that), and a stereotypically evil main villain (the Emporer) plus a lot of other stereotypes that made me cringe. I won't go into too much detail about the latter, because I'm not sure how to do it in a way that won't also make me uncomfortable, but for a review that addresses it and is written by an Asian person, go to: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2032356303.

In the end, I think I loved the premise, liked the characters and the story, can't quite forgive the execution. So, three stars (upped from an initial two).

Very boring and slow. I don't understand why this is marked as young-adult, it is clearly an adult novel. There was a never ending letter, the romance took over too much of the story and I honestly did not care about the characters at all.

WOW! This novel is dazzling and rich in its imagery and characters. The unique narrative of the story creates a unique experience for the reader. I was captivated by the story and the imagery. I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel.

This is really a solid historical fantasy read but I think it isn’t for me! This is a serious case of it’s not you, it’s me. To be honest, I really liked the story but sadly, I had lots of issues with it. I wasn’t able to connect with the characters and I struggled reading this from a second person perspective which I’m not familiar with and also it’s my least favorite POV. This book mostly seemed like a prequel because the entire story is a letter written by Shefali to Shizuka about how they first met and also their adventures when they were young. There is also lots of info dump in the book that has made it difficult for me to grasp everything. However, despite my issues with this book, I really think it was a great debut and I’m certain many people would love it. This is a mature fantasy novel definitely not suitable for young adults.

The Tiger’s Daughter is a forbidden love story and adventures of O-Shizuka, princess of Hokkaro and Barsalayaa Shefali warrior of Qorin. Because of a prophecy, both Shizuka and Shefali have been raised together. They’re both childhood best friends since both of their mothers are also friends. Their relationship never wavered despite their opposite backgrounds instead it grew into something more. The Hokkaran’s has conquered every land they could reach and they doesn’t mingle with outcast tribe Qorin because they see them as nothing but dark skinned barbarians. The emperor of Hokkaro is a prideful, coward, and cunning man who failed to produce an heir which makes Shizuka, his niece the last heir to the Hokkaran empire. When blackbloods start lurking around the villages creating havoc everywhere threatening their very existence, Shizuka and Shefali team up together to kill them.

The main characters Shefali and O-Shizuka are pretty good characters but sadly, I can’t seem to connect with either of them. Shizuka is a stubborn and spoiled princess who is a skilled fighter that loves adventure. Shefali is a brave, shy and fierce warrior and complete opposite to Shizuka. Honestly, I liked Shefali more than Shizuka. She’s not reckless like Shizuka but I admired their friendship and how deeply they care for each other. The lesbian/gay relationship in Hokkaran is forbidden but O-shizuka doesn’t give a shit about them because she’s not a rule follower. I wish I could say that I enjoyed the forbidden romance between Shizuka and Shefali but I didn’t because Insta-love isn’t my thing. They both have so much love for each other but I didn’t feel any sparks or tension between them which is a bummer. There is also other lesbian relationships in this book but I don’t want to spoil the story for you. I also liked secondary characters like Shefali’s cousin Otgar, and her mother Burqila.

The plot is good but it’s too slow for my taste and there isn’t much badass action as I thought there would be. It would’ve been great if there was more demon killing. The story mainly focuses on familial relationships, lesbian relationship, different cultures and some royal politics. My major reason for not loving this book is that the whole book is a long letter from Shefali to Shizuka and I was quite annoyed reading the story from second person POV. More than half of the book is slow paced and it’s also a pretty long book which made things even worse for me. The only part that I loved in this book is the last 20 percent of it where we finally get the real action. The writing is quite beautiful and lyrical. I liked the world the author created which is the best aspect of this book but it took some time for me to understand everything because there is lots of info dumping at the beginning and my mind wasn’t able to handle all of them at once. It was pretty easy to guess that Hokkaran, Qorin and Xianese are based on Japanese, Mangolian and Chinese culture. Some people found this book racist especially some Asian readers. Personally, I don’t have great knowledge on all of these cultures but there are a few words that did seemed a bit racist to me such as words like rice tongue and flat faced. This book mostly felt like historical read but there are some fantasy elements in it that I really liked such as creepy demons, flesh eating blackbloods and some unknown magic that runs inside the main characters.

Overall, it was an okay read for me and also pretty good for a debut novel! The book finally concludes with an interesting cliffhanger and I’m not sure whether I would read the next book or not but I hope it’s even better than this one.