Book Review: The Flowered Blade by Taylor Hubbard

Crown Prince Silvyr Quilen is the family disappointment. His father, High King Keryth Quilen of Athowen, wanted a son to follow in his image of an elven warlord who rules with no regard for those around him and will do anything to maintain his power. However, the king finds Silvyr's desire to spend his days in the flowers and libraries to be pathetic and useless.

Despite that, Silvyr strives to receive his father's approval. On a diplomatic journey to Xeatia, where he was meant to collect taxes and return with a report on their financial situation, Silvyr is suddenly forced to confront the consequences of his father's actions when the Orcs of Ghizol attack his caravan.

Chief Brokil of Ghizol has been tasked with leading and protecting his people. For years he sacrificed and waged war to ensure the people who voted for him to lead could live in peace. For that reason, the risk was worth the reward. With the approval of the Ghizol council of elders, Brokil executes his plan: kidnap the Prince of Athowen Silvyr Quilen and send their ultimatum to the King. Leave Ghizol alone, or have his heir be killed.

Keeping Silvyr as his ward, Brokil finds that while the prince is the most annoying person he's ever met, he is also nothing like his father who carries the name Tyrant King. Absolutely bewildered and exhilarated, Silvyr and Brokil are forced to confront themselves and each other while the looming threat of Ghizol's demands hang over them.

I had seen this book be shared around a lot on bookstagram, so when it was available for free on Amazon, I downloaded it. The vibe I've seen is "this is spicy! 👀" but this book actually turned out to have lots of plot that was interesting to read about. 

Silvyr tries so hard to be the kind of son his father wants, but his father always sees him as too soft and cowardly regardless of what he does, and blames him for things he has no control over. His home life is so intolerable that getting kidnapped is a respite; even though hunky Chief Brokil yells at and insults Silvyr, at least he isn't also physically abused like he is at home, and he can look at flowers as much as he wants. 

Brokil, whose father the previous chief died at the hands of the elves, strives to live up to his role and feels the weight of his clan's existence on his shoulders. Certain that the Tyrant King's son is just as monstrous as his father, Brokil is surprised to learn that attractive Silvyr would rather learn about flowers than wage war, is soft-spoken when not in a yelling match, and is actually sort of nice?

Both men fight, and eventually give in to, their attraction to one another, but the political issues between their peoples create tension. Silvyr knows his captor could--and will, if the clan's demands aren't met--kill him, and he knows he should be doing everything in his power to escape and go home, including using Brokil's attraction as a possible manipulation tactic, but Ghizol feels more like home than his father's palace ever did. Brokil knows Silvyr could be manipulating him with his wiles, and knows the time may very well come when he needs to kill Silvyr, but he doesn't know if he can bring himself to do something that feels so wrong. 

I enjoyed this book and found it very interesting. My criticisms are really more quibbles: it sort of felt like the two leads slotted too neatly into M/F romance lead dynamics (Silvyr being kind of a damsel in distress* while Brokil is so much bigger and manlier than him etc. To be fair this is a common thing I've seen in M/M romances), and I was confused about their size differences (I swear the book initially said that Silvyr only came up to Brokil's chest, but the rest of the book sounded like they were closer in height than that, like the cover shows? This may just be that I'm stupid). I also felt that Silvyr and the other characters took way too long to figure out the solution at the end. Overall I recommend this to anyone who likes romantasy with spice but also plenty of plot. 

Score: ★★★★ out of 5 stars
Spice score: 🌶🌶🌶🌶
Read in: March 24-27
From: Amazon

Genres/classification: fantasy, romance, romantasy, monster romance if you squint, some political intrigue

Tropes: enemies to lovers, kidnapped by a rogue you fall in love with, falling in love with one's kidnapper, forced proximity, there's only one horse, there's only one tent, there's only one bed, "they're only sleeping with me to manipulate me for political reasons" etc., healer x warrior

Representation: trans man MC, gay relationship, hinted at sapphic couple (blink and you miss it), inter-species relationship. There is no transphobia in this book

Trigger warnings: torture, murder, blood, gore, a character is beat unconscious, a character is whipped, verbal, emotional, and physical abuse; battles/fighting, kidnapping, threats of death/execution, inferred threat of sexual assault (doesn't happen), characters are kidnapped into slavery (they are freed and the slavers get what's coming to them), Silvyr experiences dysphoria, dubious consent for some of B&S's ~encounters~

*sorryyyyy that felt shitty to write about a trans man character! That is how he and their dynamic were written tho

Book review: The Classic Tales of Beatrix Potter

The March pick for The Enchanted Book Club was the tales of Beatrix Potter. I loved them growing up, as I did all animal books. My sister and I had a mini BP book set in a cardboard drawer that I think my grandma had thrifted; she (my sister) still has the drawer and the remaining books that haven't been lost. I checked out The Classic Tales of  Beatrix Potter: The 23 Original Peter Rabbit Books from my work library since I don't own them (yet). I had read most but not all of them; I don't think I'd read the pigs', hedgehog's, or squirrels' stories. The story I remember best is that of Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-Tail, who fall into Farmer McGregor's hands after eating too much lettuce; that story taught me the word soporific.

I enjoyed the stories very much; the art is beautiful and realistic, with each detail lovingly rendered. The animals really look like their real-life counterparts; Beatrix Potter was a nature illustrator, so this makes sense. The animals are so cute in their little clothes. I had to force myself to slow down and stop reading so fast and look at the pictures. I used to pore over the illustrations as a kid; who knows when that stopped?

I had read an article a while back about how heavily Beatrix Potter had borrowed from the Brer Rabbit stories without crediting them; this kept me from fully enjoying the stories as much as the first time around. So fucked up to steal folklore stories from enslaved people who were literally stolen from their countries and those stories were the only things they had left from their home countries, right?? That really bothers me. She should have been honest about her stories being based on someone else's stories. I was going to bring it up during the bookclub zoom meeting but I chickened out (there wasn't time for everyone to talk anyway). 

Something I'd completely forgotten about was how often the animals are in danger from humans. Of course I'd remembered the danger Farmer McGregor posed to the Peter Rabbit family, but I was kind of surprised by how often the threat of humans turned up with the other animals. It makes sense that the animals would hunt each other and whatnot, as they do in nature/the real world; what weirds me out is that these are sentient, talking animals who often wear clothing and walk on their hind legs, yet the humans in the BP world have zero qualms eating them. If I had talking animals as my neighbors, who could say good morning to me and inquire as to the direction of the market, I would not feel comfortable seeing them as food options, let alone killing and eating them. Why don't the humans consider killing and eating a sentient, talking, clothes-wearing animal to be murder? There's a story where a sailor manipulates a young pig (aka a child) into going on a ship with him, then feeds the pig until he falls asleep, and the ship takes off with the pig trapped on board, all so the sailors will have a pig to fatten and eat on their voyage! That's basically human trafficking, albeit with a pig. No one feels a moral quandary about this? The pig story is BP's fanfiction about how the pig with a ring in its nose got to that island the owl and the pussycat go to in the poem. Funny how she did credit that story. 😒

Anyway, highly recommended. If you want to read this to young children, keep in mind a lot of the animals are often in danger from predator animals and human beings, and a decent percentage of them get animalnapped. That may scare or bother toddlers and small kids; I know my nephews would be like "but why??" 

Score: ★★★★.5 out of 5 stars
Read in: March 17-27
From: borrowed from the library where I work

Genres/classification: children's books, children's literature, children's classics, picture books, picture books anthology, animal books, English literature, low fantasy