The Not a Book Club Club discussion

Section 1


Please keep all discussion and speculation to the events of Chapters 1-16.


No spoiler tags required. Though it would be highly appreciated if you Uncheck Add to my Update Feed to avoid accidentally spoiling things for your good read friends.


Please do not discuss events from later sections/books. Referring back to events from a previous section/book is fine.

Not a lot going on so far. We mostly check in with all of the characters. Karis is settling into her new position.

The eye wants Tia to get close to her, and Tia resolves to take the head of the eye down.

Gavin seems to be captured by his father, and his former room slave has been kidnapped (partially due to Tia) to help care for him. We learn she's not a real slave, but volunteered. She's also the grand daughter of the previous White and born a noble.

Apparently we need to spend a bunch of time on Kip's sexual problems. I'm confused by the whole thing. Maybe I missed the explanation, but there is some kind of physical blockage preventing penetration (and therefore consummation of their marriage)? I wonder if that's his subconscious love of Tia manifesting itself somehow? He calls it the "Jade Gate" I think? So is it Green luxen? I feel like I missed some important detail here..

I was getting annoyed at how far I was getting into the book without anything on Kip, and then this is what I get. I forgot how juvenile Week's books feel at times. There better be a point to all of this..

I thought the room slave stuff was interesting - we knew she was competent and loved Gavin, well and the spymaster - but the noble part was new!

The Kip stuff - sigh......What I gathered is that it was her because he was able/willing. And she has too many tight muscles or something? Uh...I just can't really comment on that other than - DUMB.

Well at least it's not just me that thinks it's dumb. My thought on it really being Kip is because while he may be physically attracted to her and willing, subconsciously his love for Tia is preventing him. But if it's actually part of her body and not some kind of lux thing, well yeah..

That is one issue with the audio - you get something that doesn't make sense and can't go "Whaaat???" and re-read. At least, I am too lazy to try.

yeah. too hard to redo parts in audio. especially mid bike ride..

Isn't the former room slave the spy mistress? she just doesn't seem like my idea of a Spy mistress. Again its the whole sex thing. Although Gavins internal debate seems realistic enough. The parts,with Tia have been ok so far but the parts with Kip are pretty juvenile. And I actually liked Kip a lot in the earlier books. Oh well, not far in yet. Just like Kip...snicker.

Suzanne wrote: "Isn't the former room slave the spy mistress? she just doesn't seem like my idea of a Spy mistress.

Yes. I think so. By my memory isn't great.

Suzanne wrote: "Oh well, not far in yet. Just like Kip...snicker.

Ba dum cha!

Tisis has a condition called vaginismus:

http://www.webmd.com/women/guide/vagi...

I guess it helps that he didn't just make this up, but I'm still failing to see the relevance to the story. I guess she's anxious about consummating her marriage?

Although that article you linked indicates they aren't sure if anxiety is a cause or an effect.

Yeah, they really don't know. The relevance to the story is just that it's a thing that happens to people, and there's a lot of shame and pain surrounding the condition that is still not well-known today. I'm sure that people who have the condition or have been in a relationship with someone who did/does appreciate the representation.

Thanks for linking that - knowing that it's a real thing makes me a lot more accepting of these chapters :)