selenak

Two delightful novels set in the same universe and loosely connected in that the main characters of one book show up as minor supporting characters in the next, but each can stand on its own as well. Both are basically regency romances plus magic, with characters in the spotlight who in more „traditional“ Regency romances show up only in supporting roles, if at all: Sorcerer to the Crown has a black hero and half-Indian heroine, The True Queen a Malayan Muslim heroine, both novels feature a gay dragon and his boyfriend, and they’re not the only prominent same-sex romance, either. At the same time, this isn’t the kind of magical AU which postulates a past free of all the injustices plagueing the „real“ world. Stephen in Sorcerer to the Crown is a freed slave (who never finds out what happened to his not-freed biological parents and has to put up with racism on a daily basis), the general British population with magic isn’t any more forward thinking when it comes to „the weaker sex“ than their rl early 19th century equivalents, and the people of the island Muna, the second novel’s main character, lives on has a justified distrust of the British Empire it rather does not want to end up in.

At the same time, both novels pay faithful homage to the regency novel formula: nothing more explicit than a kiss happens between the main pairings, and the kiss comes near the end of the respective novels, witty dialogue, balls, scheming fashion setters abound, economic necessity means our first heroine Prunella very pragmatically is on the lookout for a rich marriage, there are excentric relations (with a twist: the part oft he traditional bossy dragon aunt is played by, well, a dragon who is also an aunt – to the Bertie Wooster resembling gay dragon, btw), and true love wins at the end.
In conclusion: if you happen to be on the lookout for something to read in the summer which is entertaining, intelligent and endearing, and fantastical to boot, go for it!