August Reading Wrap-Up:
Apparently, I Have a Type

Starside by Alex Aster

My Rating: ★★★★☆

Yes, there are trials.

Before you close the browser while muttering, Please, not another fantasy book with deadly trials, hear me out.

This one is worth it.

Starside follows Aris, a mortal blacksmith's apprentice entering a brutal competition with motivations that go far beyond simply winning. The world is divided between mortals and the magical descendants of gods, and every fifty years, challengers are given the opportunity to cross into Starside in pursuit of magic. Aris, however, has vengeance on her mind.

And naturally, because we are here for the romance too, there is Harlan Raker.

What worked for me was the combination of tension, pacing and world-building. The story moves. Even when we're learning about this complicated magical world, it never felt like I was sitting through a fantasy history lecture waiting for something interesting to happen.

There is danger around nearly every corner, plenty of reasons not to trust anyone and enough romantic tension threaded throughout the story to keep the romance reader in me very happy.

And then there's the ending.

I'm not spoiling anything, but consider this your warning: prepare to stare into space for a few minutes afterward while reevaluating everything you thought you knew.

The audiobook deserves its own mention because it is delicious. Vanessa Moyen and Anthony Palmini perform it in duet narration, and if you enjoy romantasy on audio, this is absolutely one I would recommend experiencing that way.

Final verdict: A solid four-star read for me, and I will absolutely be waiting for the sequel.

Web of Vows and Vengeance by Aria Ashbrook

The Hirathean Path, Book One

Apparently one set of deadly trials wasn't enough for August.

Enter Rose and Kyor.

Rose has had essentially everything stolen from her. Her family's power, position and future were destroyed after a lie from Prince Kyor, and she's left fighting to protect what remains. Her chance to change everything comes through the Tournament of the Gifting, a deadly competition where winning could finally give her the power to reclaim her life.

And yes.

Kyor is there too.

Which is terribly inconvenient for Rose and extremely convenient for those of us who came for the enemies-to-lovers tension.

This book had so many of the things I love in fantasy romance: vengeance, gods and goddesses, deadly competition, forced proximity, found family and two characters carrying enough emotional baggage between them to require their own caravan.

But Rose was what really pulled me into the story.

I love a heroine who has been knocked down without being written as helpless. Rose is angry. She's determined. She's flawed. She has every reason to want revenge, and you understand why she makes the choices she does even when those choices make everything considerably more complicated.

Then there is Kyor.

Rose and Kyor may have officially entered the running as one of my new favorite fantasy couples.

What really surprised me, though, was how attached I became to the characters surrounding them. By the end, I wasn't only invested in the romance. I cared about the friendships, the secrets, the relationships and the larger world Ashbrook was building around Rose.

Which created a problem.

I finished the book and had absolutely no intention of patiently waiting before starting the next one.

So naturally, I didn't.

Vows of Blood and Deception by Aria Ashbrook

The Hirathean Path, Book Two

There are readers who finish the first book in a series, thoughtfully place it back on the shelf and decide they'll return to the sequel eventually.

I admire those people.

I am not one of them.

I finished Web of Vows and Vengeance and immediately started Vows of Blood and Deception because I needed answers.

And somehow?

I think I loved Book Two even more.

Rose's story expands beyond the trials as she and her friends begin searching for the truth behind everything that has happened. More secrets surface, old betrayals take on new meaning, alliances begin shifting, and Rose discovers that regaining what she lost doesn't necessarily mean getting her old life back.

The second book also gives the story room to breathe in a different way.

We're no longer simply trying to survive a tournament. We're dealing with court politics, complicated relationships, broken trust, unanswered questions and the consequences of everything Rose and Kyor have already done to one another.

And that is where this series became really addictive for me.

Because the romance isn't existing separately from the plot.

Everything is tangled together.

And Rose and Kyor?

Their relationship somehow becomes even more frustrating, complicated and compelling.

Exactly how I like it.

Ashbrook also continues developing the friendships and found-family dynamics that made me care so much about the first book. There are characters here I genuinely became attached to, which means every new secret feels slightly more dangerous because now I have people I don't want the author touching.

Authors rarely respect that request.

The audiobook is narrated by Amanda Leigh Cobb and Anthony Palmini, and once again the audio experience is excellent.

If Web of Vows and Vengeance pulled me into this world, Vows of Blood and Deception made sure I wasn't leaving anytime soon.