I happened to take both of these books out of the library at the same time. I didn’t realize in the moment that I was following a theme until I started reading them. Both of them deal with a pair of royal sisters in unique scenarios trying to maintain their control over their kingdoms.
Well, in Sisters of the Snake, they’re not both royalty. One of them is a street thief trying to survive. When she breaks into the palace to steal the royal jewelry on her way out of town, she discovers that her and her twin sister were separated at birth. The two of them decide to princess and the pauper it, with the princess sister heading out into the wilds to find magic and save her country. Meanwhile, her twin has to start learning about court intrigue. From there, the two go on an amazing adventure.
Meanwhile, in The Girl King, Lu is set to inherit the throne and become the first female empress. She finds out that her father has betrayed her and she is forced to flee into the wilds with a young man who has had his family betrayed by the very country she’s trying to save. The other sister, Min, is left behind forced into a marriage that Lu ran away from. Discovering a magic all her own and possibly becoming a new threat to her sister.
While both of these books are similar in their concept, they couldn’t be any more different in their execution. They actually are somewhat inverses of one another, with the more street wise sister having to learn courtly graces in Sisters of the Snake while the more versatile, stronger sister is in the wilds in the Girl King.
Either way both of them were highly enjoyable reads. I don’t want to give too much away but I would like to make sure you go pick them up. I can’t wait to read their sequels, Daughters of the Dawn by the Nanua sisters and Empress of Flames by Yu.
Franklin Cota, an author and podcaster 