JULIE C. DAO
(Book 1 in the Rise of the Empress series)
Synopsis:
An East Asian fantasy reimagining of The Evil Queen legend about one peasant girl's quest to become Empress—and the darkness she must unleash to achieve her destiny.
Eighteen-year-old Xifeng is beautiful. The stars say she is destined for greatness, that she is meant to be Empress of Feng Lu. But only if she embraces the darkness within her. Growing up as a peasant in a forgotten village on the edge of the map, Xifeng longs to fulfill the destiny promised to her by her cruel aunt, the witch Guma, who has read the cards and seen glimmers of Xifeng's majestic future. But is the price of the throne too high?
Because in order to achieve greatness, she must spurn the young man who loves her and exploit the callous magic that runs through her veins—sorcery fueled by eating the hearts of the recently killed. For the god who has sent her on this journey will not be satisfied until his power is absolute.
My rating: ★★★★★
Categories: YA, fantasy, romance (not a romance novel, but there is some), retelling
Content:
Language: Rare use of mild and stronger language ("s").
Violence: Descriptions of blood, human and animal hearts (one of the characters eats them), murder, attempted murder, stabbings, an ambush that results in a description of a character being cut in half, poisonings, beatings, whippings, themes of child abuse, and other similar instances.
Sex: The Emperor's harem and concubines play a large part in the story, several allusions to sex, kissing, and three (kind of like two and a half) fade-to-black scenes. The men who guard the harem are also castrated, which is briefly touched on.
LGBTQ: Not present
My Review: I read this book in one sitting and I absolutely adored it. I went in having no idea what to expect, but it delivered on everything. The magic, the character development, the world-building—I loved it all. The only downside is the fact that this is an Evil Queen origin story which means I can't read book 2 because I am way too attached to Xifeng, our Evil Queen. We all know the story of Snow White, so I'm assuming Xifeng isn't going to come out the victor in the next book. Even though she is very clearly a villain, I love her so much! Her development and corruption was so believable and surprisingly understandable.