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A review by xusbookreviews
Radiance by Grace Draven
5.0
Review TLDR: This is a must-read for all romantasy readers. Full stop. Don’t even bother reading the review. Just go get the damn book already.
Overall: But why, you ask? Because it’s the right combination of spice, character development, romance, and worldbuilding in a book that is less than 300 pages. In other words, it doesn’t take half of your life and all of your sanity to finish. Brishen and Ildiko are a delightful pair and their friends/family/enemies round out the book in the best possible way. It does end on a cliffhanger, but not one that makes you feel like you didn’t get an end to the first half of the story. I won’t lie; this is one of my favorite romantasy series and one I recommend to anyone who wants to get into the “monster-lover” subsection of the genre.
Spice Level: 3/5; Open door, with details, but this is not a smutty book. The romance is a slow-burn based primary on friendship and comradery first, love second. You’ll notice I didn’t include lust in there and there’s a good reason: these two are not of the same species and they are repugnant to each other physically (at first). It means no lusting until a firm relationship has already formed. That aside, their entire relationship is funny, charming, and heartwarming. Their first meeting should be required reading for anyone who wants to know what chemistry without sexuality ought to look like, for sure. Oh, and when the sex does come around, it’s very earned and satisfying (he he).
Pacing/Filler: This book is not an action thriller, by any means, and there are some sections that could use a little trimming (Brishen tends to wax philosophical about Ildiko’s finer personality traits, which gets a little repetitive), but the pacing is consistent overall. It’s a steady book from beginning to end, with moments of action interspersed with court drama and slice of life scenes. It’s a relatively short book, so the author keeps things moving along.
Character Development: Let’s talk turkey: these two are not your typical romantasy heroes – Ildiko is a soft noblewoman who doesn’t even pretend to know how to use a sharp surface against her enemies. Brishen is a warrior through and through, but doesn’t use his abilities to intimidate her in any way. I think their largest moments of growth come from trying to see the world through each other’s eyes; Ildiko learns to evaluate a home for its martial properties, for example. This is the same lady who was raised to be a court flower, so it’s an interesting show of her adaptability and willingness to learn new things. Brishen, by contrast, doesn’t know the first thing about the beauty of aesthetics (he can’t even name the local flowers!) and has to defer to Ildiko…until he decides to learn. And did I mention that at no point do these two ever threaten, harass, or harm one another? Their only insults are given in a humorous way, to make the other person laugh. If you want maturity, complexity, and respectability in your FMC and MMC, these two are here for you.
Side characters? Oh yes, I have to stop gushing for a moment about Brishen and Ildiko…ok, how’s this? Brishen’s cousin Anhuset could have easily been the little sister trope – but she’s a better warrior than him and the first person he asks for any task that needs doing. She also shows growth by overcoming a clear prejudice against humans and comes to respect Ildiko for her unique strengths (even offers to train her, even though that was mostly a joke). Sereovek is a close friend of Brishen, a human lord who technically lives in the enemy kingdom but values Brishen’s honor over his king’s dumbassery any day. Also, I think he has a crush on Anhuset…But the scene stealer is Secmis, Queen of the Kai and all-around champion of the Evil Mommy competition. She’s just so…awful. The worst. She’s literally the worst, y’all. Nine times out of ten if something bad has happened, it’s because she did it. And while it would have been easy to make her a caricature of pure evil, she doesn’t come off that way – mostly because everyone around her acknowledges that she’s a total bitch and tries to pretend she doesn’t exist. As they should.
World Building: This world has many unique elements in it, but overall it is still your standard fantasy setting. Swords, horses, candlelight, tunics, and more are the familiar bits. The unfamiliar comes from the new race that the author has created: the Kai. These are tall, lithe, almost cat-like beings that have razor blades for claws and fangs that will slice through anything. Also, they are blue. Well, technically Ildiko describes their skin color as “corpse-like,” but yeah; mostly blue-ish. For those who play D&D, they seem to look like Drow…if Drow were Teiflings and not Elves. I enjoyed there not being any Fae or vampires in this book, but that’s because this book is older and missed those trends, I think. Still, the Kai are not standard-issue by any means and I think you will enjoy learning about them. The mortum lights in particular are a beautiful and singular concept that highlights the differences between the Kai and humans without bashing the reader over the head with it.
As for the world itself, we learn that there are humans and there are the Kai – and for most of history the two did not mix. The catalyst for the book, and the majority of the conflict, is the Kai nation choosing to marry into one of the human realms for trade reasons. Naturally, this pisses off all the other human kingdoms. If you’ve placed Axis & Allies, this should not come as a huge shock. There is some magic in the world but it is limited in its scope and seems to be beyond human reach. If anything, magic seems to be dying (and having read the second book, you should know that this may not be a big deal in Radiance, but it is in the sequel). We learn about the trade and the martial capabilities of each kingdom, as well as some court intrigue, but not so much that it gets boring or stomps on the pacing.
There are only two world building inconsistencies that I noticed: Ildiko’s knowledge of the Kai language and the color of the Kai race’s eyes. In some scenes Ildiko’s language skills are spotty, in others it’s flawless. It really seems to depend on what the author needs her to be able to do at that moment. Not a huge deal, but if you’ve studied a language, you know it takes more than a few weeks to go from “Huh?” to bantering with an Evil Queen who hates your guts and can only express it with her words. As for the eyes, sometimes they are pearly and other times they are shades of yellow. If that were because of the lighting, the author probably would have said so. But since she didn’t, and she keeps using the word “nacreous,” I’m calling it out. And lastly, there is considerable potato slander in this novel and I will not have it. Long live the tasty, tasty potato!
Obvious Errors an Author/Editor Should Have Caught: This is a self-published novel and it shows. The grammar mistakes are the biggest problem with this book by far: sometimes punctuation is missing, sometimes words are in the wrong verb/noun tense, and she seems to fucking hate the Oxford comma with the same passion I will spend defending it. Every now and again you will notice a mistake that an editor would have caught, but nothing that pulled me out of the narrative for long. The author also has a love of less common words that probably could have been replaced for readability – “nacreous,” “hericide,” and “lambert” are all used. For those who don’t have time to Google, they mean “pearly,” “Lord-killer,” and “shining.” These things aside, the writing itself is top-notch. The sentence structure is varied, the use of adjectives is balanced, and the paragraphs are never walls of text.
Bechdel Test Survivor: Yes, easily. There is an even entire scene of Ildiko and her ladies declaring war on a scorpion when no men are mentioned, at least until Brishen shows up. But even then the conversation doesn’t talk about him at all.
Content Warnings: Torture, death of a child, implications of incest, and narcissistic mother. Dear lord, I hate that bitch.
Is the FMC/MMC Unfaithful: Not on your life. Besides, Ildiko is surrounded by people who think she looks like a mollusk. And the few humans in the book think Brishen looks like a dead cat. Who are they gonna mess around with anyway?
If You Like This, I Recommend: Traitor’s Son by Melissa Cave for the respectful, slow-burn arranged marriage, or One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig for the tension-filled world building.
Overall: But why, you ask? Because it’s the right combination of spice, character development, romance, and worldbuilding in a book that is less than 300 pages. In other words, it doesn’t take half of your life and all of your sanity to finish. Brishen and Ildiko are a delightful pair and their friends/family/enemies round out the book in the best possible way. It does end on a cliffhanger, but not one that makes you feel like you didn’t get an end to the first half of the story. I won’t lie; this is one of my favorite romantasy series and one I recommend to anyone who wants to get into the “monster-lover” subsection of the genre.
Spice Level: 3/5; Open door, with details, but this is not a smutty book. The romance is a slow-burn based primary on friendship and comradery first, love second. You’ll notice I didn’t include lust in there and there’s a good reason: these two are not of the same species and they are repugnant to each other physically (at first). It means no lusting until a firm relationship has already formed. That aside, their entire relationship is funny, charming, and heartwarming. Their first meeting should be required reading for anyone who wants to know what chemistry without sexuality ought to look like, for sure. Oh, and when the sex does come around, it’s very earned and satisfying (he he).
Pacing/Filler: This book is not an action thriller, by any means, and there are some sections that could use a little trimming (Brishen tends to wax philosophical about Ildiko’s finer personality traits, which gets a little repetitive), but the pacing is consistent overall. It’s a steady book from beginning to end, with moments of action interspersed with court drama and slice of life scenes. It’s a relatively short book, so the author keeps things moving along.
Character Development: Let’s talk turkey: these two are not your typical romantasy heroes – Ildiko is a soft noblewoman who doesn’t even pretend to know how to use a sharp surface against her enemies. Brishen is a warrior through and through, but doesn’t use his abilities to intimidate her in any way. I think their largest moments of growth come from trying to see the world through each other’s eyes; Ildiko learns to evaluate a home for its martial properties, for example. This is the same lady who was raised to be a court flower, so it’s an interesting show of her adaptability and willingness to learn new things. Brishen, by contrast, doesn’t know the first thing about the beauty of aesthetics (he can’t even name the local flowers!) and has to defer to Ildiko…until he decides to learn. And did I mention that at no point do these two ever threaten, harass, or harm one another? Their only insults are given in a humorous way, to make the other person laugh. If you want maturity, complexity, and respectability in your FMC and MMC, these two are here for you.
Side characters? Oh yes, I have to stop gushing for a moment about Brishen and Ildiko…ok, how’s this? Brishen’s cousin Anhuset could have easily been the little sister trope – but she’s a better warrior than him and the first person he asks for any task that needs doing. She also shows growth by overcoming a clear prejudice against humans and comes to respect Ildiko for her unique strengths (even offers to train her, even though that was mostly a joke). Sereovek is a close friend of Brishen, a human lord who technically lives in the enemy kingdom but values Brishen’s honor over his king’s dumbassery any day. Also, I think he has a crush on Anhuset…But the scene stealer is Secmis, Queen of the Kai and all-around champion of the Evil Mommy competition. She’s just so…awful. The worst. She’s literally the worst, y’all. Nine times out of ten if something bad has happened, it’s because she did it. And while it would have been easy to make her a caricature of pure evil, she doesn’t come off that way – mostly because everyone around her acknowledges that she’s a total bitch and tries to pretend she doesn’t exist. As they should.
World Building: This world has many unique elements in it, but overall it is still your standard fantasy setting. Swords, horses, candlelight, tunics, and more are the familiar bits. The unfamiliar comes from the new race that the author has created: the Kai. These are tall, lithe, almost cat-like beings that have razor blades for claws and fangs that will slice through anything. Also, they are blue. Well, technically Ildiko describes their skin color as “corpse-like,” but yeah; mostly blue-ish. For those who play D&D, they seem to look like Drow…if Drow were Teiflings and not Elves. I enjoyed there not being any Fae or vampires in this book, but that’s because this book is older and missed those trends, I think. Still, the Kai are not standard-issue by any means and I think you will enjoy learning about them. The mortum lights in particular are a beautiful and singular concept that highlights the differences between the Kai and humans without bashing the reader over the head with it.
As for the world itself, we learn that there are humans and there are the Kai – and for most of history the two did not mix. The catalyst for the book, and the majority of the conflict, is the Kai nation choosing to marry into one of the human realms for trade reasons. Naturally, this pisses off all the other human kingdoms. If you’ve placed Axis & Allies, this should not come as a huge shock. There is some magic in the world but it is limited in its scope and seems to be beyond human reach. If anything, magic seems to be dying (and having read the second book, you should know that this may not be a big deal in Radiance, but it is in the sequel). We learn about the trade and the martial capabilities of each kingdom, as well as some court intrigue, but not so much that it gets boring or stomps on the pacing.
There are only two world building inconsistencies that I noticed: Ildiko’s knowledge of the Kai language and the color of the Kai race’s eyes. In some scenes Ildiko’s language skills are spotty, in others it’s flawless. It really seems to depend on what the author needs her to be able to do at that moment. Not a huge deal, but if you’ve studied a language, you know it takes more than a few weeks to go from “Huh?” to bantering with an Evil Queen who hates your guts and can only express it with her words. As for the eyes, sometimes they are pearly and other times they are shades of yellow. If that were because of the lighting, the author probably would have said so. But since she didn’t, and she keeps using the word “nacreous,” I’m calling it out. And lastly, there is considerable potato slander in this novel and I will not have it. Long live the tasty, tasty potato!
Obvious Errors an Author/Editor Should Have Caught: This is a self-published novel and it shows. The grammar mistakes are the biggest problem with this book by far: sometimes punctuation is missing, sometimes words are in the wrong verb/noun tense, and she seems to fucking hate the Oxford comma with the same passion I will spend defending it. Every now and again you will notice a mistake that an editor would have caught, but nothing that pulled me out of the narrative for long. The author also has a love of less common words that probably could have been replaced for readability – “nacreous,” “hericide,” and “lambert” are all used. For those who don’t have time to Google, they mean “pearly,” “Lord-killer,” and “shining.” These things aside, the writing itself is top-notch. The sentence structure is varied, the use of adjectives is balanced, and the paragraphs are never walls of text.
Bechdel Test Survivor: Yes, easily. There is an even entire scene of Ildiko and her ladies declaring war on a scorpion when no men are mentioned, at least until Brishen shows up. But even then the conversation doesn’t talk about him at all.
Content Warnings: Torture, death of a child, implications of incest, and narcissistic mother. Dear lord, I hate that bitch.
Is the FMC/MMC Unfaithful: Not on your life. Besides, Ildiko is surrounded by people who think she looks like a mollusk. And the few humans in the book think Brishen looks like a dead cat. Who are they gonna mess around with anyway?
If You Like This, I Recommend: Traitor’s Son by Melissa Cave for the respectful, slow-burn arranged marriage, or One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig for the tension-filled world building.