Rating: 4.3/5⭐Tropes: Arranged Marriage, CursesEast Asian fantasy set in a kingdom that forbids magic. 16 year old FMC Shiori, daughter to the emperor, doesn't want to get married to a stuffy lordling from up north after she turns 17 and on the day she's supposed to be presented to her fiance, events lead to her jumping into the lake where she almost drowns and is saved instead by a young dragon named Seryu. This also causes her fiance and his family to be insulted and to depart angrily.Seryu senses her magic that she's tried to keep hidden and offers to teach her, an offer she accepts. Eventually she discovers her formerly beloved stepmother also has magic, which leads to the stepmother cursing her and her six brothers. Her brothers are turned into cranes and their own father cursed to not know his children. Shiori is cursed to have a bowl magically attached to her head, covering her eyes and for every word/sound she utters one of her brothers will die.Obviously she goes through some trials and difficulties due to the constraints of her curse and has to navigate a world as an outcast, something she has never been being the privileged daughter of the emperor. Shiori goes through enormous amount of personal growth as the story progresses and she has to deal with the ramifications of her past selfish actions. I really enjoy seeing characters grow and this is a prime example of it done well.The writing and worldbuilding is beautiful and the plot kept me interested for the entirety (I literally read this in one session and immediately placed an order for the sequel). I loved the characters and the glimpse of the magic system as well as the atypical twist at the end. I'm sure a love triangle is going to be forced into the next book, which I'm really torn about, but I love Shiori's character so much (in spite of her flaws), so I'm excited to see how the story concludes.