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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/...

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin (Inheritance, #1)

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms plays with the shape of power, winding it like a strand of hair on one finger with a slowly widening grin, esui; terrifying and sensual. The stuff of gods, crammed and cramped until they creak and groan as pages turn: Read this.

I loved this book. I tend to be positive about the books I read, but I truly loved this book. The gods have qualities I normally see in depictions of the fae, while also being sufficiently different and complex as to be their own kinds of entities. They are essences, understandable in some ways but inscrutable in some very important ways. Sieh, in particular, is handled very well, his behavior has consistency, but the way in which we are led to interpret it as part of a whole is shaped by Yeine's slowly shifting understanding of life in Sky. The interstitial narration is really good, it makes sense even before you learn (or figure out) why it's happening.

This book is very good and I'm very excited to see what happens in the next one. It ended so well that if it were a stand-alone book I could be content, but I want to spend more time in this world, preferable with these characters.

CW for incest, enslavement, torture, discussion of sexual assault, body horror, gore, death, major character death.

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