Can you read your way out of a reading slump?

I am 17 books behind schedule on my reading goal for the year. Normally this wouldn't concern me, but I just can't seem to get drag myself out of this slump. I can't blame the books, if anything I'd have to blame copious amounts of t.v. show re-watching interspersed with trying to hard to actually be a sociable and responsible human adult.

Or possibly I just have the Monday blues.

This Weekend's Read

Empress of All Seasons ~ Emiko Jean

Emiko Jean's "Empress of All Seasons" is what I hope is just the first part of a story set in fantasy world based on Japanese myths. 

Mari, the main character, is a half-yokai girl living in a kingdom that, naturally, sees yokai as non-citizens. Her "tribe" makes their living by passing themselves off as beautiful human women, ensnaring human men into marriage, and then stealing away with all their possessions. However, Mari's mother has set her expectations for her daughter higher than any mere rich man. She trains her to compete in for the hand of the Emperor-to-be, to become the Empress of All Seasons. 

I found the writing style easy to follow, and Mari was ... pretty much what I expected her to be. Young, idealistic and good-hearted despite flashes of sulkiness and suspicion. I was worried that the story set up for one of my least favorite of tropes - the fraught and unnecessarily complicated love triangle - but was pleasantly surprised when it didn't materialize.

While the story was a fun read, I didn't feel like Mari came into her own as a character that I was genuinely rooting for until the last quarter of the book.

Read if: You're want something relatively smooth-sailing to read. You're interested in non-western-based fantasies. You're ALSO over the love triangle thing. You're looking for an understated YA fantasy with some rather sweet friendships and some dialed down teenage angst.

Warnings(?): Strained/misunderstood relationships between parents and children. Bigotry and prejudice (Although in fairness, most fantasy deals with prejudices and misunderstandings based on characters being "different"). There is a little bit of the "not typically pretty" trope that you often find in YA - so keep that in mind if that's a pet peeve for you.