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Bound by Megan Derr
Scribd popped this up in my recommended reads (pre-romance purge) and I added it to my TBR mostly because a) the cover is pretty and b) stories about princes and intrigue and soldiers and whatnot are fun! And yeah, Bound turned out to be a pretty fun book. Its best feature is its characters, who are full of emotional depth and heartbreak, aka my siren song. They’re also fun because they have such great personalities, though there’s also plenty of plot to keep things interesting. There are disguises! Spies and courtly knightly people! Wartime camp stuff! Castles and myths and yearning! Slowly falling in love despite starting off on a…
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Threshold by Jordan L. Hawk (2013)
This is the second book in the Whyborne & Griffin series and it is much like the first: wonderful plot, great characters, iffy sex scenes[1. more unfortunate word choices ruining otherwise okay sexytimes, although at least each sex scene involves important character/plot development things. I hate when you can cut out sexytimes entirely and lose nothing from the book; what’s the point of having them if they don’t DO anything?] and fun historical paranormal mysteries. Well, not FUN. More like terrifying.
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Stalking Darkness by Lynn Flewelling (1997)
So this turned out to be one of those books that was SO GOOD it made it impossible for me to read another book for a few days. I didn’t want to! I just wanted to keep thinking about Stalking Darkness, and the characters, and their world, and EVERYTHING. Best new character POV goes to Beka, a soldier and secret Chosen One. (That wasn’t a spoiler because it’s pretty obvious from the get-go.) She’s so great! She’s learning how to be a leader in the middle of war, while also being pulled along by a prophecy she knows nothing about. I’d read an entire book with just Beka, tbh. More…
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Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling
I bought this when it went on sale last year because of a blog review which I unfortunately can’t find right now. But wherever it is, it convinced me to give it a go. And y’all, I LOVED IT. SO MUCH. For some reason I thought it was more of a romance than it actually is? It is not a romance; it is instead a fantasy adventure mystery with really excellent characters. There is a decided lack of kissing in this book,[1. although apparently there is some in the second one] so if you’re looking for kissing in your fantasy stories I’ll direct you to The Magpie Lord.