⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 4 stars

Girls of Paper and Fire is the first in a new trilogy. Every year eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls, and this year Lei is the ninth. While learning how to please the Demon King, she falls in love with someone else.

The first thing I loved, was the world created. The different castes in Ikhara where each caste brings something to the world were really interesting. The elements of Asian mythology mixed with everything shone through and I loved it.

How Lei goes as a Paper Girl to the palace and creates new friendships with the other girls and a romance. All of it is forged in the heat of a battle against their abusers. The friendships and romance warmed my heart.

I really liked the plot, but it seemed a bit lagging at some points. Some scenes felt repeated, almost as often as scenes felt exciting and engaging. It was very clear in which direction the book was heading. I would’ve liked a twist here or there to elevate the plot a bit more.

I needed a bit of time to warm up to Lei and was often more intrigued by other characters, but in the end, I loved her. Wren is a supportive and caring character, who likes to deal with her own problems by herself. I also can’t wait to see more of Blue and Aiko in the next book.

The focus of this book lies on recovering from trauma, reclaiming your body and learning self-empowerment, self-love, identity and finding yourself. All of this happens in a world with classism, homophobia and objectifying women. The whole book is powerful and I loved seeing the women in this book grow into multi-dimensional characters.

Overall, it is an amazing powerful book about reclaiming yourself. I am highly anticipating the sequel.