I am sorry but I had to DNF this book, it was just not good and if I did end up finishing it I would not give it more than 2 stars or maybe not even that many. I just really really did not like its style and it just felt so boring. I am a huge fan of high fantasy but this was clearly not for me. So I will not write an actual review for it.

I read through Part One, and unfortunately, the book failed to capture my attention. This is entirely subjective; I know others have enjoyed it. While I saw some gorgeous imagery, and I'm usually enchanted by worldbuilding, politics, and manners, it wasn't enough to make me want to keep reading.

DNFing at 10%

"So you saved them. From the first moment of your life, Shizuka, you have been saving people. But you have never been subtle, never been modest, and so you chose the eighth of Ji-Dao to be born."

Sometimes, Netgalley can be confusing with the way they categorize their books. They only place a book in one genre, which fails to disclose all genres a book falls under. This is exactly what happened to me with The Tiger’s Daughter.

While I loved the idea of the plot line from reading the synopsis, I discovered while reading that this book actually represents a genre that I don't read and review. Not that it is any issue, I just wish I could have known ahead of time so that someone else who typically reads this genre could have been approved to give it a review than myself!

Anyways, from the small portion of what I did read, I wasn't very impressed with the writing style. Up until the point I declared it a "DNF," the main character became a narrator while dictating a letter to her friend, and basically told the reader the entire backstory of her's and Shizuka's relationship. It didn't give much freedom of discovery for the reader, and read more like an accounting of events.

Perhaps other readers who finish the book will like The Tiger’s Daughter more than I did.

I will not be assigning a star review as I did not finish reading this book.

A big thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book!

The Tiger's Daughter is a fantasy book inspired by three Asiatic country, firs of a two books series and with LGBT+ features. When I asked on Netgaally for this one, I was looking for an epic story, profound and well created, with friendship, love, magic, destiny and cosmic forces. The intent succeeded only halfway.

Usually I've no problem with the author' style. Whatever is, I will adapt to it. So this one wasn't a problem too, but the way the story is narrated left me with many doubts. The Tiger's Daughter is told with a long letter written by Shefali for Shizuka. And that would be fine, but that's not how a letter is written. It looks much more like Shefali is writing a story, also because literally she narrates everything like Shizuka knows none of it... while she was there. obviously it's a way to allow the reader to know everything that passed between Shizuka and Shefali, but that's not how a letter works.
I liked that the whole story is told with memories and flashbacks, starting from the day when the protagonist were born, going through childhood, teen years and early adulthood.
But in the end? It felt like I read a big, really big, prologue to something else.

The world building is described with the letters and even if I found it to be generally fascinating, reading some other reviewers, some controversies were brought to my eye.
I know something about the Mongolia and Siberia, since I wrote my University degree's thesis over Mongolian and Siberian shamanism. So, I noticed references with the Qorin. What I want to say is that I got the impression that Qorin are Mongolian coded - but I might be very wrong - while Hokkaran is Japan like coded. The last nation in the novel should be based upon China.
Is really easy to go on Goodreads and look up at the first reviews to understand why there are many concerns about the representation of this world. Is not my place to discuss it, but it's important to talk about it.

As I wrote before, the story is strange. This isn't a book for fast paced book lovers. Even I, the one who haven't many difficulties with paces, starting to feel, if not bored, discouraged while reading. The chapters are really long and when I started reading one I never knew when it was gonna finish.

Talking about what I really liked, I must say that Shizuka and Shefali managed to get a way inside my heart. Shefali isn't the most incisive of the two - maybe because being a narrator down played her role? - but Shizuka was fierce, strong, proud of herself and a warrior. So is Shefali, in way or another. I loved the bond between the two, the way they protect each other and fight. In the end I was really hoping for the both of them's best.

In the end, The Tiger's Daughter is a book with some cultural issue, maybe too much slow and with other details that really didn't make the plot move forward, but yet is a type of book that I don't find often around the shelves neither in the fantasy genre, and I think that is worth a shot.

If this book was written in a less weird style, I'd probably like it? It had potential, but wasn't working for me.

DNF @ 45%

I really tried to read this book. Really, I did. I had it for over three months and eventually had to DNF it, because it was putting me in the worst reading slump. I think it says something about a book if it takes you 3 months to read it, and you still can't. This was especially heartbreaking for me because I really, really wanted to like this book.

The Tiger's Daughter was a promising story, but I found the text to be bogged down with unnecessary exposition and info-dumps. I found that the author struggled to balance the plot and the romance, and along with the frequent POV changes, this resulted in awkward writing. Also, the inclusion of that incredibly long letter did not do the book any favours. It was - literally - half the book. Most of the info-dumping - about culture and history, etc. - occurred in this letter, and frankly it was testing my patience as a reader. Instead of including this letter, the novel would have been better if the author, you know, just wrote the scenes like a normal novel, as the characters interacted with one another???

There felt as though there was really no plot, either. I struggled to even figure out what the book was about, and 40% in, I still don't know. In regards to the romance, I didn't especially care for the characters so I also didn't care about their relationship. I also found their relationship quite ... cheesy.

I was very uncomfortable by the world building - or should I say, semi-, confusing world building that mixes real life cultures into something inherently discriminative, and full of appropriation. It is very obvious the author did not do any research in regards to Japanese/Mongolian cultures, and yes this novel is fantasy, but as many reviewers have pointed out, there is a lot of overlap with the fictional cultures in comparison to real life ones.

I was disappointed by this novel, especially because it was one of my most anticipated releases of 2017.

I won't be adding my review to Goodreads or my blog because I did not finish the book.

The Tiger's Daughter is a story set in an Asian fantastical world where demons roam the earth, and whose protagonists, young as though they may be, are fated to achieve greatness. Though this book has some fantastical elements to it, I think categorizing it as a romance is more accurate, since the main focus of the story is on the relationship between the two main female characters, and how it develops over time. Narrated by means of a letter, we follow the journey in which a warrior from the Qorin people and the future Empress of the empire embark on to defend its people from demons, whilst going through a personal journey of self-discovery and acceptance. The Tiger's Daughter is a story of perseverance, loyalty and above all, unconditional love.

Full review on blog: https://scentofbooks.wordpress.com/2017/09/28/arc-review-the-tigers-daughter-by-k-arsenault-rivera/

The Tiger's Daughter is epic and expansive, the beginning of a tale of two women tied together through birth and fate. A tale of gods and demons, of purpose and status. Of defiance.

O-Shizuka is royalty, destined to be Empress of the Hokkaran empire. She resents being kept in a cage, would rather rule and live how she desires. Away from sycophants and her uncle. Shefali is one of the Qorin, a tribe of nomads, living off on the steppes with their horses and their families, slightly lost in being a quiet girl with a Qorin mother and a Hokkaran father. Together, the two girls are bound together through birth and circumstance and destiny. But first, they were two young girls falling into trouble.

This will be a short review, mostly because I've found myself conflicted. Before reading this, I expected something full of magic and demons. A tale of the epic journey of O-Shizuka and Barsalayaa Shefali, the battles they fought and how they became star-crossed lovers. What this is is more of the start of who they are, who they would become, and what happens when forces around them would try and pull them apart. It's told through letters reminiscing on their childhood and young womanhood, letters from one to the other. For my own reading tastes, from what I thought this book would be, I found it intriguing but so long. So detailed. It's too long for my taste. There was so much lead up to their actual journey, their actual confrontations with demons, and even then it didn't unfold how I thought it would. Unfortunately, this wasn't the book for me. I would recommend this to those who do enjoy long, detailed, layered with complication epic fantasy.

4.5/5 Stars

The blessings of the book community have been upon me lately when it comes to picking up recommended titles. Early buzz for The Tiger's Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera had me requesting this beauty and I'm so so glad I loved Shefali and Shizuka's story. It has so much going for it with an endearing romance, powerful ladies, lurking evil, and outstanding writing.

Seriously Rivera's prose is exquisite, conveying deep emotion and creating such brilliant visuals all with the stroke of a pen. A rich world was brought to life before my eyes and dynamic culture fueled the story. There's myth and fantastical elements sprinkled throughout and an imposing darkness that looms over the living. It's a gripping narrative that melts into the skin.

Both Shefali and Shizuka were such wonderful characters to discover. With lives intertwined since birth, the two of them together are an unstoppable force. Shizuka is outspoken and quick to action while Shefali is quieter and more practical. Each is a skilled warrior in their own right but as one temper out their rougher edges. The friendship and then romance between them is so utterly beautiful and it may be one of the most swoon worthy stories I've read.

The only thing I can see deterring readers is how slow this story unfolds. I had to take my time with it, savoring every single detail and turn of the page. I know a lot of people struggle with books like this, but for me at least the pacing made the journey all the more worthwhile. I'd also note that the storytelling takes a bit to get used to though it proves extremely effective later on.

Overall The Tiger's Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera was a beautiful story of two empowered women facing down evils on all sides. With a rich setting, extraordinary worldbuilding, and the complex characters of Shefali and Shizuka, the author created a veritable feast for the mind. I definitely recommend this one especially to those who love a good dose of fantasy and romance woven together.

I did not, and will not finish this book, I stopped at around 37%.

While Rivera’s voice is enveloping, and I’m usually a sure fit for a story that is slow paced and rich… the style used to tell the story came across as very info-dumpy. The letters “could” have been an excellent vehicle for the story if they’d been written… well, like letters. The first few exchanges were fine, because it felt like the one character was wistfully recalling a few things as a way of reminding an old friend who they were.

Then as it went on it got more and more ‘tell’ and less and less ‘show’. Telling everything about the world instead of letting the reader discover that world through the actions and interactions of the characters. It fell flat.

While it’s true that the style lacked a lot, the prose is absolutely gorgeous. It’s far better than I’ve come to expect from traditional publishing and mainstream reading (if you find talented Indie authors, they’re going to wow you with their skill, traditional publishing/mainstream books don’t do that for me, usually).

In this case, it did. The sentence structure, word choice, and cadence are gorgeous. The editing is top notch (for what I managed to get through of the book, anyway).

Sadly, my critique of the writing and story doesn’t come close to even touching the other glaring issues with this book.

I have Southeast Asian family and when I requested the ARC it was in hopes that when the book came out I’d be happy to buy several copies for the people I care for so they could maybe see themselves in fiction for a change.

I won’t be buying the book because I’d be ashamed to give it to them.

I can’t begin to experience the pain anyone of Japanese, Chinese, or Mongol decent might possibly feel from the representation in this book. If you scroll through the reviews on Goodreads there’s at least one Japanese reviewer voicing the hurt and horror that I strongly suspected someone would feel reading this.

If it had been any of my ethnicities being used in such a way, I’d’ve been disgusted.

It, sadly, felt like the ‘how not to do fantasy’ vs a book I wanted to read. It felt also like maybe the author had just watched Marco Polo on Netflix and decided to write a book, without actually doing any of the research necessary to even gloss the basics of the peoples’ being written about.

I can’t recommend this book. It makes me sad that I can’t because Asian Lesbians! Fantasy! But even with the beautiful writing, it felt far too much like appropriation.

I really dislike writing poor reviews and for a while I considered weaseling out of my agreement and ‘forgetting’ to review this one. It’s not… nice, to say these things about a debut book, but when I’m wearing my ‘reviewer’ hat, I’m not sure it’s right to stay ‘nice’ when people who may trust me and my reviews could be hurt.

That’s worth any discomfort I feel at a negative review.

Hopefully, if the books continue (as the series listing seems to indicate) the author AND publisher will seriously consider working with a sensitivity reader.

DNF at 10%. The narrative style (both the voice and letter as framing device) is not for me. There's too much info dump and name/position/honorific dropping. I also started to get a bad taste of cultural appropriation... I didn't realize from the description, but now that I've read some of the book, it's a lot clearer that this is meant to be a Japan-inspired society. Reminds me of how sloppily done I thought The Girl From the Well was.

I wanted to love The Tiger's Daughter, because there's queer protagonists with a love story, a non-medieval-Europe fantasy setting, etc, etc. The writing at first promised to be beautiful, but I found the segue into the series of letters from one of the characters really off-putting. It makes it all second person (which can be done wonderfully, but wore on me here), and it requires one protagonist to tell the other stories as if she wasn't there... despite them actually being present. So "you said to me, we did x, I did y to you"... It just feels too contrived at that point. It's also rather slow-paced: this is less a fantasy story with romance, and more a romance story with fantasy. Which is fine, but the other things dragged it down for me.

In addition, this isn't really my area, but I did notice a few warning signs. It's not "own voices", and it shows; it's the typical flower-petals-and-beautiful-calligraphy version of Japan we keep getting served up, and several people from East Asia or of East Asian descent have been writing highly critical reviews about the racial stereotyping. I don'r know enough to really understand what's going on there, but I believe people that it's made them deeply uncomfortable.

That and the pacing meant I didn't finish this, in the end. It's a shame, because the cover is gorgeous, the concept sounds fun, and I did get somewhat into the relationship between the two characters. And yet. So my writing is very much for "as far as I read" -- it's possible the pace picks up and that issue at least is resolved. I wasn't willing to hold my breath for it.

I am so, so sad to say that I decided to DNF this book about 25% in. I could not get into this at all. A fourth in and I still don't understand what's going on. The book is basically written as one long letter which makes a lot of it second POV which is so uncomfortable to read for me.
Honestly I've never been sadder to DNF a book and I can definitely imagine trying to pick this up again at one point in my life, but for now I'm just very much done with it.

I liked this story, the relationship between the two main characters, the one between their mothers. However, as I went to write a review, I see that some Asian readers are offended by the way their culture was used. I don't know enough to rate the appropriateness, but I cannot recommend it until this is resolved/explained.

I really wanted to love this book. I mean, I was sold with the whole Asian lesbians pitch but I just... couldn't get into it at all.

One of the major problems for me was the framing device, where the protagonist receives a letter from her best friend (and implied love interest) and then who-knows-how-many-chapters are this letter telling us about the relationship between the two characters, their families, etc. I think framing a novel within a letter is a fine idea but... this framing device felt totally unauthentic. The letter was written in 2nd person, telling the protagonist about things they did together. In what world does someone write another a letter saying "remember when this happened? This is how you felt during that time! Here's exactly how it happened, which I must tell you for some reason even though you were there literally living it!" And this doesn't just happen once, it happens over and over again. So what was the point of the framing device being a letter when it obviously doesn't make sense for it to be a letter? It just felt like lazy, inauthentic writing and totally sucked enjoyment out of the story.

There were other things too. I just found it super difficult to connect with, or care about, any of the characters. Especially the two main characters, which is a shame.

This wasn't for me. Though I am a great fan of literary fantasy epics I couldn't settle into the rhythm of this book. I'm not a reader who shies away from being dropped into the middle of the story, but there's being dropped and then there's being catapulted into a bottomless sea without a life preserver, getting rescued by a passing ship then not being able to speak the crew's language. I made it forty pages in before I just got tired of having no idea who the characters were, what the history of this land was or what in the hell was going on.

The relationship between the two narrators was utterly mystifying. I had no sense of time or place, what anything looked like or what was happening. It was just total narrative chaos.

Apologies, but I gave up on this one.

The synopsis reads: "This is the story of an infamous Qorin warrior, Barsalayaa Shefali, a spoiled divine warrior empress, O-Shizuka, and a power that can reach through time and space to save a land from a truly insidious evil." But this is also a story about so much more than that.

The Empress is an isolated and much feared individual, but as she reads through the written history of her own past, we get to view the person she was and how she altered into the person she became. Her childhood friend Barsalayaa Shefali is the one who penned this history and their shared story is both an epic adventure quest, the sweetest of budding romance stories, and the fantastical memoir of two fearsome and unstoppable females.

The narrative structure is what immediately grabbed my attention. I found it much like the beloved The Name of the Wind, where the reader is introduced to a present-day character and their, and another's, shared history is relayed to the reader in the form of letters and memories. This unusual format paved the way for a novel that continued to challenge the expected.

Kingdom fantasy is my ultimate favourite genre. The one overwhelming flaw of the high fantasy genre, however, is its lack of diversity. There are numerous fat tomes detailing the fantastical lives of questing knights, and silver-bearded wizards. There are also, in more recently penned fiction, a fair amount of bad-ass female assassins, witches, and warriors. But I have found a severe lack of books that primarily focus on characters that are not white and heterosexual, in non-Western inspired settings. It was refreshing to find an alteration to this status quo, here.

I realise what a massive hypocrite I must sound like! In numerous reviews I have slated fantasies that derive from their central quest to become absorbed in a pointless romance. And yet here I am shipping the heck out of this thing! That's because this gets the division of interests just right. This isn't a fantasy world which gets stifled by an obvious love story, but a story where every facet is allowed to grow simultaneously, and in which the romance actually serves a purpose to the story-line. There was no plot filler or romance for romance sake, but a sex-positive, non-cliched, and utterly adorable f/f romance that enhanced and worked cohesively with the already gripping plot. It also helps that every one of the central characters were the most fearless, bad-ass group of women that I have ever encountered in this genre!

This gave me everything I so adore about fantasy - a unique and richly textured world and a heart-stoppingly tense adventure - but it also gave the genre a necessary revamp, and provided subtle differences to the conception of the world and the inhabitants within.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan - Tor/Forge for providing me with a digital review copy of this book.

Over the course of this novel the history of two women is related in a letter from one to the other. There are deviations from time to time to allow action sequences to be described, but more than anything it is the retelling of the circumstances involved when two women fall in love and the life altering experiences that follow. I found this book to be more of a love story than an action filled fantasy novel.

This fantasy land seems to be an amalgamation and interpretation of Japan, China and Mongolia without the geographic barrier of an ocean. The writing is wonderfully evocative of the language of those cultures. The two women are both daughters of warrior women who were friends and wanted their daughters to be friends so there was as much time spent during childhood as was practical given the large geographical spaces involved. O-Shizuka will become Empress when her uncle dies and she takes the throne, Oshiro Shefali was born into the life of roaming the steppes. These two children first met at the age of five and promptly proved how independent they were of anyone except each other when they ran away on a lark and killed a tiger - at the age of five. From then on the hunting and killing of demons is done by Shefali.

Personally I would have appreciated more action in the book and a little help from the author to let me know what some of the words she was using meant without having to get through large portions of the book before I figured it out for myself. In this type of novel a glossary of words and terms is never excess baggage for a book. I also wanted to know what the symbolism of the two pine needles was. It might have indicated a deep love would grow between the two girl babies but I'm not quite sure. This author has a beautiful way of using words, I could almost imagine I heard gentle music in the background as I read, but I don't think the description of the book does it any favors. This wasn't the book I was expecting to read.

The Tiger's Daughter
Their Bright Ascendency #1
K. Arsenault Rivera
MacMillan-Tor/Forge, Scheduled release date Oct 3, 2017
ebook, 512 pages
Genre(s) Fantasy, Romance F/F
Source Author's Rep (NetGalley)

Other books in this series: Unknown

Synopsis:
The Hokkaran empire has conquered every land within their bold reach—but failed to notice a lurking darkness festering within the people. Now, their border walls begin to crumble, and villages fall to demons swarming out of the forests.

Away on the silver steppes, the remaining tribes of nomadic Qorin retreat and protect their own, having bartered a treaty with the empire, exchanging inheritance through the dynasties. It is up to two young warriors, raised together across borders since their prophesied birth, to save the world from the encroaching demons.

This is the story of an infamous Qorin warrior, Barsalayaa Shefali, a spoiled divine warrior empress, O Shizuka, and a power that can reach through time and space to save a land from a truly insidious evil.

A crack in the wall heralds the end…two goddesses arm themselves…K Arsenault Rivera's The Tiger’s Daughter is an adventure for the ages.

About the Author:

Puerto Rico born and New York raised, K is a lifelong fan of all things nerdy. She drew on her love of tabletop gaming for her debut novel, THE TIGER'S DAUGHTER. An out and proud lesbian, she lives in Brooklyn with her partner and roommate.

My Disclaimer:
I was provided a free copy of this book by the author's representatives, NetGalley and MacMillan-Tor/Forge. I am voluntarily providing an honest review in which all opinions are fully my own. I am not being compensated in any way.
~ Judi E. Easley for Blue Cat Review

My Review: ✰✰✰✰✰
I wanted to really wallow in this book, but I had a deadline for it so I had to push myself and keep going. It is so awesome and I know I'll have to go back and read it again just to have that wallow that I wanted the first read through.

The book is written in a letter form from one woman to another. It covers the story of their growing up from the age of three when their mothers introduced them until they were grown women. Their mothers were best friends through their lives and ensured that their daughters would be as well.

The young women were more than friends. They were the closest of confidants. They became lovers and the only one each other trusted in their embattled lives.

The whole book is closely based on Asian cultures. Mostly Japanese and Mongol, I think. The name changes are slight and the cultural identifiers are strong, but Ms. Rivera has made this a matriarchal society and allowed women to be strong and speak out. She has also allowed same gender relationships, which is what we have with our two main characters, O-Shizuka and Barsalayaa Shefali.

With over 500 pages to do it in, the characters are well developed and their interactions are outstanding. The storytelling is amazing and you feel as if you are right there sometimes. It is written mostly from the point of view of Shefali, who is totally in awe of the fact that Shizuka loves her and of Shizuka herself in some ways. She is a goddess after all. And Shefali is so humble in so many ways, so down to earth and practical. Their journey brings them full circle and back together finally at the close of the letter. It is a wonderful story and one worth at least one reading, if not more. I plan a second reading very soon. I hope you plan to read this at least once as soon as it's released in October. I highly recommend it.

This is a debut novel and shows amazing talent. I definitely want to read whatever Ms. Rivera writes next. I loved this first book and it was a nice long read with lots of details to keep me busy and interested. I'd say she has a long, successful career ahead of her as long as she has lots of stories stored up in her head. Release date for this first book is October 3, 2017.