The Empress of Time by Kylie Lee Baker

*I read this last year but for whatever reason I never reviewed it for Netgalley and the publisher.

Publication Date: October 4, 2022

Publisher: Inkyard Press

Pages: 416

Genre: YA Fantasy

Rating: 4/5

The Empress of Time is the sequel to The Keeper of Night and finishes off the story. This is a YA fantasy story involving death and the underworld. Ren is half British Reaper half Japanese Shinigami who is now having to deal with the fallout of the events of the first book. She is on a quest to find a sword that hasn’t been seen in thousands of years so she can persuade the god of storm and seas to help her defeat her enemy. Aiding her in the quest is the moon god, Tsukuyomi, who just so happens to be the brother of her deceased fiancé.

There is a ten year time jump between the two books and I don’t think it was necessary to be that long. The characters still felt YA, which isn’t a negative itself but it becomes one when you are starting the book off with such a large time gap. Because of that I didn’t enjoy the setup of this book as much. The saving grace was the quest aspect of the story. I love following characters as they are doing tasks or strategizing what they are going to do next. And of course the mythology in this book is spectacular. I loved learning about all the different gods and customs. Baker also redeemed herself with the ending of this story. One of my big negatives of the first book was the never-ending ending but the pacing and conclusion of this one were well done.

Overall, I do recommend this series if you are looking for a fun Japanese mythology filled duology. Next year Baker is coming out with an adult horror novel and I will definitely be reading that one. This duology is her debut and she completely nailed the atmosphere and creepy elements so I am very excited to see what she can do with a horror.