Six Crimson Cranes was every bit as magical as Spin the Dawn (which I loved) - and set in the same world but in a different country and earlier. Our heroine is Shiori, princess of Kiata. When we first meet her, she is a little spoiled, very impetuous, and reluctant to face the fact that she and her six elder brothers are growing up and can't spend their time together in childish pursuits forever. To the point where she runs away from her own betrothal ceremony. Shiori's stepmother discovers that she has forbidden magic and places Shiori and her brothers under a curse. Her brothers are turned into cranes, and Shiori is left with a wooden bowl on her head to block her magic and hide her face. If she makes any sound at all, one of her brothers will die.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this story beyond the setup, but the plot flows naturally and I never felt bored or like events were happening just to fill plot space. I love when a story is clearly well crafted and plot points fit together in hindsight. Even one reveal that didn't seem to be signposted still didn't feel like it had come completely out of nowhere, as is so often the case. And Elizabeth Lim's writing is as beautiful and easy to read as ever.

A magical, fairy tale like plot, characters you'll want to root for and enough sumptuous food descriptions to make you hungry - what's not to love?

I really enjoyed this book, I’ve been meaning to read Six Crimson Cranes for a while and I’m glad I finally got round to it!
Shiori is a spoilt, rather immature and impulsive princess who, alongside her 6 brothers, is cursed by her Stepmother Raikama. Her brothers are turned into 6 cranes and she has a walnut bowl fixed to her head hiding her identity and is banished, if she speaks one word, one brother will die. What follows next is Shiori’s journey to finding her brothers and breaking her Stepmothers’s curse.

What I particularly enjoyed about this book was the character development. Shiori is frustrating at the start of this book, she is impulsive and gets in trouble and doesn’t really think about the consequences on her or others. Throughout the book though she is humbled, she is no longer treated like a princess, in fact she is called a demon by many people who worry what the bowl is hiding in her eyes. She must work, hard manual labour, she has no privilege, no admirers lost in her looks and status, she is just ‘Lina’ and you see her grow into an inspiring, brave woman on the page.
I also loved how the romance was handled, it’s a slow burner and it’s incredibly charming. A lot of romance puts me off in YA because it’s more lust than anything and it becomes the no.1 priority in the story. In this, Shiori meets Takkan, he can only see half her face and she doesn’t focus on his looks either. It’s refreshing to see a book not so focused on looks, Takkan’s kindness is written as his sexiest quality, he doesn’t brood or smirk (rare qualities in YA), he writes stories and sings and wishes for love. It’s a respectful, sweet take when I’m pretty bored of the usual instant gratification and I really enjoyed their moments together, and while Shiori clearly cares for him, the plot doesn’t change to become their romance.
In fact family is an equal, if not greater, love story in this book. Shiori’s love for her brothers, and their love for her, as well as a complex relationship with Raikamaa, make this book multi layered. And even though technically Shiori can’t speak, she speaks through her paper bird Kiki who I love with all my heart.

I enjoyed the world building, the pacing is pretty good in that this isn’t a big book but a lot happens, and I’m assuming there is a sequel in the works?

A few minor things, I didn’t really understand how the bowl worked. The bowl covers Shiori’s eyes but through magic she can see through it. But in a world where magic is considered rare, people don’t seem surprised that she can see. Also I could never picture the bowl curse in my head and how it fit, for example there are times when she’s instructed to cover it with a scarf to not draw attention but it’d literally covering her eyes ...
Also the dragon addition. I got the sense that this is setting up for another book but Seryu just didn’t add anything to the book or the plot really but took up quite a bit of pages. Raikama was, for me, the most interesting character and I would have loved more of her. That’s minor criticism though, like I said, I get dragons will play a bigger role in the next instalment and it’s better to have them introduced here.

Thank you NetGalley for the copy to review, I really enjoyed the adventure