Emiko Jean Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of Tokyo Ever After Books
Tokyo Ever After | (2021) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tokyo Dreaming | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
We'll Never Be Apart | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Empress of All Seasons | (2018) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Mika in Real Life | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Return of Ellie Black / The Next Girl | (2024) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Love Me Tomorrow | (2026) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Emiko Jean is an American author of young adult fantasy book popularly known as the author of Empress of All Season (2018), and We’ll Never Be Apart (2015). Before embarking on a full-time writing career, Emiko worked as a teacher.
We’ll Never Be Apart
If you enjoy reading psychological thriller books, stories that build up suspense that leads up to the climax leaving the reader trying to figure out what happens next, then We’ll Never Be Apart is a highly recommended read.
We’ll Never Be Apart tells the story of Alice, a young girl whom almost every time finds herself having to deal with the consequences of the bad decisions of her twin sister, Cellie. Orphaned at a tender age, Alice and her twin Cellie grew up moving from one foster home to the next. The only source of light in their life is Jason who ends up being killed by a fire set by Cellie.
Alice finds herself locked up in a mental institution as she fights the inner battle of wanting to take revenge on her sister Cellie and moving on with her life. Then there is Chase, a young boy with his share of problems who instantaneously connect with Alice. He helps Alice to try and break into the section of the mental hospital holding her sister. As time moves on while her desire to take revenge itches her while she balances her happy times with paralyzing sadness, Alice finally comes to disturbing realities and appalling conclusion.
Emiko Jean tells a gripping tale of terror, coping and Alice’s rough life. The main character, Alice learns to deal with her life in the most bizarre ways that anyone would call crazy. The story switches narration between Alice telling stories in her diaries as a child and the young woman she’s grown to be.
There are so many things young adult readers will love about this story. There are endless journal entries in the story that tells some of the worst and saddest moments in Cellie, Alice and Jason’s lives. These entries will leave you sick to your stomach and heartbroken. On the bright side, there is a spark of romance between Chase and Alice that’s all sweet, beautiful, hard and devastating at the same time. Then there is the sweetest roommate, one who’ll make every reader smile the moment tension starts ramping up, one who becomes a friend for Alice. Lastly, there is one humongous twist at the end of the novel that will leave you breathless and heartbroken even if you may have guessed right what it would be.
We’ll Never Be Apart is a fast-moving thriller, excellently paced with beautiful characters. It’s a story that will keep you hooked into the last page, with plenty of emotional overloads. Everything that you could probably want in a young adult/psychological thriller, you’ll get it here. Emiko is an excellent author, and her words flow nicely and quickly. She writes in-depth stories and has no difficulties in expressing darkness in her words. The honesty of Emiko’s characters and their daily struggles with the reality of life is both intriguing and unsettling.
The characters in the story are both deep and interesting. Alice’s personality is fantastic. Alice and her twin sister, Cellie had a troubling childhood which is mainly told through Alice’s journal entries that she keeps while at the mental hospital. The journals describe Celia’s and Alice’s troubled childhood that involved moving from one foster home to the next, abuse and Jason and Cellie’s love for setting fires. As the journal chapters dive deeper with each chapter, the reader gets to learn more about how deeply troubled Cellie is and how Jason isn’t the boy that Alice thought she knew.
We’ll Never Be Apart also includes some elements of revenge and stories that include bits of sweet revenge are always fascinating for the readers. Alice is mad at her sister for getting her sent to a mental institution, and she vows to seek vengeance. It’s interesting accompanying the main character through her journey to find her sister as the mental institution closely observes her. The story’s plotline is rich and contains many wonderful layers of intrigue.
The ideal and perfect elements for a riveting thrill ride are captured in Emiko Jean’s debut novel We’ll Never Be Apart- journal entries that reveal the past, strange mental hospital, and a dark sweet revenge story. If you’re an avid reader of psychological thriller books, then this is a must-read the book of the year.
Empress of All Seasons
In her second book, Emiko Jean introduces us to a supernatural being named Mari Yokai. She belongs to a clan of Animal Wives who are beautiful, cunning, and the cold type. The Animal Wives enchant human males, marry them and steal from them and return to their villages with their husband’s wealthy.
However Mari is unique from others of her kind, she is a homely Animal Wife, and this earns her mom some disdain among the ferocious women. Despite this, her mother trains her in weapons, and since childhood, her mother has always sent her to hunt down roaming Samurai as a practice.
Mari, however, hates killing. She has an uncertain relationship with her mom, who is focused on seeing her daughter go to the capital and compete against other women to marry the prince- whom she can then murder and inherit all the treasure.
In her mission, Mari is accompanied by two friends; Akira the Nightmare’s son who becomes one of the points of view characters and Prince Taro who admires being the crown prince.
So Empress of All Seasons features a basic Young Adult setup of a love triangle, but wait, this is not your average YA because there’s nothing predictable about how the story ends. Mari arrives in the capital and is ready to compete against all her competitors and marry the crown prince.
Emiko Jean has done an excellent job in her second book Empress of All Seasons. She takes her time not only to immerse her fans deep into Japanese mythology and vivid imagery of mythic, magical and dangerous Japan but also gives her characters life and complexity right from the main character Mari right down to the supporting cast- the spear carriers and the servants.
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