Book Review: Adrift in Starlight by Mindi Briar

When set adrift in the universe, some things are worth holding onto.

Titan Valentino has been offered a job they can't refuse.

Tai, a gender-neutral courtesan, receives a scandalous proposition: seduce an actor's virgin fiancée. The money is enough to pay off Tai's crushing medical debt, a tantalizing prospect. 

Too bad Aisha Malik isn't the easy target they expect.

A standoffish historian who hates to be touched, she's laser-focused on her career, and completely unaware that her marriage has been arranged behind her back. This could be the one instance where Tai's charm and charisma fail them.

Then an accidental heist throws them together as partners in crime.

Fleeing from the authorities, they're dragged into one adventure after another: alien planets, pirate duels, and narrow escapes from the law. As Tai and Aisha open up to each other, deeper feelings kindle between them. But that reward money still hangs over Tai's head. Telling Aisha the truth could ruin everything… 

Their freedom, their career, and their blossoming love all hang in the balance. To save one might mean sacrificing the rest.

I bought this ebook during one of those stuff your ereader sales last year. The premise sounded interesting, although the book is not as scandalous as the premise makes it sound. The setting is in the distant future, where many different planets are known about and colonized. The POV trades off between Tai and Aisha, who could not be more different: Tai is white, nonbinary, a cyborg, an orphan, in debt, and a sex worker who can charm anyone; Aisha is Black, asexual, touch-averse, an archeologist/historian, and an heiress who has been fighting against her ultra-rich and controlling parents to live the life she wants. Aisha's father arranged her marriage without telling her to a famous actor, the one who hires Tai to try to 'find out what she likes' and seduce her. The 'fiance' chooses Tai because they're a cyborg whose brain implant lets them read other people's moods and body language. Tai accepts the job despite their misgivings because it will pay off their medical debt: the shady doctor who saved Tai from the car crash that killed their parents and critically injured them when they were a child used the opportunity to implant the unregulated technology that saved their life, but also kept them chained to the doctor (who probably programmed the implant to malfunction every couple of years to keep the money rolling in), and no one stepped in because Tai was an orphan. This debt drove Tai to go into sex work when their parents' money dried up, mid-high school. So fucked up.

The story really takes off at Aisha's big museum exhibit of fossils from an ancient, presumed extinct ant-like alien culture. Aisha, her colleague Jimin (a nice Korean guy), a pilot named Hue who discovered an alien fossil in the exhibit, and Tai somehow figure out how to get an ancient piece of alien technology working, and it brings the fossilized alien to life! The ant-like creature takes back the alien technology and starts trying to escape, killing a security guard in the progress. Hue is able to communicate with the alien thanks to the dragon she's bonded with (dragons are aliens that can teleport and communicate telepathically, sort of eldila-like). The humans all help get the alien onto Hue's ship so they can get it back to its own people. From the outside, however, it looks like the four humans stole a valuable alien fossil and killed a security guard in the process, and they are now considered criminals on the run. 

They go to several different planets, all very different and interesting: a lush jungle-y planet with no sentient life, where they leave the alien; a pirate port planet named Tortuga after the pirate stronghold!, and Jimin's home planet Halcyon, a peaceful farming community watched over by dragons. All sorts of crazy stuff goes down, and Tai and Aisha grow closer throughout it all and fall in love, but Tai knows the lies will ruin everything between them. In my opinion, it was stupid of Tai to think that Aisha's 'fiance' would still be willing to pay them for seducing Aisha after they became fugitives from the law. In what world would that business transaction be kept? Tai should have realized this and just owned up on like day 2 or 3 when they realized they liked Aisha as a friend. Aisha was rejected in the past for being asexual, and it broke her heart; you can guess what happens when the truth is found out. More wild stuff goes down, and our lovebirds save each other and find a happy ending. I really enjoyed this book and the world it was set in, even though I hated how sexism, classism, and capitalism were still a thing. I'd be down to read more books in this series. 

Score: ★★★★ out of 5 stars
Spice score: 🌶
Read in: April 6
From: Barnes & Noble Nook

Genres/classification: science fiction with some romance and borderline-fantasy elements

Tropes: opposites attract, sex worker x virgin (sorry), flirt x shy/standoffish, presumed criminals on the run, "this other person hired me to trick/date/bed you without you knowing I was hired to do so but now we're falling in love and I know it'll break your heart if you find out but I can't bring myself to tell you because I don't want you to be upset/break up with me" but she finds out anyway and leaves/breaks up with them but the liar apologizes and affirms they do love the lie-ee for real and they end up together anyway. You know the drill

Representation: Black ace female MC, nonbinary femme sex worker MC with they/them pronouns, straight? Korean male SC, Vietnamese bi or pan middle-aged female SC. Queernorm society, no homophobia or transphobia from what I remember

Trigger warnings: violence, death, suicide (very minor character, past), a character is drugged and imprisoned, medical abuse of a non-consenting patient since they were a child, a character began sex work as an underage teenager (all off-page), abusive/controlling parents, a character is shot with a future!gun, orphaned character whose parents died in a car crash (past), drugs and tripping/being high mentions, alcohol mentions, vomiting mentions, allergic reaction, gender dysphoria

Book Reviews: the Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune series by K.J. Charles

I loved K.J. Charles' Will Darling trilogy and A Charm of Magpies series, and my love for Regency romances is well-documented on this blog, so when I saw that KJC had written gay Regency romance novels, I snapped up the ebooks when they were on sale.  I read the two books in the Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune series by K.J. Charles back to back in one day. They're set in the same world (well obviously all Regency romance novels are set in Regency-era England, but, you know, the characters have mutual friends and eventually interact etc.) but you don't really have to read them in order. Both ebooks are from B&N/Nook.

 

The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting

Robin Loxleigh and his sister Marianne are the hit of the Season, so attractive and delightful that nobody looks behind their pretty faces.

Until Robin sets his sights on Sir John Hartlebury's heiress niece. The notoriously graceless baronet isn't impressed by good looks or fooled by false charm. He's sure Robin is a liar, a fortune hunter, and a heartless, greedy fraud -- and he'll protect his niece, whatever it takes.

Then, just when Hart thinks he has Robin at his mercy, things take a sharp left turn. And as the grumpy baronet and the glib fortune hunter start to understand each other, they also find themselves starting to care -- more than either of them thought possible.

But Robin's cheated and lied and let people down for money. Can a professional rogue earn an honest happy ever after?

Gold-digging scammer siblings + an autistic-coded baronet who is not taken in by their charm + paying off a gambling debt by ~creative means~ 👀 They start catching feelings during what is supposed to be strictly a ~physical~ arrangement!! 😱 Both Robin and Hart are forced to come face to face with their parent wounds/childhood trauma, and decide whether they can let themselves be loved as they truly are. Marianne is dead-set on marrying a titled noble so she'll be rich for the rest of her life, but Hart's non-rich, non-titled friend is in love with her, and she might be falling for him... Also there's the math genius niece and card games. I liked this a lot and found it interesting to read about all the ways the Loxleigh siblings acted to achieve their desired results and manipulations. Hart and Robin gave me Roy x Jamie from Ted Lasso vibes. There's also a little KJC name punning going on.  ★★★★, 🌶🌶🌶

 

The Duke at Hazard 

The Duke of Severn is one of the greatest men in Britain.

He's also short, quiet, and unimpressive. And now he's been robbed, after indulging in one rash night with a strange man who stole the heirloom Severn ring from his finger. The Duke has to get it back, and he can't let anyone know how he lost it. So when his cousin bets that he couldn't survive without his privilege and title, the Duke grasps the opportunity to hunt down his ring--incognito.

Life as an ordinary person is terrifying... until the anonymous Duke meets Daizell Charnage, a disgraced gentleman, and hires him to help. Racing across the country in search of the thief, the Duke and Daizell fall into scrapes, into trouble--and in love.

Daizell has been excluded from polite society, his name tainted by his father's crimes and his own misbehaviour. Now he dares to dream of a life somewhere out of sight with the quiet gentleman who's stolen his heart. He doesn't know that his lover is a hugely rich public figure with half a dozen titles. And when he finds out, it will risk everything they have...

Poor sheltered Sev (the Duke of Severn) just wanted to have one anonymous hookup, but gets plied with alcohol and robbed while unconscious. His well-meaning relations basically run his life and are always impressing the Grandeur and Importance of his title, so they can't know his ring was stolen; no one can know, as gay hookups are illegal. It was actually stressful reading about Sev (going by Cassian, one of his many names) trying to get around by himself when he has no idea what he's doing. Luckily he stumbles on Charnage, who was a few years above him at Eton, and hires him to help him look for the guy who robbed him. Their adventures have both highs (sightseeing, There Was Only One Bed) and lows (having to ride in a public coach that packs in smelly people like sardines, being in a horrible coach crash with casualties, getting kidnapped), but overall Sev/Cassian finds the freedom exhilarating. He and Charnage also keep running into a young lady hell-bent on eloping and evading her awful guardian, and try to help her. Charnage's deal was sad; I hated how he was cast out from society because his dad committed a crime he had nothing to do with. The fact that Sev/Cassian has been lying to him this whole time doesn't help. Overall this was a wild ride, and I loved reading how Sev came into his own as a Duke and how he used his position to make things right with Charnage and his friends and fix their issues.  ★★★★, 🌶🌶🌶  DM me for TWs (I believe both books have them listed at the beginning)

unorganized moodboard for the Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune series

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, everybody can tell they're into each other/in love but them, that thing when a presumed bad guy saves/rescues a child, showing that he's actually a good person

Representation: trans man MC, gay relationship, Silvyr gives off neurodivergent vibes (I saw a review that said he's autistic), sapphic couple mention (blink and you miss it), inter-species relationship. There is no transphobia or homophobia 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 they deserve), Silvyr experiences dysphoria, dubious/non-explicit 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