Review: A Taste of Gold and Iron, by Alexandra Rowland

 

Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, finds himself at odds with one of the most powerful ambassadors at court—the body-father of the queen's new child—in an altercation which results in his humiliation.
To prove his loyalty to the queen, his sister, Kadou takes responsibility for the investigation of a break-in at one of their guilds, with the help of his newly appointed bodyguard, the coldly handsome Evemer, who seems to tolerate him at best. In Arasht, where princes can touch-taste precious metals with their fingers and myth runs side by side with history, counterfeiting is heresy, and the conspiracy they discover could cripple the kingdom’s financial standing and bring about its ruin.

It's all about the yearning. Alexandra Rowland's A Taste of Gold and Iron was easily my most anticipated book of the year and oh, it did deliver! This delicious fantasy romance had it all: two well-rounded protagonists, the slowest burn, a good tight-knit plot, and a thorough exploration of consent and power differentials. I truly enjoyed the many discussions of the concept of fealty and the incredible care shown by every character around the protagonists.

It's also always nice to find a queer-normative world where the conflict doesn't come from the queer romance. The counterfeiting plot is resolved quickly and efficiently, as the book focuses more on the romance; it's there where it takes its time, truly exploring the characters' fears and history. Kadou will stay in my heart as an incredibly relatable character suffering from anxiety and not being fixed by the narrative. Evemer is the perfect contrast and I also read him as demisexual; regardless of that being true, I appreciated that his lack of experience seems to be a non-problem. This book also excels with the interpersonal relationships outside of the romance, and I especially liked how the relationship developed with Kadou's old paramour. Evemer's relationship with his mother is incredibly sweet.

The world is well-developed, an intriguing Ottoman-inspired setting that isn't well-understood by the people coming from other countries. I especially enjoyed the figures of the kahyalar, more than mere guards, and the intricate descriptions of their work. I'm a bit sad that the touch-taste isn't fully explored, but the existence of this power also gives way to a truly tender moment towards the end of the book.

In fact, let me get back to this: this novel is incredibly romantic and sensual. There's a million little scenes that show that touch is truly the most important sense in this world; there's hair-brushing and hair-washing and comforting embraces. It's delightful.

A Taste of Gold and Iron is the perfect comfort read for fealty enthusiasts.

✨ 5 stars

Review: The Oleander Sword, by Tasha Suri

 

The prophecy of the nameless god—the words that declared Malini the rightful empress of Parijatdvipa—has proven a blessing and curse. She is determined to claim the throne that fate offered her. But even with the strength of the rage in her heart and the army of loyal men by her side, deposing her brother is going to be a brutal and bloody fight.
The power of the deathless waters flows through Priya’s blood. Thrice born priestess, Elder of Ahiranya, Priya’s dream is to see her country rid of the rot that plagues it: both Parijatdvipa's poisonous rule, and the blooming sickness that is slowly spreading through all living things. But she doesn’t yet understand the truth of the magic she carries.
Their chosen paths once pulled them apart. But Malini and Priya's souls remain as entwined as their destinies. And they soon realize that coming together is the only way to save their kingdom from those who would rather see it burn—even if it will cost them.

This is such an incredible book. Tasha Suri's The Oleander Sword, second volume of The Burning Kingdoms, doesn't suffer at all from second book syndrome. The narrative only gets richer and grows in complexity and scope; the beautiful prose is truly vivid and immersive. The book moves inesorably towards a reckoning of love and sacrifice that left me speechless with its brutality. Suri makes bold choices, but they work perfectly in the context of the world and the story she's telling, a story of misoginy and religion and the choices we make in a war. The divided loyalties of Malini and Priya are the driving force of the book; their two subplots weave in a heartbreaking way towards a catastrophic ending that redefines battle lines.

The love between Priya and Malini is beautiful because it comes despite all odds and neither of them works under the assumption that they can escape their own duties. They're both incredibly multi-faceted protagonists; but it's the whole cast that makes this book, aided by the skillful use of chapters with different point of views, showing us the thoughts and motives of other characters. While a beautiful love story, indeed, this book is first of all a book about war and its costs; about colonialism and the price of religious war. It's an incredibly complex book that hits all its marks perfectly.

The yaksa are the perfect antagonists, utterly alien and terrifying; the descriptions of the unnatural changes they bring about are especially vivid and horrifying. They aren't beholden by mortal laws; they're other, incarnating themselves from outside, and the sparse backstory that is offered is tantalizing and strange. They're cruel, but because of an impersonal disinterest, not out of real malice. On the other side of the spectrum there's Malini's tyrant brother, revealing himself to be a weak man easily manipulated. In the end Suri manages to make you feel for him while also utterly despising him.

The conflict between love and duty is also explored in the ties between Priya and Bhumika, Bhumika and Jeevan, Malini and Aditya, Aditya and Rao; the tapestry of conflicting loyalties is complex and sometimes ruthless.

The Oleander Sword is an excellent sequel that efficiently tears your heart out and stomps on it.

✨ 5 stars

Snippet: Passing Strange, by Ellen Klages

 

San Francisco in 1940 is a haven for the unconventional. Tourists flock to the cities within the city: the Magic City of the World’s Fair on an island created of artifice and illusion; the forbidden city of Chinatown, a separate, alien world of exotic food and nightclubs that offer “authentic” experiences, straight from the pages of the pulps; and the twilight world of forbidden love, where outcasts from conventional society can meet.
Six women find their lives as tangled with each other’s as they are with the city they call home. They discover love and danger on the borders where mystery, science, and art intersect.

There's love in this novella. Ellen Klages' Passing Strange is an interesting exploration of the world of pulp covers and queer nightclubs in the '40s, a discreet tale of magical realism through paper and paint, and a lovely forbidden love story. The build-up is excellent, slow and rich, and the payoff is quick but earned. A delightful and haunting story that can be read over the course of an evening, Passing Strange also won the World Fantasy Award.

✨ 5 stars

Snippet: Kushiel's Dart, by Jacqueline Carey

 

In a kingdom born of angels, Phedre is an anguisette, cursed or blessed to find pleasure in pain. Sold to the Court of Night Blooming Flowers, her fate as a beautiful but anonymous courtesan was sealed. Her bond was purchased by the nobleman Anafiel Delauney, who recognized the scarlet mote in Phedre's eye as the rare mark of one touched by a powerful deity.
Under Delauney's patronage she is trained in history, politics, language, and the use of body and mind as the ultimate weapon of subterfuge in a dangerous game of courtly intrigue. Guided into the bed chambers of Terre D'Ange's most influential nobles, Phedre uncovers a conspiracy against the throne so vast that even her teacher cannot see the whole of it. As her nation is besieged by invading hordes from the north, the most unthinkable threat to her beloved home comes from traitors within.

Love as thou wilt. Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart is one of the first queer speculative fiction books I've read, and it holds a special place in my heart. The Terre d'Ange ennealogy is a series spanning a hundred years in a rich, evocative world similar to our own, where gods and angels bestow their favor on mortals. Terre d'Ange, our France, is a kingdom where prostitution is an art, a vocation, and is also strictly regulated. The protagonist of Kushiel's Dart, Phèdre, is trained to be a skilled spy and will find herself often in the thick of political intrigue and magical quests. This series is a love letter to love in all its forms.

✨ 5 stars

Review: A Strange and Stubborn Endurance, by Foz Meadows

 

Velasin vin Aaro never planned to marry at all, let alone a girl from neighboring Tithena. When an ugly confrontation reveals his preference for men, Vel fears he’s ruined the diplomatic union before it can even begin. But while his family is ready to disown him, the Tithenai envoy has a different solution: for Vel to marry his former intended’s brother instead.
Caethari Aeduria always knew he might end up in a political marriage, but his sudden betrothal to a man from Ralia, where such relationships are forbidden, comes as a shock.
With an unknown faction willing to kill to end their new alliance, Vel and Cae have no choice but to trust each other. Survival is one thing, but love—as both will learn—is quite another.

This is a story about healing. At the beginning of Foz Meadows's A Strange and Stubborn Endurance the author warns that sexual assault and its aftermath will take center stage in the book, and I urge any potential readers to heed the warning. The sexual assault is recounted graphically, in first person. Following his assault, Velasin is practically hauled towards another country and he has no time to come to terms with the unspeakable violence he was subjected to before finding himself married to another man. He will spend in turmoil a good part of the book, battling against suicide ideation, and attempting to take his own life two times. All this is recounted in first person, and the sensitive reader might find it hard to read.

But it's also a beautiful story of healing. Little by little, Velasin comes to terms with the assault, learning that it doesn't define him and that he also might be able to find love in the unexpected circumstances he finds himself in. Caethari is a compassionate man who immediately decides he'll protect his new husband, no matter what. But Velasin isn't a helpless protagonist, and they dance around each other in an enchanting manner while also trying to solve the murders who begin to take place as soon as Velasin arrived in the Palace. Their delicate story culminates in an achingly attentive love scene that will melt your heart.

In truth, the mystery is where the book falls a little short: with so much focus on our characters' inner turmoil, it was maybe difficult to weave a compelling detective story. The mystery is pretty straightforward - I can tell because I was surprisingly able to clock in on the culprit halfway through, and I normally can't - but I'd argue that the mystery isn't really what the story is about. What we have is a compelling exploration of intimacy and healing and acceptance.

The other relationships explored in the book are just as good. Velasin has a beautiful friendship with his mute valet, whom he saved years before, a relationship of mutual support and understanding. Caethari's family and friends are all welcoming and diverse; their country is completely opposite the strict Ralia, and this clash of cultures makes for an interesting conflict. The world is lush and well-developed; the focus is on two countries alone, but the narrative is sharp for it.

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance is a beautifully written story about overcoming all odds and finding oneself again.

✨ 5 stars

Review: A Mirror Mended, by Alix E. Harrow

 

Zinnia Gray, professional fairy-tale fixer and lapsed Sleeping Beauty, is over rescuing snoring princesses. Once you’ve rescued a dozen damsels and burned fifty spindles, once you’ve gotten drunk with twenty good fairies and made out with one too many members of the royal family, you start to wish some of these girls would just get a grip and try solving their own narrative issues.
Just when Zinnia’s beginning to think she can't handle one more princess, she glances into a mirror and sees another face looking back at her: the shockingly gorgeous face of evil, asking for her help. Because there’s more than one person trapped in a story they didn’t choose. Snow White's Evil Queen has found out how her story ends, and she's desperate for a better ending.

This novella is fun. Alix E. Harrow's A Mirror Mended is the second installment in the Fractured Fables series and is a perfect sequel to the first book, A Spindle Splintered. Years have passed since our protagonist was gifted a second chance at life, and now she's tired of the repetivity of it; she's also pulling away from her friends. Jumping into a different fairy tale than her own makes her better understand agency and helps her rewrite her narrative.

More than in the first installment, this book focuses on its critique of storytelling and villains, showing how the life of a nameless Evil Queen must have gone for her to resort to evil means. The Evil Queen, nicknamed Eva by the protagonist, is a well-rounded character that clashes well with Zinnia; her growth is believable and well-earned.

The romance between the two characters, while tender, comes a bit out of left field. Zinnia's interest is palpable, but Eva responds to the first instance of romantic feelings with shock, unaccustomed to queer desire. I would have liked a more thorough exploration of that hesitancy. But when the fireworks come, the relationship develops beautifully, with fierce moments of protectiveness.

I enjoyed the well-researched narration, touching upon different versions of the tale of Snow White. The writing is also wickedly funny, although it knows when to be more somber.

A Mirror Mended is a lovely second installment, and I can only hope it's not the final book in the series.

✨ 4 stars

Review: The Grief of Stones, by Katherine Addison

 

Celehar’s life as the Witness for the Dead of Amalo grows less isolated as his circle of friends grows larger. He has been given an apprentice to teach, and he has stumbled over a scandal of the city—the foundling girls. Orphans with no family to claim them and no funds to buy an apprenticeship. Foundling boys go to the Prelacies; foundling girls are sold into service, or worse.
At once touching and shattering, Celehar’s witnessing for one of these girls will lead him into the depths of his own losses. The love of his friends will lead him out again.

This book is like a warm embrace. Katherine Addison's The Grief of Stones returns once again to the world where she set her magnificent The Goblin Emperor, but this volume, like the once that came before, doesn't explore the protagonist of that novel but instead a character who appeared there, the Witness for the Dead Thara Celehar. Witnessing means being able to feel a dead person's last moments, and also investigate if something is afoul. Thara is a very contained charachter, something that is accentuated by the first person narration. He is weighed down by a tragic thing in his past, when he was forced to testify against his lover for a crime his lover committed; but he's also a kind character who always does what's right.

This isn't a flashy book; our narrator is very episodic in his recounting of every single day of investigation. But the narration is never boring; every single thing matters, the little connections that are made with other characters, the other little cases that intersperse the bigger investigation. We are accompanied on a journey in a world that comes to life around us, meeting the everyday people, witnessing Thara find friends and connections that love him and care for him. It is, most of all, a healing book; even though the protagonist is put through the ringer in this installation, one can just be sure that his healing journey is on the right track.

I just love the writing. This is a world were language is pretty codified, where people use you for pretty much every interaction, leaving thou only for family and friends; where people use we to talk about themselves. It was pretty jarring in the beginning, but by now it's the third book set in this world, and it's a joy to see characters suddenly using thou to express their feelings.

The book is set in a pretty homophobic world; Thara suffers not only from the grief of his past lover's death, but also from the fear of being discovered. He doesn't seem to want to act on the feelings he seems to be having for another male character, but throughout the book are small scenes of incredible tenderness.

The Grief of Stones is a quiet book that shimmers with hope.

✨ 4 stars

Snippet: The Traitor Baru Cormorant, by Seth Dickinson

 

The Empire of Masks is coming, armed with coin and ink, doctrine and compass, soap and lies. They'll conquer Baru’s island, rewrite her culture, criminalize her customs, and dispose of one of her fathers. But Baru is patient. She'll swallow her hate, prove her talent, and join the Masquerade. She will learn the secrets of empire. She’ll be exactly what they need. And she'll claw her way high enough up the rungs of power to set her people free.
In a final test of her loyalty, the Masquerade will send Baru to bring order to distant Aurdwynn, a snakepit of rebels, informants, and seditious dukes. Aurdwynn kills everyone who tries to rule it. To survive, Baru will need to untangle this land’s intricate web of treachery - and conceal her attraction to the dangerously fascinating Duchess Tain Hu.

This is a violent book. Seth Dickinson's The Traitor Baru Cormorant is a hard book, not for the faint of heart. First book of a trilogy turned quadrilogy, of which only the final volume isn't out yet (and how spasmodically are we waiting for it!), this is a novel that ruthlessly analyzes how far you're willing to go in order to do what needs to be done. This is not a love story, not in the sense one might expect; but it is a story about love. It's a story that doesn't shy away from the horrors of colonialism and eugenetics, that isn't afraid to make you dislike its protagonist and yet love her to pieces. It is not, and I cannot emphasize it enough, a happy story. But it's an exceedingly well written story, set in a world painted with vivid strokes; a real masterpiece.

✨ 5 stars

Snippet: Devotion, by Hannah Kent

 

Prussia, 1836. Hanne is nearly fifteen and the domestic world of womanhood is quickly closing in on her. A child of nature, she yearns instead for the rush of the river, the wind dancing around her. Hanne finds little comfort in the local girls and friendship doesn't come easily, until she meets Thea and she finds in her a kindred spirit and finally, acceptance.
Hanne's family are Old Lutherans, and in her small village hushed worship is done secretly - this is a community under threat. But when they are granted safe passage to Australia, the community rejoices: at last a place they can pray without fear, a permanent home. Freedom.

This book stays with you for a long time. Hannah Kent's Devotion is a delicate, mesmerising tale of love and loss, written with an absolutely stunning prose. The memorable half-way point of the novel veers the story into the more magical aspects that could be surmised from the first half: Hanne has some kind of magical ability, being able to hear the song of nature. In Australia she will find different songs and see her community change and thrive. The doomed love story with Thea strikes a perfect balance between devotion and obsession, showing the lengths we go to in order to stay with our loved ones.

✨ 5 stars

Review: Walk Between Worlds, by Samara Breger

Sergeant Major Scratch Keyes of the King’s Guard is having a bad day.On what should be the biggest night of her life, everything suddenly goes horribly wrong. First, her king denies her the promotion she rightfully earned, as well as the knighthood that goes along with it. And then, when Scratch is wallowing somewhere near the fetid rock bottom, she and her best friend, the flamboyant and carefree Sergeant James Ursus, are arrested for orchestrating the abduction of Princess Frances and sentenced to death. On the whole, things could be better. Luckily, help comes in the form of the mysterious Shae siblings―Vel and Brella―who inform the doomed pair that the issue of the missing Princess is far more complicated than it appears.

This is a short novel done right. Samara Breger's Walk Between Worlds weaves expertly a story of self-discovery and colonialism, perfectly contained. It's light-hearted, but it never shies away from heavier subject matter. Only the ending feels a tiny bit rushed, as if it were setting up for a sequel, but it works well enough on its own.

The world is well described. Our protagonist is a very competent soldier who serves a colonialist kingdom without worrying too much about the consequences, set on finding her own way to the top: she comes from a place that was colonised before her birth, and the road is too set for the citizens of annexed countries, who have few choices in their lives. There's a scene where a character reads aloud the emanated laws, showing how a nebulous phrasing in a written law can mean few people realize what the law is actually saying.

The eponimous "Walk between Worlds" takes place in an enchanted forest where a portal can bring certain people wherever they want. A good chunk of the book is spent inside the forest, teeming with bandits and more supernatural dangers. Fae creatures inhabit the forest, and not all of them are benign; and those who are benign are still alien in their manners and wants. There's a beautiful love story bewteen two of them in the latter half of the book, painting in a few pages a tale of love and loss everlasting.

The relationship between our protagonist and her best friend is lovely and supportive, showing true mlm/wlw solidarity: Scratch loves women and James loves men, and there's a beautiful line of dialogue highlighting their affection for each other. Once the story gets going, both find a love interest. I initially expected Scratch's love interest to be someone else, and was pleasantly surprised to have my expectations subverted. The ensuing love story is tender and challenging at the same time, showing the pair navigating their difficult situation.

Walk Between Worlds is a lovely read for romantics who want to read a low-stakes adventure.

✨ 3.5 stars