Notorious Sorcerer

How have I not heard more buzz about this book? I loved it. Nuanced, well-drawn characters, families of choice, strong platonic bonds, and a lovely queer romance that wasn't overdone? Right up my alley. When I go into a book marketed as M/M romance I'm never sure what kind of female characters I might find therein, but the women in here were fantastic, a whole host of them with a wide range of personalities and strengths and motivations. Zagiri in particular is my baby and I adore her.

I liked the pacing, the balance of action with exposition and quieter moments, and also the worldbuilding; this just isn't a book that holds your hand at all, so it's up to you to figure out what unfamiliar terms mean, Locked Tomb style. I much prefer that to the “As you know, Bob” type of exposition, so I rolled with it and was able to get my bearings before long.

Also, I just really enjoyed the flow of the prose:

The demon court was a congregation of nightmare and menace, bristling with horns and talons and tusks, rustling with scales and weaponry and speculation.

The world was so thick. Like a soup made of hallucinations and hangover.