Empress of Timbra

This was *not* what I'm supposed to be reading right now, but I had it as an e-book and started it at a time I didn't want to lug a paper book with me, and then I couldn't stop. The Empress of Timbra, Karen Healey and Robyn Fleming. I backed their Kickstarter because I was so excited about a new Healey novel, and it was so good! I remembered basically nothing they had said about it by the time I got it, which was a great way to read it, but very generally, it's a classic second-world fantasy novel with two protagonists, 14 and 11 years old, so it doesn't quite fit neatly into middle-grade or young adult. (And the writing doesn't feel middle-grade, anyways.) There's magic and royalty and pirates ("murdered by pirates is good!") and I want to say a bunch of things about the pacing that don't quite sound like they all make sense together: that it's a fast read but a slow build, that sometimes it might seem like nothing big is happening but there's always something moving you to the next page or chapter. Also it reads like a standalone but I believe they plan to write more of them, which is maybe the best possible combination. Some fun faux-academic commentary at the end from later historians as a bonus. :)