November 2022 First in a Series BOTM - Girls of Paper and Fire, by Natasha Ngan

[Alaina]

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.

In this richly developed fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most persecuted class of people in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards for an unknown fate still haunts her. Now, the guards are back and this time it's Lei they're after -- the girl with the golden eyes whose rumored beauty has piqued the king's interest.

Over weeks of training in the opulent but oppressive palace, Lei and eight other girls learns the skills and charm that befit a king's consort. There, she does the unthinkable -- she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens her world's entire way of life. Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide how far she's willing to go for justice and revenge.

**This BOTM thread will be open until December 5th @ Midnight (in your time zone)**

[Celia]

39.5% (Through Chapter 14) (view spoiler)[I'm remembering now why I fell in love with this one. The whole thing about knowing and not knowing their roles leaves a big impression. And I loved Wren from this point, even before I knew what was going on with her. Excited to finish and see how this plays out in the rest of the series. (hide spoiler)]

[Celia]

60.9% (through chapter 23) (view spoiler)[I'd forgotten how much the Demon King was trying to stamp out the paper castes, because one of the Paper Girls dared to defy him publicly. In contrast to what Wren's doing, I think Lei honestly doesn't know there's another option.

I still love the developing relationship between Wren and Lei. It's so cute how Lei finally lets her inhibitions go. (hide spoiler)]

[Celia]

82.6% (Through Chapter 30) (view spoiler)[I forgot about the raids as a key factor. For some reason I'm a sucker for royal vs commoner fallout, and this one does it really well. (hide spoiler)]

[Celia]

FINISHED (view spoiler)[Happy to say I found this one as riveting as before. I see a lot of elements of other YA sci-fi and fantasy in this one, while it's uniquely its own at the same time.

I'd forgotten how it was revealed that the Demon King was still alive. Interesting that Lei didn't think to check. That's sad about Kenzo and Zelle, though, especially Zelle - she was one of my favorites aside from Wren.

I'd be interested to see how Aoki fares in the next one, as I share Lei and Wren's concerns for her while also hoping she can overcome them.

Now I'm torn between finishing this series first or Maggie Steifvater's Dreamers series first. (hide spoiler)]

[Kira]

Got around to this one!

Chapter 1-7 : (view spoiler)[I am finding the fantasy world quite interesting which is amazing because I was quite apprehensive about picking up this book. So far I am not regretting my decision at all and am very curious to find out who the love interest is. Lei doesn’t look fiercely strong rn but maybe she’s going to develop as we move further in the book. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 8 - 14: (view spoiler)[Lei is definitely drawn towards Wren. I am dreading her visit to the demon king mostly because I am just as repulsed by the idea of them together as Lei herself. Wren is a bit of a mystery at this point and I’d love to learn more about her, she has an interesting side to her for sure. Learning about Blue’s father made me a bit sad for her as well (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 15 - 22: (view spoiler)[Everything about Wren’s past and the Xia clan history has left me speechless. This book is so brilliant, i dont have words to describe how much I am loving it. Lei was a badass for refusing the way she did and honestly, the king seems like a doofus to me ngl. There’s not a single redeeming quality in him that I could see so far. I am curious to see how Wren and Lei’s feelings for each other would develop further (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 23 - 29: (view spoiler)[I had guessed pretty much everything with respect to Wren’s secret and why she was adopted, just not the fortune teller part. What I was not expecting was for her to meeting a tutor! I am hoping she is able to kill the vile demon king soon enough because I don’t know how much more of his disgusting personality would I be able to digest. I feel bad for Aiko through all this, she is really brainwashed. (hide spoiler)]

Finished: (view spoiler)[OMG THAT ENDING! I was totally not expecting Lei to turn all badass and even Wren to show up. Zelle was working with them all along, that was just amazing. I expected better from Blue and her betrayal hurt a little bit. But the way Lei and Wren and Kenzo all fought against the king was badass. I really really hope he does not live. The last page had me going wtf!! I now need to read the entire series because I want to know what happens to all of these characters (hide spoiler)]