![]() “An American Marriage” is multiple stories wrapped together, and I don’t say that because there are three POV characters. You have the messy relationships of Celestial and Roy, Andre and Celestial, and then the relationships between them and their parents all under a magnifying lens highlighting every flaw. Then you have the story of the gross injustice in our justice system that incarcerates a disproportionate amount of Black and Brown men, and how that incarceration upends not just their lives, but the lives of their families and disrupts a whole community. Sometimes, these two stories came together, and other times they didn’t, which made this book hard for me to put my finger on if I liked it in its entirety, or just certain parts. So, let’s talk about the characters first and the “romance” aspect. Beware, this is a long one!
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![]() The elements that I loved about the first Emily Wilde book are still present in this story and I couldn’t be happier. Emily is still a delightfully grumpy scholar, which is still the perfect foil to Wendell’s lackadaisical sunshine viewpoint of the world. Their banter is still adorable and so fun. Emily is still single minded with her research, for the most part, but in the “Map of the Otherlands” we finally see Emily grow more emotionally, occasionally. Our girl still has work to do. But in this book, Emily, Wendell, and her niece all embark to Austria in search of Wendell’s Faerie door, which will finally lead him back to his home kingdom. But before they get very far in their search, assassin’s sent by his step-mother, and a threat from Emily’s professorial supervisor immediately complicate things and make the journey all the more urgent. ![]() I tend to turn to McMaster for my romance reads when I’m on vacation. It’s not planned, it just always tends to happen that way. Her books are always fast, rather light despite the fantasy elements, and always enjoyable. “Heart of Fire” is no different on the score. We follow Freya, an outcast amongst her people for her mismatched eyes and the power she hides, who is desperately trying to care for an ailing father when the dreki, a type of dragon native to Iceland folklore, steals a ram she needs to survive. As the only person to ever challenge the dreki in his lair, he’s instantly intrigued and goes about pursuing Freya. McMaster uses their pursuit as a way to show the reader this new world she is introducing for her series. And, for the most part, she does a great job of teasing out the world building amongst a lot of steamy angst and tension. Until she just… stops? ![]() This book took me a lot longer to get through than the other two. Maybe because of the bible-like pages where this book was just so much longer than the others, or maybe it was because of the pacing this time around… Regardless, here we are, in the third book of the series, the final one of this particular story arc before we switch to a new POV with Nesta. And honestly, after “A Court of Wings and Ruin”, I’m very ready for another POV. Well, I want Nesta’s POV. I don’t necessarily care for any more of spooky Elain, either. Perhaps it’s this time in my life where the way Nesta processes her grief and trauma sings to me much more clearly than Feyre’s, but I am so hype for more of my mean girl Nesta after so much of Feyre using/needing her friends and allies to run a distraction for her so she can do something useful. ![]() I’ll just come out and say it: I need more sapphic regency romance like this one! You have Lucy, a burgeoning astronomer trying to take up the mantel of her deceased father all while recovering from crushing heartbreak. And then the Countess of Moth, Catherine, who thought she was done with scientists after her husband’s death, until Lucy shows up on her door demanding to be allowed to undertake the challenge of translating the latest French astronomer’s text into English. Smart, artistic women forging a way for themselves in “proper society” on their own terms where they are given their due AND can remain independent without having to marry themselves off? 10000% yes please! There was only one thing about this book that made it drag at times… |
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