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My dude, you're on the EIGER NORTH FACE! How are you making this dull??

Was kind of hoping for more Eiger North Face and less booze-soaked midlife crisis from this.

Fully half of the books I've read this year have been 1 or 2 star levels of underwhelming. Considering declaring a state of emergency 😱

I sincerely hope Mrs Saville, upon receiving this self-indulgent pack of epistolary narcissism, said "tl;dr, bro" and chucked it in the fireplace 🙄

for the love of god can these people get murdered already

Unfortunately a female character's agonising over whether or not to procreate is fatally dull to me no matter what species she is. Way to make one of the more interesting side characters of previous books boring, boring, boring.

Looking forward to hanging out with these guys again, but can I just say, AGAIN, that I kinda hate that extraneous comma in the title, lol. You sure you need to be there, little guy?

This sure is a lot of funeral practice minutiae in my uplifting life-affirming sci-fi

Wow, humans are so boring.

Seriously considering making this a full year of beloved rereads only, lol

oh yeah, these books always give me such a hankering for roast bugs

I can't quite remember what Jokaste's ultimate endgame was (I wanna say some convoluted triple play for Damen's actual benefit?) but I can't help feeling that if her scheming makes her such a terrific opponent, she ought to be better at it.

On the whole, I'm able to ignore all the heavy borrowing Pacat has done from Dorothy Dunnett and Mary Renault bc she does put her own spin on it, but occasionally there's a scene like this spear-throwing bully prank that's just lifted almost entirely (in this case from The Persian Boy) and then it's just impossible to not be a little embarrassed for her 😬

Yes, hello, is that my order of emotional flaying you have there?

Huh. The new pretty edition doesn't have the bonus chapter/extra sex scene, which I'm pretty sure is illegal. Luckily I still have my ratty old copy. Don't deprive me of my emotionally devastating smut!!

The fact that Laurent is so utterly flummoxed by the concept of someone being genuinely on his side that he doesn't know what to do with it... gah. He's so used to fighting this fight alone and he's done it since he was 13 fucking years old and... GAAAAH.

Jfc, every word in this book is destroying me, how is this still so good

I am a creature of simple joys, and the "we must stay quietly pressed together like sardines in our cramped, precarious hiding space while danger prowls outside, never mind how much we're struggling with inconvenient hilarity or arousal" trope will always delight me, but this particular iteration is definitely a favourite.

This book is absolutely full of favourite scenes, but Damen finding out Laurent is actually a consummate swordsman is among the top three.

Huh, the Prince's men all seem well organised, efficient, and super-loyal for some weird reason. It must be a trick. Or it's 'cause he's pretty. ~Damen, excellent judge of character as per usual

Deep breath. Ok, it's time. Someone saddle my horse and lace up my unnecessarily convoluted clothing and LET'S GO.

Nghhh everything is so tense and layered and knowing what's happening is not keeping me from being emotionally destroyed even one single bit ngghhhhhhh

Damianos of Akielon: confidently and dependably striding towards the wrongest of conclusions since, presumably, birth. I want to hug him and also shake him a lot.

Damen I really do love you so much but you don't understand anything shut up shut up shut your pretty, dumb mouth

Damen: This dishonest and disagreeable person has an ulterior motive in what he just said/did but I have figured it out *nods proudly*
Layers 3-67 of Laurent's ulterior motive: LOL.

Still a little annoyed that Ancel and Berenger's behaviour at this gross ring scene doesn't match up with "Pet" at all. If the timeline were different, you could argue they're pretending to fit in, but as it is, it doesn't work. Berenger would never consent to public groping.

"His mind, which ran long straight and candid lines, could not make sense of what was happening."

Oh Damen. You sweet summer child.

Okay. I have new paperbacks with pretty covers *pets*, it's been too long, and this reread is happening! I am sorry-not-sorry in advance should my updates get out of hand because ARGH THESE BOOKS

So far this reads like a PSA on sexual identities disguised as a novel. If I have to hear this guy's wife hold forth about the details of her polycule one more time...

Ok, I'm all for tasteless (oh no) cannibalism jokes, humour helps us process the horrific etc but seeing as this book's overall vibe leans towards research, compassion and avoidance of ghouly sensationalism, I still feel an editor should've maybe vetoed "Christmas Feasts" and "The Heart on the Mountain" as chapter titles 😬