The Priory of the Orange Tree

This is a huge single-volume fantasy epic. It has a lot going for it, there are assassins, pirates, two kinds of dragons, conflicting religions, and sapphic romance (if you like that sorta thing – meh). But it's mostly about three main characters plus one not-as-interesting one. The most interesting characters are the women, Ead (a mage from the South on a secret mission in the North), and Tané, a young woman destined to be a dragonrider from the East. There's also a Queen without an heir, a witch, and a sisterhood of the title. There's a lot going on. There's an historic timeline in the back, lists of characters, and a glossary of terms.

I struggled a bit with this one. I thought there was too much description that was not essential to the story. And I put the book down multiple times, detouring with other reading. But then, around page 290, things started to get more interesting, and the middle of the book had a LOT more going on and I got much more invested in the story.

There's some cool surprises in store and an epic denouement. Overall, I thought it was fun but I wouldn't rave about it.