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.<\/b><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Representation Includes<\/h4>\n

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• Asian lesbian protagonist<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
  Content Warnings<\/div>

  Animal death, kidnapping, sexual assault, rape, murder, violence,\u00a0physical assault, torture, slavery, execution, gore,\u00a0discrimination based on a caste system, police and military brutality, emotional manipulation, withholding of food, loss of parent. <\/div>