Inkmistress

[psocoptera]

Audrey Coulthurst's Inkmistress was on my hotly-anticipated list after Of Fire and Stars (which I discussed here), but I'm afraid I wasn't as into it. Some of that was prequel trouble - there was a bunch of stuff in the ending that I really didn't get the point of, that I think must have tied into things that I now don't recall about Fire or its sequel coming out next year - but some was also expectation trouble. I had definitely gotten the impression (as you can see in that previous post) that Inkmistress was going to be about another f/f relationship, and it does open with the protag in such a relationship, but it very quickly falls apart and her primary romance is with a male character. Just to be clear, I do not have a problem with Coulthurst *writing* that story, and I think it's a fine and good thing to have on the big LGBTQIA+ bookshelf. Yay bi representation! Yay for people with that particular relationship history seeing themselves in a book! But, *for me*, I picked up the book with a mistaken impression, and I don't think it de-legitimizes bi f/m romance in general to say that it wasn't exactly what I thought I was looking forward to here. And I feel like enjoyment of the book is probably going to be maximized by being less wrong expectation-wise.

That said the romance was sweet, although not as piney as I like best in my teen romance, and I liked (spoilers) the way the ex develops as the primary antagonist, her team-up with the also-female secondary antagonist, and the way things resolve between them, the protagonist, and the tertiary antagonist. But I guess my bottom-line review here is more or less "if you like YA fantasy this is one and it's fine".