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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 City of Dusk by Tara Sim (The Dark Gods #1)

The Four Realms—Life, Death, Light, and Darkness—all converge on the city of dusk.

But the gods have withdrawn their favor from the once thriving and vibrant metropolis. And without it, all the realms are dying.

Unwilling to stand by and watch the destruction, the four heirs to divine power—Angelica, an elementalist with her eyes set on the throne; Risha, a necromancer fighting to keep the peace; Nikolas, a soldier who struggles to see the light; and Taesia, a shadow-wielding rogue with a reckless heart—will become reluctant allies in the quest to save their city.

But their rebellion will cost them dearly.

TITLE: The City of Dusk
AUTHOR: Tara Sim
PUBLISHER: Orbit
YEAR: 2022
LENGTH: 576 pages
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
RECOMMENDED: N/A

Queer Rep Summary: Lesbian/Sapphic Main Character(s), Bi/Pan Main Character(s), Genderqueer/Nonbinary Minor Character(s), Trans Secondary Character(s).

DNF 229 pages in (40%).

This has a lot of story elements I’d normally like, but for some reason it’s just not working for me. I gave it a month and it started to feel like a chore.

I think I’m having trouble because of the size of the cast. It starts out with four main characters (with one more important one who isn’t a POV character) and then adds another one. They’re all in the same city and there’s a degree of redundancy as one character learns something and then one or two others figure it out separately. Whatever the reason, I’m not enjoying it and I’m stopping.

Graphic/Explicit CW for grief.

Moderate CW for sexual content, cursing, racism, xenophobia, kidnapping,  blood, gore, violence, injury detail, medical content, chronic illness, animal death, death.

Minor CW for alcohol, self harm, police brutality, parental death, child death.

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A black and gold circular frame with a skull and daggers at its base. In the middle is a misty view of a large building in black and white.


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