Of Fire and Stars

[psocoptera]

The worst thing about Audrey Coulthurst's Of Fire and Stars is that it was a 2016 book, so I'm a year late to the party. This is classic YA fantasy, now with 100% more gay: princess trained for an arranged marriage finally travels to her betrothed's kingdom... and falls in love with his sister. Their chemistry was so good, the tension of the slow build was exactly why I love YA romance, and this book did everything right: forbidden-but-unsuppressable magic is a clear metaphor for queerness, but there's also actual queerness; in the crowd of ladies-in-waiting our princess manages to befriend another lesbian (who I totally need the side novella about pls) so it's not the One Lone Gay trope. One does maybe wonder at points how this kingdom has survived this long but I live in the US so I can hardly complain about political stupidity and incompetence being unrealistic. Anyways, recommended; it's a standalone (but I want mooooore...) but her next book, Inkmistress, next spring, is a prequel in the same world, 200 years earlier, also a girl/girl couple. I look forward to it.