“Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the King. It’s the highest honor they could hope for... and the most demeaning. This year, there’s a ninth. And instead of paper, she’s made of fire.
Lei is of the Paper caste, the lowest class in Ikhara. Even so, rumors of her golden eyes have piqued the King’s interest, and so she is ripped from her home and taken to the opulent palace, a gilded prison, her life now beholden to the Demon King’s every whim.
But as Lei dreams of escape, she does the unthinkable: she falls in love. Her forbidden romance, enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens the King’s very reign, will force Lei to decide just how far she’s willing to do to fight for her freedom.”
Review:
Okay, when I started this one, I had low expectations. I thought this was going to be another story of a helpless girl against a tyrannical king, waiting for the day that a palace guard/rebel spy comes to save her and carry her away in his big strong man arms.BOY WAS I WRONG!!!
Immediately our main character is kidnapped and taken to the palace to become one of the king's Paper Girls, basically the king's concubines. There are always eight but this year Lei was brought to be the ninth as a gift to the king. So now we are watching the clock tick until our main character faces a terrible ordeal. So is there a tyrannical king? Absolutely. But my correct predictions end there. Lei might not have been a trained warrior, but she had fight in her. And the best part...
You ever ship a couple that probably won't happen? Because with my assumptions, I thought, "You know who would be a great couple? Lei and Wren. Too bad it'll probably be some heteronormative crap." AND LOW AND BEHOLD MISS NGAN SURPRISED ME!!!!! Oh my goodness, I couldn't even begin to explain how happy I was when I discovered Wren was the one. So few fantasy writers take that creative liberty and I am so glad she did. Wren was a total badass, even I fell for her.
I loved that the story was bookended with the tradition of the necklace. We open the story learning of the custom and end it with Lei finally opening her necklace to discover the one word that tells of her future. It never takes center stage in the story but throughout we know that Lei's birthday inches closer and closer, soon to reveal the prophecy given to her at birth.
And the furries! I mean... the Moon and Steel caste lol. That was probably the most interesting part of the whole world we enter. The demons of this world are part animal. It's like Game of Thrones meets Zootopia! It was hard to take those aspects of the story seriously at first, like trying to picture Pumba from the Lion King being a half human Demon King. HA! Once we enter his bed chambers though, all humor leaves. We begin to see as Lei sees, how scary and imposing these Moon caste people can become.
I will say, one disappointment I had was with the Paper Girls as a group. As we interact with each of the girls - some wanting to be there, some forced - I begin hoping that these girls will all let their differences fall to the side and let their shared trauma bring them together as a uniting force. Even the "mean girl" of the group Blue! Even though we hate her from the start, we get to see part of her unguarded. But in the end, we don't see her character progress past our initial impression of her, which I found disappointing.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with this one and so happy I read it. I definitely will be reading the next book as the war will soon begin!!! Let me know your thoughts and feels down below!!!
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