The Phoenix Empress

The Phoenix Empress is the second book of K Arsenault Rivera's epic fantasy trilogy Their Bright Ascendency, which begins with The Tiger's Daughter and ends with The Warrior Moon. Like the first book, it is told through letters, and it moves between two women who love each other and have been kept apart.

Divine empress O Shizuka has believed since childhood that she is an untouchable god. When her uncle, ruler of the Hokkaran Empire, sends her to lead the Imperial Army on what amounts to a suicide mission, the horrors of war make her question everything she was taught.

Thousands of miles away, the exiled and cursed Qorin warrior Barsalyya Shefali endures trials few would believe in order to return to the Hokkaran court and claim her place beside Shizuka. As the distance between them closes, the demonic force the two fought before draws nearer to the heart of the empire.

Readers describe a sweeping, emotional fantasy with a queer romance at its center, and some graphic and disturbing scenes, including gore and body horror.