As an Asian author myself, nothing makes me happier than when authors and stories gleefully break the mold of the perfect model minority sidekick character that Asian characters have been boxed into in English media/literature for years. No more Mathy model minorities or sexually submissive mail-order brides. It’s time for Asian women to break those bamboo ceilings and become messy, angry, fully realized characters ready to tear down the sky to achieve their goals.
From the very first page, I fell in love with this book and the female lead, Shan. Mistress opens strong with willful, unrepentant patricide as Shan ascends to her place at the head of her family, prepared to kill and claw her way to the top of an empire that quite literally runs on blood.
In this house, I support women’s rights and women’s wrongs. I love an unrepentant spymaster, and this one more than delivers with its magnificent web of blood, politics, and amorous entanglements that will either topple an empire or ruin the character’s lives, maybe both.
From patricide to unethical blood magic experiments I was cheering Shan on the whole way.
'A stunning tale ripe with political scheming, fascinating magic, and deliciously complicated characters you can't help but root for. A decadent story that won't let you go' Sara Hashem, author of The Jasad Heir
FATE IS A CRUEL MISTRESS
The daughter of a powerful but disgraced Blood Worker, Shan LeClaire has spent her entire life perfecting her blood magic, building her network of spies, and gathering every scrap of power she could. Now, to protect her brother, she assassinates their father and takes her place at the head of the family. And that is only the start of her revenge.…
I loved Iron Widow because reading it is like a train wreck you can’t possibly look away from.
The main character, Zetian, is angry, unhinged, and bent on vengeance, and not once does the narrative punish her for it, which I loved. Zetian is willing to kill, torture, girl boss, and reverse-harem her way to ruling an empire whether anyone cooperates with her or not.
And I was merrily along for the ride from the moment she psychically murdered her chrysalis copilot as vengeance for the death of her sister.
Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid's Tale in this blend of Chinese history and mecha science fiction for YA readers.
The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn't matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.
When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through…
This pick made me fall in love with a Mulan-style gender swap all over again. From the moment Zhu steals the fate of greatness promised to her dead brother and takes his place, prepared to use any amount of trickery and the occasionally necessary murder to claim the mandate of heaven for herself, I was ride or die.
I loved the way Zhu molded herself into the perfect person to inhabit whatever role the situation required of her. She was prepared to trick monks, generals, lords, and even the gods themselves into granting her greatness.
I love this book because the Bitch Queen had me in tears on page two as she exiled her king with her hands still covered in a traitor’s blood and refused to run after him or beg for his forgiveness with the simple words, “A Wolf of Oren-yaro suffers in silence. A wolf of Oren-Yaro does not beg.”
Queen Talyien is so prideful and unbending that I was instantly captivated. She will kill or break her own spine before she bows her head to the gendered expectations put upon her. Talyien’s refusal to compromise for anyone, not even for love, was such a refreshing change from so many fantasy heroines who remake themselves for the sake of love.
"Intimate and epic. It compels you to read on." - Evan Winter, author of The Rage of Dragons
"Villoso's cunning, exciting debut is a new fantasy epic that readers will clamor for." - Library Journal (starred review)
From "a powerful new voice in fantasy" (Kameron Hurley) comes the tale of a queen who must unite her divided land, even if she's hated by the very people she's trying to protect.
"They called me the Bitch Queen, the she-wolf, because I murdered a man and exiled my king the night before they crowned me."
I loved this novel about the legendary Chinese pirate queen Shek Yeung because I love a woman who is willing to do whatever it takes to stay on top.
What’s more compelling than watching your husband being cut down and immediately hatching a plan to marry his second-in-command to prevent her pirate fleet from fracturing? In addition, I loved the very subtle magic/spirituality woven throughout in the mirrored relationship between the young pirate empress scrabbling for survival and power and the Sea Goddess Ma Zou, who is present from Shek Yeung’s earliest days as a fisherman’s daughter until she is the leader of the red banner pirate fleet.
For readers of Outlawed, Piranesi, and The Night Tiger, a dazzling historical novel about a legendary Chinese pirate queen, her fight to save her fleet from the forces allied against them, and the dangerous price of power.
As Recommended By The TODAY Show * Washington Post * Goodreads * LitHub * Real Simple * Time * Popsugar * HuffPost * Los Angeles Times * Ms. Magazine * Book Riot * Elle.com * The Rumpus * Tor.com * Polygon * Debutiful * Electric Lit * Shondaland *
When Shek Yeung sees a Portuguese sailor slay her husband, a feared pirate, she…
A Filipino-inspired epic fantasy, in which a nun concealing a goddess-given gift is unwillingly transformed into a lightning rod for her people's struggle against colonization. Lunurin lives a double life. By day, she’s a dutiful nun serving Aynila's Codicían colonizers. By night, she’s a storm caller hiding from Codicían witchhunts and the vengeful eye of her slighted goddess of storms. Lunurin works to protect her fellow Aynilans and her family in the convent: her lover Catalina and Cat's sister Inez.
After a devastating discovery threatens her family, Lunurin turns to Alon, heir to Aynila's native ruler, for help. But soon torn between Alon's magic and Catalina's jealousy, her duty to her family and people, Lunurin can no longer keep her goddess’ fury at bay.
I always want to be where I am not. This was why I read sci-fi and fantasy as a child. This was why I left the country of my birth and became a professional nomad. This is why I am spellbound by mountains I will never climb and oceans I will never dive into. Imagination can take you everywhere. It took me to the academy, where speculative literature became my scholarly field, and to the publishing world, where I am now getting ready for the launch of my eighth novel. When you are at home nowhere, you are at home everywhere–including on the summits of impossible mountains.
In Svetlana's country, it’s a felony to break a mirror. Mirrors are conduits of the Voice, the deity worshiped by all who follow Light. The Voice protects humans of MotherLand from the dangers that beset them on all sides: an invading army of wolf-headed men on their borders and the infectious, ever-evolving, zombie-like Enemy that plagues them at home. When Svetlana meets Andrei, a traumatized and amnesiac soldier from another war, she embarks on a harrowing journey of adventure and self-discovery that leads her to question everything she was taught to…
A voice through Svetlana's mirror guides her beloved MotherLand from behind its' electric tower. The war with Wulfstan is not going as well as Sveta and her parents hope, but Sveta trusts the Voice. When her best friend Tattie goes missing, and Sveta saves Andrei, a soldier in summer uniform in the dead of winter, it takes Sveta through a crucible of Light, doubt, and back to the altar of true belief. Girl of Light unravels Sveta's beloved MotherLand in a war-torn adventure through monsters, missing eyes and broken mirrors.
