Girls of Paper and Fire

Natasha Ngan

Nov 2018 · Sold by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

About this ebook

Uncover a riveting story of palace intrigue set in a sumptuous Asian-inspired fantasy world in the breakout YA novel that Publisher's Weekly calls "elegant and adrenaline-soaked."

In this richly developed fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most persecuted class of people in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards for an unknown fate still haunts her. Now, the guards are back and this time it's Lei they're after -- the girl with the golden eyes whose rumored beauty has piqued the king's interest.

Over weeks of training in the opulent but oppressive palace, Lei and eight other girls learns the skills and charm that befit a king's consort. There, she does the unthinkable: she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens her world's entire way of life. Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide how far she's willing to go for justice and revenge.

Ratings and reviews

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would! I purchased it at ~2am and ended up staying up until 8am just to finish it. Definitely pay attention to the trigger warning at the beginning of the book, though. Nothing explicit in the SA, but it's definitely there.

I really love this book. Though I wanted more character development for Wren, but other wise this book is amazing! Exact amount of every single genre and type of book I love!

Omg i love this book although when it said forbidden love i thought it ment like....she fell in love with a guard or something not fell in love with another paper girl but I still like it

About the author

Natasha Ngan is part young-adult author, part yoga teacher, and part habitual nap-taker. She grew up in both Malaysia and the UK, speaking Chinese with her mother mainly as a way to talk about people without them understanding. She studied Geography at the University of Cambridge and later worked as a fashion blogger, social media consultant and freelance writer.

Natasha recently moved to Paris, where she likes to imagine she drifts stylishly from brasserie to brasserie, notepad in one hand and wineglass in the other, but in reality she mostly spends her time lost on the metro and offending locals with her French.