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Merry Shannon, Sword of the Guardian. Lesbian fantasy romance with swords and a bit of magic. I am glaring at the fictional theology here, because the only deities mentioned at any point are the Goddess of Spirit and Light and the God of Flesh and Darkness, guess which one we're rooting for, and yay feminist fictional theology but uh. Can we not with the downgrading of our bodies please.
Aside from that, and the casual cissexism (the titular guardian is a cis woman disguising herself as a man; nowhere in the book does anyone suggest the possibility of transness, in her or anyone) and overt internalized homophobia: it hooked me well enough that when I had to put it down last night because I'd run out of lunch hour, I wanted to go immediately back to it. That has not happened in ages. And I hadn't even got anywhere near the sexy parts yet.
Beware: there is a lot, and I mean a lot, of offscreen rape, and some onscreen sexual assault, and a lot of violence and the aftermath thereof, including several assassination attempts and a war.
The sequel, Prayer of the Handmaiden, exists and is in my possession. (If my memory is accurate, Shannon is the author of a particular excellent Sailor Moon fanfic from my first foray into that fandom years ago. I am for supporting the original fiction of fanfic authors whose work I liked.) I am not allowed to read it yet, because I have other things to do in the hour-ish before I have to go to work.
Aside from that, and the casual cissexism (the titular guardian is a cis woman disguising herself as a man; nowhere in the book does anyone suggest the possibility of transness, in her or anyone) and overt internalized homophobia: it hooked me well enough that when I had to put it down last night because I'd run out of lunch hour, I wanted to go immediately back to it. That has not happened in ages. And I hadn't even got anywhere near the sexy parts yet.
Beware: there is a lot, and I mean a lot, of offscreen rape, and some onscreen sexual assault, and a lot of violence and the aftermath thereof, including several assassination attempts and a war.
The sequel, Prayer of the Handmaiden, exists and is in my possession. (If my memory is accurate, Shannon is the author of a particular excellent Sailor Moon fanfic from my first foray into that fandom years ago. I am for supporting the original fiction of fanfic authors whose work I liked.) I am not allowed to read it yet, because I have other things to do in the hour-ish before I have to go to work.