Top one I’m gonna recommend right now is Crown of Stars series by Kate Elliot. High Fantasy/Romance, heavy, heavy Usurper/Holy Mother, and pretty blatant about the tropes it’s using.
Like Sanglant (the Usurper) literally gets chained up with the war dogs and straight-up kidnaps Liath from his father (mutual kidnapping? fake kidnapping? IDK those two crazy kids are really into each other). Sanglant is hot af I still have dreams about this dude, man, like fuckin’ wild ass bastard prince whose mamma was some sort of fairy demon who seduced the king then abandoned both of them once she popped him out. Sanglant is always getting in trouble with daddy but daddy can’t bear to put him aside because he’s still in love with Sanglant’s mom, and Sanglant is just MAD CRAZY about Liath, like he straight up loses his shit and almost wrecks the entire kingdom it’s GREAT.
Anyways, very long series, very good, haven’t read it for awhile. It’s at least seven books and each book is over 500 pages? Me and the gals should probably cover it on @metamashina cuz it’s right up our alley.
Ohhh, thank you! That sounds just perfect. To my shame I have to add that I’ve never even heard about it but this seems to be exactly the kind of book I try to find when I need a certain itch scratched. 🙂
Monsters and Villains 