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Series Review: The Suitable 'Verse by R. Cooper

Greetings and welcome to Reviews That Burn: Series Reviews, part of Books That Burn. Series Reviews discuss at least three books in a series and cover the overarching themes and development of the story across several books. Full Audio Here Powerful noble families known as the beat-of-fours, answerable only to a ruler and the mysterious, godlike fae, scheme and squabble amongst themselves, and go to war for the chance to put one of their own on the throne. But the fae might be pulling more strings than the nobles realize and they definitely have their favorites. A series of love stories loosely centered around the political crisis that led to the current ruler, featuring oblivious librarians, crafty though loving kings, an innocent half-fae noble, a legendary outlaw turned conqueror, worried warriors, clever guards, and an infamous beauty. PUBLISHER: Independently Published LENGTH: ~1000 pages so far AGE: Adult GENRE: Fantasy, Romance RECOMMENDED: Highly Queer Rep Summary: m/m and m/m/...

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

This Is How You Lose the Time War is dizzying in the best ways, like discovering a secret passage, a new flavor of fruit, realizing the color of your best friend's eyes. It's seeking and hungry, content to be perfectly itself: strange and beautiful.

I read it, every passage made sense but when I reached the end I sat back and find myself unable to sum up the whole in a way that does it justice. It's a time travel story where the mechanics are fascinating but incidental, hinted but never expounded. It's a love story about enemies becoming friends, inseparable while also impossibly distant. Their address is clinical and tender all at once.

Reading this book was like the first time I tried persimmons, at a party last autumn. They taste like if a carrot were a fruit, like I ought to have known the flavor but had definitely never tasted it before. This book snaps and fizzles in my mind, every syllable feels important but ultimately is meaningful for its place in the larger whole rather than its component parts.

CW for war, violence, gore.

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