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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/...

Messenger by Lois Lowry (The Giver Quartet, #3)

Messenger connects The Giver and Gathering Blue to show the slow creep of xenophobia in the Village that had always been a welcoming place. This is a strong entry that can stand on its own, but is much better due to what came before.

I like the way that this story incorporates the previous two books such that this story can make sense on its own, but it completes the unfinished threads of the other books so that they feel more complete. I'm very excited to see how this series concludes in "Son", but "Messenger" alone filled in a lot of what was missing from "Gathering Blue".

The dynamic between Matty and the blind man was very good. Matty is not as knowledgeable as the blind man, but the blind man clearly values their friendship, and I think Matty enjoys having someone to help. From a narrative perspective, the way that we get hints of the blind man's breadth of knowledge even when Matty doesn't have the context for his assertions was very well handled. It made them both feel like full persons even when we mostly are left with Matty's thoughts.

I'm glad that Kira didn't let Matty heal her for the journey, and that he respected her autonomy and didn't force the healing on her. The discourse about disability within these books seems to be very well handled.

Overall I liked this one and I'm looking forward to reading the conclusion in "Son".

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