In A Bargain of Blood and Gold, a hunter goes to a small town only to mistakenly befriend the vampire and team up against a bigger threat. In Lord of the Last Heartbeat, a mage runs away from his crime lord mother and is taken in by a man whose home is cursed. In Courting Nightfall, a half dark elf joins an adventuring party and heads out to kill the vampire wreaking havoc on town, though he has a connection to the vampire he doesn’t yet realize. Enjoy my mini reviews for these three queer fantasy books!
A Bargain of Blood and Gold by Kristin Jacques
*I received an ecopy of this book via NetGalley. This has not influenced my review.*
A paranormal story with vampires, demons, a budding romance, a historical setting, an eerie mystery that unfolds throughout the book, and good-hearted characters trying to do the right thing while sometimes battling the metaphorical demons of their past---lots of stuff to like in this one! I will say Vic seemed more of a vampire in label than in practice, since he injects blood rather than drinking it and is basically just a fast, strong, immortal human, but that's just me always wanting more vampire-ness in books. This was an enjoyable start to a series.
Recommended For:
Anyone who likes historical fantasy, m/m paranormal romance, vampires, uncommon supernaturals, and a bit of mystery.
Lord of the Last Heartbeat by May Peterson
*I received an ecopy of this book via NetGalley. This has not influenced my review.*
This was an atmospheric, expressive, eloquently written fantasy story with magic, ghosts, curses, music, and love. To be honest, I didn't fully grasp all the details about the curse and the magic, it was complex. I also felt like the characters barely knew each other and didn't quite believe they were so in love already. But everything seemed well thought-out, and the magic was interesting. The characters, the ones you were supposed to like at least, were good people. According to the author on Twitter, the main character is nonbinary AMAB intersex (he/him), which isn't explicitly stated with those words in the book but is discussed between characters. Overall, a bit hard for me to get into, but still an enjoyable story that fans of complex magic and atmospheric fantasy romance will enjoy.
Recommended For:
Anyone who likes atmospheric and expressive writing, fantasy romance, nonbinary and intersex rep, and complex magic.
Courting Nightfall by Amanda Meuwissen
*I received an ecopy of this book from the author. This has not influenced my review.*
This was an enjoyable high fantasy romance with some fun D&D-esque adventuring! There was a whole interesting high fantasy world with different races, some action, some magic, some creatures, some cool vampire powers, a touching found family element, and of course romance. I liked that the love interest wasn't entirely a good person, since you don't see that too often in books. He had good ideals, and he felt like what he was doing was right and just, but he did some bad things.
However, I felt like the emotional things seemed to happen so fast. It would be A LOT, to learn and experience everything Zen did, but it was kind of go, go, go, keep on with the adventure. I would've liked to know more of what Zen was feeling, how he was processing, if not also Gaian.
Overall, this was a fairly sweet fantasy romance, with a touch of darker elements here and there, and nice story about friendship and acceptance and people changing for the better. I enjoyed it, and I think anyone who's really into adventuring parties will like it even more.
Recommended For:
Anyone who likes high fantasy, romance, D&D-esque adventuring, reincarnation, and vampires.
A Bargain of Blood and Gold isn’t my thing but it sounds wonderfully complex.
Karen @For What It’s Worth
It had some interesting stuff 🙂