I first heard about this book over on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, when they mocked the cover. They are, of course, entirely right. It is not only a generally not great cover, but it also completely fails to clue the reader into the smart, funny, inventive, sweet fantasy epic that they’re about to delve into. It’s described as a paranormal romance but if this is a paranormal romance so is Lord of the Rings and the Witcher.
Plot: There is a war between humans and a sorcerer corrupted by evil described only as The Traitor for the fate of the world. If the humans lose, their loved ones and everything else will be remade as hate filled monsters that blindly obey The Traitor and seek nothing but death. General Amris has been successfully pushing the hordes back battle after battle, but the war was almost certainly lost. In a hail Mary pass, his lover and brilliant wizard Gerant creates a time freezing spell. Amris makes it all the way to the sorcerer and activates the spell, effectively pausing the war to allow humans time to regroup. A hundred years in the future, Sentinel Darya and her trusty soul blade Gerant stumble upon Amris, still frozen in time. They wake him only to realize the sorcerer he’d trapped was long gone. Uh oh. Shenanigans ensue.
This book has everything. Expansive, thoughtful world building, magic, normalized queer representation, sword fights, scary monsters by the thousands, drama, raunchy jokes, a love triangle with no drama, and lots more to come after the book ends, because it’s a series, so no book hangover.
Why isn’t everyone reading this? Why is there not a 3 part movie about this filmed in New Zealand? And because it’s a feminist book, maybe its filming could also undo some of the harm caused to the industry there by the Hobbit?