Prompt based readathons and me don’t get along. I don’t really ever do them. This is actually the first time I even considered doing one at all and that’s only because this seemed very relaxed and it’s a fantasy readathon. It fits most of the books I want to read already anyway. Aaron from Booked and Busy is hosting a readthon, #RoyalReadathon, in September. It takes place from September 13 – 20.
Long Live the King: read a book with a male protagonist
Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma.
Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals – the old art known as the Wit – gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.
So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin.
I heard K.S. Villoso talking about this book, Assassin’s Apprentice, on a liveshow for A Buwan ng Wika featuring Shut Up, Shealea and Your Tita Kate. I can’t quite recall if she said some of what happens in this series was an inspiration for the Chronicles of the Bitch Queen or if her writing was just inspired by Robin Hobb’s Farseer trilogy. Nonetheless, Aaron frequently talks about Fitz on her channel. I don’t read that many traditional fantasy books anymore. It will be interesting. It has assassin’s. What is there to know.
May the best woman win: read a book about women fighting for power
and
Who run the world? Girls: read a book set in a Queendom
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown
For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the prosperous desert city of Ziran. But when a vengeful spirit abducts Malik’s younger sister, Nadia, as payment into the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal—kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia’s freedom.
But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny; and Solstasia looms like a knife over her neck. Grief-stricken, Karina decides to resurrect her mother through ancient magic . . . requiring the beating heart of a king. And she knows just how to obtain one: by offering her hand in marriage to the victor of the Solstasia competition.
When Malik rigs his way into the contest, they are set on a course to destroy each other. But as attraction flares between them and ancient evils stir, will they be able to see their tasks to the death?
The first in an fantasy duology inspired by West African folklore in which a grieving crown princess and a desperate refugee find themselves on a collision course to murder each other despite their growing attraction.
I am not a friends to lovers type of reader. I need the complicated relationships and enemies to lovers just says it all for me. I also hear that Brown has Black boys being vulnerable and soft and I’m absolutely here for that. I would love to see more Black boys and men in YA fantasy, as well as adult fantasy. I hear the heroine is just phoenix burning ‘yeah i’m just gonna kill you who the fuck cares about morals’ type of heroine. I need more complicated/evil heroines. LOVE. IT.
This book fulfills the prompt for ‘read a book set in a queendom’ and ‘women fighting for power’.
Bells Will Be Ringing: read a book featuring a romance
Reign & Ruin by J.D. Evans
“All magic is beautiful,” she said, “and terrible. Do you not see the beauty in yours, or the terror in mine? You can stop a heart, and I can stop your breath.”
She is heir to a Sultanate that once ruled the world. He is an unwanted prince with the power to destroy.
She is order and intellect, a woman fit to rule in a man’s place. He is chaos and violence and will stop at nothing to protect his people.
His magic answers hers with shadow for light. They need each other, but the cost of balance may be too high a price. Magic is dying and the only way to save it is to enlist mages who wield the forbidden power of death, mages cast out centuries ago in a brutal and bloody war.
Now, a new war is coming. Science and machines to replace magic and old religion.
They must find a way to save their people from annihilation and balance the sacred Wheel—but first, they will have to balance their own forbidden passion. His peace for her tempest, his restlessness for her calm…
Night and day, dusk and dawn, the end, and the beginning.
Back in March and April I helped plan the Social Distance Book Festival. J.D. Evans was our genius organizer. She was also in quite a few of our panels, one featuring indie authors and another a discussion on consent in romance. She has these amazing Fantasy Romance novels that I’ve been dying to read for so long but I’ve been so swamped with arcs that I haven’t taken the time to take a break for myself on stuff that I just want to read. I decided to take a break from the majority of my arcs this month and this is top on my list.
Reign & Ruin fits the prompt for ‘read a book featuring a romance.’ Gimme your fantasy. Gimme your romance. J.D. Evans is here for my reading tastes.
A Name Fit for a King: royal, prince, princess, king, queen, throne, crown (or any other “royal” word in the title.
Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri
A nobleman’s daughter with magic in her blood. An empire built on the dreams of enslaved gods. Empire of Sand is Tasha Suri’s captivating, Mughal India-inspired debut fantasy.
The Amrithi are outcasts; nomads descended of desert spirits, they are coveted and persecuted throughout the Empire for the power in their blood. Mehr is the illegitimate daughter of an imperial governor and an exiled Amrithi mother she can barely remember, but whose face and magic she has inherited.
When Mehr’s power comes to the attention of the Emperor’s most feared mystics, she must use every ounce of will, subtlety, and power she possesses to resist their cruel agenda.
Should she fail, the gods themselves may awaken seeking vengeance…
Empire of Sand is a lush, dazzling fantasy novel perfect for readers of City of Brass and The Wrath & the Dawn.
So another SDBF story. I actually started this and was godsmacked by the level of romantic and gorgeous prose that was in this book. But. I got so busy with SDBF and promoting authors that I just had zero time for it. I knew that if I kept reading it at the time I wouldn’t be able to truly enjoy it on the level that I wanted. It’s just one of those books that seems like it deserves my full attention. So I very reluctantly put it down.
This book fulfills the read a book with a royal name in the title. It has Empire in the title, which is close enough to Kingdom. I figure it fits. If not? Fuck it. I’m reading it anyway.
So, these all look awesome. I have to admit to a slight obsession with books with royal themes.
Me too! I’m especially looking forward to getting back to Empire of Sand. That one I KNOW FOR SURE is going to be amazing.