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A review by biblionerdrflxn
Swordcrossed by Freya Marske
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
***Thank you to Bramble for providing an early copy of Swordcrossed via NetGalley. My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience.***
I'm going to rip the Band-Aid off here at the start. I did not love Swordcrossed as much as Marske's last series. It took me a while to get into this book because there wasn't a whole lot going on at first. The cover was not lying when it advertised the book as low stakes, which made it difficult for me to stay engaged with the story. Luckily, the characters were great, and the story did pick up some as it went along, especially once all the secrets started coming out. By the end, I was having a great time and enjoying all the schemes and humor.
The world-building in Swordcrossed was a mixed bag. I loved all of the detail explaining the fabric industry and the role of sword dueling in this fantasy world, and the queer normative culture was fun to explore. The political system, however, could have been clearer. There were guilds, houses, councils, and multiple cities/states. I never got a great sense of how it all fit together. It was convoluted, and a bit more information early on would have been helpful in parsing it all out.
The real draw of Swordcrossed, and all of Marske's work, was the characters. She did such a fantastic job of bringing Matti and Luca to life. They each had their issues and well-developed personalities. Matti was obsessed with duty and bringing his house back into prosperity at the cost of his own health and happiness. Whereas, Luca was just a mess. He was a con man, a criminal, and an absolutely dashing rogue with secrets galore. They complemented each other really well and pushed each other in ways that led to quite a bit of growth. The supporting characters also had depth despite not having as much page time, and they each added something special to the story.
The romance between Matti and Luca was sort of enemies to lovers, with its start in a con and blackmail, and all of their secrets caused a ton of problems for their relationship. They had an instant attraction, but they also slowly developed intimacy as their relationship deepened and their layers were peeled back. There was so much yearning in Swordcrossed, which eventually led to some pretty hot sex scenes. The heat wasn't as high as I'd expected, though, and it does take the characters quite a while to get physical. So, if you are looking for tons of super explicit scenes, you might be disappointed, but there were lots of clever sword-play innuendos that had me cackling.
Overall, Swordcrossed was not my favorite book by Marske, but I still had a great time with it. Once the plot kicked into gear and I became attached to the characters, I rarely wanted to put the book down. The romance had a lot of humor and plenty of sexual tension, and I enjoyed seeing how Matti and Luca impacted each other's lives, both inside and outside of the bedroom. Therefore, I give Swordcrossed a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.
I'm going to rip the Band-Aid off here at the start. I did not love Swordcrossed as much as Marske's last series. It took me a while to get into this book because there wasn't a whole lot going on at first. The cover was not lying when it advertised the book as low stakes, which made it difficult for me to stay engaged with the story. Luckily, the characters were great, and the story did pick up some as it went along, especially once all the secrets started coming out. By the end, I was having a great time and enjoying all the schemes and humor.
The world-building in Swordcrossed was a mixed bag. I loved all of the detail explaining the fabric industry and the role of sword dueling in this fantasy world, and the queer normative culture was fun to explore. The political system, however, could have been clearer. There were guilds, houses, councils, and multiple cities/states. I never got a great sense of how it all fit together. It was convoluted, and a bit more information early on would have been helpful in parsing it all out.
The real draw of Swordcrossed, and all of Marske's work, was the characters. She did such a fantastic job of bringing Matti and Luca to life. They each had their issues and well-developed personalities. Matti was obsessed with duty and bringing his house back into prosperity at the cost of his own health and happiness. Whereas, Luca was just a mess. He was a con man, a criminal, and an absolutely dashing rogue with secrets galore. They complemented each other really well and pushed each other in ways that led to quite a bit of growth. The supporting characters also had depth despite not having as much page time, and they each added something special to the story.
The romance between Matti and Luca was sort of enemies to lovers, with its start in a con and blackmail, and all of their secrets caused a ton of problems for their relationship. They had an instant attraction, but they also slowly developed intimacy as their relationship deepened and their layers were peeled back. There was so much yearning in Swordcrossed, which eventually led to some pretty hot sex scenes. The heat wasn't as high as I'd expected, though, and it does take the characters quite a while to get physical. So, if you are looking for tons of super explicit scenes, you might be disappointed, but there were lots of clever sword-play innuendos that had me cackling.
Overall, Swordcrossed was not my favorite book by Marske, but I still had a great time with it. Once the plot kicked into gear and I became attached to the characters, I rarely wanted to put the book down. The romance had a lot of humor and plenty of sexual tension, and I enjoyed seeing how Matti and Luca impacted each other's lives, both inside and outside of the bedroom. Therefore, I give Swordcrossed a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.