His Secret Illuminations

The Warrior's Guild #1

by Scarlett Gale

A Sheltered Monk

By day, Lucían brews potions and illuminates manuscripts in service to the monastery that took him in as a child, wielding magic based in his faith and his purity. By night, he dreams of the world outside the cloister--a world he knows only in books and scrolls...

A Mysterious Warrior

A mercenary known as the She-Wolf hunts for a shipment of stolen manuscripts. When she needs a mage to track them down, she chooses Lucían for both his adorable blushes and his magic. She purchases his contract, hurling him headfirst into an adventure that will test both his skills and his self-control...

A Sacred Vow

Inexorably drawn to the She-Wolf's strength, surprising kindness, and heated touches, Lucían fights temptation at every turn. His holy magic is both vital to their mission and dependent upon his purity. How can he serve both her and the Lord if he gives in to his desire? As intrigue and danger forces them closer, how can he possibly resist?

Genres: Romance, Fantasy, Fantasy Romance, Fiction, Historical, LGBT, M F Romance

541 pages, ebook

First published October 30, 2020

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

My skin is clear, my crops are watered, my smol feminist monk son is getting loved by a buff bisexual warrior woman and is ecstatic about it. Also this was a sweet, queer, lovely feminist ride that was endearingly wholesome, all about informed consent and had a great plot and cast of characters. I loved that as Lucian learns more about the world he learns more about people of all sort of genders and orientations and presentations and is just so amazed at how bright and wonderful everything is. Also, fingers crossed for the second book and Lucian finally being able to talk to Glory about how much he wants her to domme the heck out of him, please and thank you.

[Skye Kilaen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Queer F/M fantasy romance that pairs a shy, slight archivist monk named Lucían with a tall, strapping warrior woman called the She-Wolf in an alternate historical fantasy Europe with different names for countries and cultures, and also with magic and unicorns. It's all from Lucían's POV and his character voice is so fantastic that I had to put it down for a few days because I was jealous. (Not lying.) I didn't realize when I picked it up that the She-Wolf, whose real name is Glory, is what I would describe as pan from how she talks about herself. Very pleasant surprise.

There's a lot in here about conservative Christianity's sexuality shaming, because of Lucían's upbringing in an abusive conservative monastery. I felt like all of that was handled with the gravity it merited.

I'm looking forward to the sequel to this duology. The first book ends in an HFN, though, so no cliffhanger worries. I'm hoping it gets more into Glory's head and fleshes out her character, because as other reviewers have noted she's a bit too perfect in this book - but I attribute much of that to Lucían's intense and inexperienced adoration. Lucían is clearly kinky but has no frame of reference for it and that's what the couple will undoubtedly be discovering / working through in the next book, aside from the adventure they'll be on.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

HEAR YE! HEAR YE! I AM HERE TO GUSH

This book has too few ratings on the GR page. So I am here to aggressively try and get my GR friends to read it. Now let me tell you why!

✅ Tall, muscular warrior woman

His head barely comes up to the level of her armpit and he swears his waist is about the same size as either of her muscular thighs

Have you been looking for big, strong women? Well, here she is. Look no further.
Have you been looking for romance with a woman taller than the man? Here it is!
Have you been looking for a woman who knows how to handle a sword? Here. She. Is.

Then the She-Wolf just leans down, grabs him under the armpits and hefts him up onto the saddle like he weighs absolutely nothing

When did you last see a heroine carrying her man? When?!

✅ Cinnamon roll, softest monk

Share! Hers! She meant the horse! Lucían blushes furiously, hoping it's not too visible between his darker skin tone and already being red from the cold.

Lucían is the cinnamon roll to rule all cinnamon rolls. This soft uwu boi blushes at almost everything the She-wolf does due to his sheltered monk life.

She leans in close to his face, her eyes boring into his. "I am, after all, still the She-Wolf." Her bared teeth snap next to his ear, and she rumbles a growl that he feels through his entire body. It jolts straight to his groin and he freezes, heart skittering in his chest."

Look at this man! He embodies scared and aroused.

✅Gentle femdom

Lucían is honored and awestruck and intimidated all at once and he wants to always feel this way, never wants to stop. He desperately wants to serve the She-Wolf in ways he doesn't even understand yet but he feels it in every part of his soul.

While it doesn't fully blossom in this book, it is present let me tell you.
Lucían wants a woman who can make him feel like prey, and I, for one, support him.

"Good boy," she says, and he shivers at the praise.

✅Struggles with sex and sexuality after a life of religious chastity

(...) frantically reciting his vows in his head in a desperate attempt to get control over his own arousal. It would be very weird and inappropriate for a monk who has taken a vow of chastity to find it increadiby appealing to be physically overpowered and held down by his only friend, so that's definitely not what's happening.

In fact, the way Lucían's faith is integrated into the story and his character was sooo good.

✅ Mental health and 100% supporting each other

"Never again," she vows, the hot steel of her promise dripping from her voice. "He will never have a chance to hurt you again. I will never do what he did to you, Lucían, I promise. Not even if you slip up and hurt me while we're training. I will never cast you aside.

Lucían's childhood has basically made him an anxious mess, and the way the She-Wolf just supports him. My hheeeeaaaaart!
And Lucían supports her just as much.
Are you tired of every romance book having the characters be mildly antagonistic towards each other at the start? Well, here's something to water your crops and clear your skin.

✅ Bi/pan/queer woman

"Mmm. Not prefer, as such, I'm not a dedicated seeker of flowers. I'm attracted to women and I'm attracted to men and sometimes I'm attracted to people who aren't either. I don't care as much about what a person is, I care about who they are. Does that make sense?

This book in general just looked at all the cis-het-white fantasy nonsense we've had to live with and said, nah. Here, have some diverse fantasy.

✅Slowburn
Get ready to fall in love and root for these two as their soft, kind love enfolds you.

PLEASE READ IT
This is the kind of fantasy romance I long for, so please, give it a read. It breaks with so many tropes and norms in romance. It feels so incredibly fresh.

It's a duology and I already bought the next one. I need more Lucían and She-Wolf in my life. And so do you. You just don't know it yet.

[Scarlett Readz and Runz....Through Novel Time & Distance · Rating 3 out of 5]

SPFBO7 Semi-finalist.

Placed in the Fantasy-Hive's batch of 30 books, you can read our reviews here:

Making it to semi-finalist:
https://fantasy-hive.co.uk/2021/08/sp...

Final Review:
https://fantasy-hive.co.uk/2021/10/hi...

Happy Reading!
(Star rating reflects my personal opinion)

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

His Secret Illuminations is the first half of a fantasy romance duology (His Sacred Incantations is the second) that began with a simple tweet from author Scarlett Gale back in February of 2019:

Been readin' romance novels and now I want to write a fantasy romance about a big burly female warrior who buys the contract of a smol sweet male indentured cleric healer and then takes him on an adventure... With sexy results.

While I saw (and liked) that tweet, I had kind of forgotten about it until Miss Pearl made a proper introduction to the story in a series of tweets last month, writing:

It's like if Mercedes Lackey wrote a light hearted femdom D&D game and it's wonderfully warming.

It's adorable, and fantasy + romance. No fetish content except an extreme size difference and a few details handled with extreme consent despite circumstances (she buys his contract of indenture, etc...).

I would describe it as a love letter to positive submissive masculinity.

That was all it took for me to immediately hop on over to Amazon and order a paperback, and it was with no little trepidation that I opened the book a week later with high expectations and a fear of disappointment.

There are no words for how much I loved this. Out of 5 stars, I would give it an enthusiastic 10. It's a book that slipped deep into my romantic heart and connected intimately with my submissive soul. I loved Glory more than any character in recent memory, but I absolutely adored Lucian with every ounce of my being. I didn't just 'see' myself in this, I 'felt' myself in every scene, on every page. This is a book to which I happily, thoroughly, and irredeemably lost myself - and will gleefully do so again and again!

Last year I talked about how A Brother’s Price by Wen Spencer left me with a book hangover so profound that I couldn’t even look at another book for days, much less talk rationally about it, and nothing makes me happier than to have found myself facing that same sense of being just utterly consumed by His Secret Illuminations. This is a book that will forever have a place on my shelves, one that I know I will return to when I need a comfort reread - and that shelf is a small one.

So, what is it about? Well, it's a simple story about a mercenary who conscripts a young cleric to assist her in locating and retrieving some stolen books. That's it. There are no heroes or villains, no schemes or conspiracies, no hidden motives or surprise plot twists. It sounds simple, and it is - I mean, there are a few cunning capers, moments of violence, and encounters with magic - but the beauty of the story comes from the characters who populate it.

Glory (the She-Wolf) and Lucian are lovely characters in their own right, and breathtakingly beautiful as the very epitome of a slow-burn romantic couple. Theirs is a tale of infatuation and friendship, a deliciously awkward, tentative courtship that's full of smiles and blushes and the heat of tender moments. They don't even kiss until the last few chapters, but theirs is a love story that is so sweet, you can't help but be won over by it. It's a wonderfully feminist tale, one that's beautifully supportive of submissive masculinity, and one that has some lovely things to say about sexuality.

There's also some positive gender exploration tied up in one of the side-characters, Shannon, who I hope we'll see more of (along with Helena) in the next book. They are simply and delightfully accepted as non-binary, with no need to elaborate on questions of biology or identity. In fact, there's an amusing scene where Lucian politely asks about proper etiquette and is horrified to hear that others feel compelled to question Shannon's genitals.

Nothing I say could possibly do His Secret Illuminations justice, so all I can do is beg you to give it a chance - and if you've read it and you loved it, let me know, because I suspect we could be fantastic friends.


https://www.sallybend.com/2021/07/fan...

[Cerise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm very torn about this book, so I'm giving it an average of 3 stars. (I wanted to go down to 2 but I still want to read the other half of this story, so it gets an extra star for that alone.) The central concept of the story is very good and the last 15% was the tone and pace that I wanted from the first 85% of the book. However, that first 85% is basically a museum exhibit of everything I cannot stand about fanfiction readers/writers who try their hand at original fiction, and there are huge doses of woke twee cringe and inconsistent world-building alongside the more compelling role reversal, romance, and adventure aspects of the story. I also really dislike the move of writing one long story, splitting it into two parts at an arbitrary stopping point, and calling it a duology because the author could not or would not edit her bloated narrative down into something leaner and tighter. It's just bad form.

In a word, this book is precious. I mean that in its pejorative context. It's clear that the author loves her characters and wants to feature them as much as possible, because this book is crammed full of scenes of the leads interacting that continually re-establish their well-established relationship, or scenes of Lucian with other characters where they talk about Glory and the Lucian/Glory relationship. I'd say a good 25-30% of the book, if not more, is completely unnecessary. We know Lucian is completely smitten with Glory from page one, and it's pretty obvious that Glory also likes Lucian from the jump as well. A lot of these scenes are just indulgent. It works if you're someone who loves these characters and you want to spend as much time with them as possible (which is a common theme in fanfiction, the people want longfic and they want it looooooong) but this doesn't work when there's a plot to move along. I forgot about the whole stolen book plot somewhere around the tenth time Lucian blushed and stammered and felt conflicted about his religious vows.

I think a lot of Lucian's confusion about Glory (and the repetition of the first 70% of the book) gets hand-waved away as him being an oblivious and extremely sheltered subby boy, but something has to change in him or in their relationship for each of these scenes to work; for the most part it's a lot of blushing and internal monologue, which gets boring really quickly. On top of that, we spend far too much time with side characters like The Knife (which is a laughable name if you're a fan of the Doughboys podcast) and Shannon, which I assume serves to establish the queer found family trope since Knife is a lesbian and Shannon is non-binary. The side characters' time spent with Lucian does very little to further the plot and could have been edited out almost entirely. Again, precious.

The whole premise sounds like the author took a Tumblr text post and expanded it, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but this is an over-long duology that is in desperate need of editing. It's written like fanfiction for a pair of beloved original characters, which I found to be an unsuccessful tactic: third-person present tense narration and frequent narrative asides don't work for original fiction because they require a familiarity with the characters outside of the text. Consequently, the narrative felt overly familiar at the top of the book and the tone only really worked at the very end after I'd gotten to know Lucian and Glory in painstaking, excruciating detail.

In terms of woke twee cringe, I'll explain where I almost stopped reading out of pure frustration: once when Glory pulled out knitted hats for herself and Lucian, his with a giant pompom and hers with cat ears, for fuck's sake, and again when Lucian spends like two whole chapters trying to comprehend the concept of enbies in a very clunky way. I don't have an issue with the inclusion of queer and nb/trans characters; I really love M/F romance with queer leads and I am writing one myself that also includes some light role reversal. The problem here is the execution of how these characters and concepts are introduced and discussed. It's all done in a very cutesy way (one might even say... precious), which I understand if you're going for a feel-good novel, but it undercuts the dramatic tension when the story gets into fights and heists and whatnot.

Generally, the writing here tells rather than shows, and there are several phrases that are repeated to move the narrative along (take a shot whenever you read some form of "it turns out" and you'll die of alcohol poisoning) when a lot of these scenes and observations should have been cut during the editing process. The overuse of italics for emphasis is a fanfiction convention that should have been edited out as well; it finally tapers off around the end of the book, which is one of the reasons why I think I enjoyed that part most. Lastly, I found the world-building to be lazy and inconsistent: there's magic, but it's also some kind of alternate medieval Europe (including clumsy analogues to French, Spanish, German, and Norse cultures), but also everyone talks like they have a Tumblr blog in 2018. They drink champagne even though there's no France in this world. There's a lot of modern slang. There are unicorns, but they're tiny little dainty deer things! I just can't. It's too much. The Tumblr/AO3 heritage of the writing is very clear in this book. Don't get me wrong, I love Tumblr and AO3 and have accounts on both, but original fiction writing has different requirements and conventions than fanfiction writing and I'm not sure that the author understands that. This book stumbles pretty badly in that arena, which is why I initially wanted to rate it 2 stars.

At the same time I think it is a testament to the strength of the core concept of the story that, despite all of these flaws, I kept pushing myself to read and I still want to know what happens in the sequel. The writing started to improve about 3/4ths of the way through the book, so I'm hoping the second part will move faster than the first.

I think one of the reasons I'm so hard on this book is that I see a lot of its flaws reflected in the novel I'm currently writing; I also love my characters to death and I want to write down every single thing they do, which has resulted in my first draft being a 200K-word monster. However, the solution to that problem is not splitting the book into two parts and calling it a day. The solution is editing the shit out of your book, condensing scenes, making use of more economical language, and considering structural changes to make it shorter. This entire story could have revolved around rescuing one or two of the missing books and then the sequel could have involved a second mission that Glory and Lucian undertake. I'm not sure why things are the way they are other than that the author wanted her characters to go on this twee-horny femdom romp through Medieval Tumblr. That seems like the justification for most of the decisions here, which I think works for fanfiction as a medium founded on doing whatever you want with someone else's characters, but it's a wholly insufficient justification for original fiction.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely a biased review because the author is a pal and I got to see a lot of work-in-progress excerpts and I was just so excited to see Glory and Lucían actually make it onto paper and maybe eventually (after 350 pages or so of pining) get to smooch, but it really is a fantastic novel. I love Scarlett's commitment to following her own dang rules for writing Fantasy-Europe, which means including all kinds of people who don't normally get represented in those settings, and also potatoes.

I loved Lucían's journey out of shame and into the big wide wonderful world, and I'm excited to read the second one and learn more about his magic, and more about Glory as the two of them figure out what happens after they get together!

[Para (wanderer)]

DNF 78% - Not what I wanted. Liked how much it deals with shame when it comes to attraction but the main selling point for me, having an unconventional and not traditionally masculine male MC...what's the fucking point if he becomes somewhat more so by the end?

[Alex (HEABookNerd) · Rating 4 out of 5]

HIS SECRET ILLUMINATIONS took a little bit for me to get into but I think it really picks up it’s stride after the 25% mark. Told completely from Lucían’s point of view, it follows our main characters on a journey to recover some stolen monastic books. With an epic sloooooow burn and a tortuous (in the best way) amount of pining, I was very invested in Lucían and Glory’s romance. Luckily, all that pining is completely worth it in the end when these two finally admit their feelings for each other! To make everything even better this fantasy romance was beautifully queer and feminist and absolutely the softest book I’ve ever read. Based on her description, Glory is pansexual and there are many other side characters that are also queer and this appears to be just accepted by everyone so that was a really pleasant surprise.

Where HIS SECRET ILLUMINATIONS really shines is with our main characters Lucían and Glory; both are so sweet, generous, and caring to those around them. Glory especially is the best kind of cinnamon roll, she looks tough on the outside but is really all squishy on the inside. I loved the way Glory cared for and protected Lucían while also encouraging him to train in fighting and explore his new environments. She’s almost too perfect but I’m not complaining about that because we need more characters like Glory -- devoted, kind, and protective without being possessive. I would have enjoyed getting a little more about Glory’s history and her POV would have also been great, but that’s just personal preferences.

The good news is that Lucían, as our only POV character, was a really enjoyable narrator with just a touch of self-deprecating humor to keep me smiling and also wanting to give him a hug. Lucían has had a rough upbringing and the monastery life is all he’s ever known. Traveling with Glory forces Lucían to confront life outside the monastery and also accept that the way he’s been treated by the Abbott might not have been the best and was in fact fairly abusive. Lucían spends most of the book feeling guilty over lusting after Glory and it’s a big part of his character development and journey of self discovery. But even though Lucían goes through a lot of inner turmoil over his morals and his religion, I loved the enthusiasm with which he embraced all the new people he meets and the places he visits. Lucían is in his mid-twenties but he has a very innocent and young soul that is just ready to soak up new experiences. I also really appreciate that even with his religious background he never shames Glory or any of the other side characters simply because their morals and beliefs are different than his own. Lucían is just incredibly welcoming to everyone he meets and his only wish is to help others with his Blessing (magical abilities).

Now I do have to say that the pacing is definitely slow, especially in the beginning, and I do feel like it was a little long in some parts that could have been tightened up. For instance, almost the first half of the book is just them traveling to Knightsrest where the first stolen books are located. I also struggled with the third person present tense which is just not a writing style I enjoy reading too much of. Additionally, the dialogue is very modern and I found that odd in a fantasy book; so while it certainly made it easy to read I don’t know if that was the best fit.

I debated with myself over the rating because of these things and ultimately decided that my enjoyment of the characters and desire to read the next book means this falls more in line with a 4 star read. As a note, HIS SECRET ILLUMINATIONS does end on a soft cliffhanger so not everything is resolved, mostly the storyline with the missing books. With the next book I can’t wait to see Lucían open up more to Glory about what he wants in their relationship because Lucían is definitely kinky even though he doesn’t necessarily understand what his desires mean right now.

Content Warning: Lucían has been raised in a monastery that uses abusive practices to punish the monks; Lucían struggles with guilt and shame over his desires toward Glory and he believes his desire to be dominated by Glory makes him a deviant (he’s working through this)

[Sarandah chrysalis · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, so lovely. Further review to come

[Isabella - SnooRegrets · Rating 4 out of 5]

This definitely was not perfect, but so wholesome and different, that I can‘t help but give four stars. Enjoyed it very much.

[Zvezdana_whatwhymeagain · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful book! I thoroughly enjoyed every single aspect of it. Can't wait to start the second book.

[Myth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Light on the worldbuilding but not too light, fun steamy romance with a buff lady warrior and the (possibly now former) monk who wants her to top the hell out of him.

Also it's really well written.

[Antoine Bandele · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t often review my client’s books (I was the audio engineer for the audiobook), but this one was special.

I don’t read this genre, but the humor in this is sharp, the romance is not rushed at all, and the characters are so, so easy to like and engage with.

Definitely would recommend.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is perfect??? I will always love a quest, but throw in tall warrior woman, smol magical monk, BOOKS, friends, swordfights, inns, a ball, a warrior guild!, horseback, and so much patience and consent and I am done for. *pan heroine lands this book on the LGBT shelf

[Mei ☽︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is absolutely one of my faves of the year!! I'm so grateful to all the people who post recs on GR and Reddit because they find some stellar books! 🥰 Lucian and She-Wolf are amazing together and so freaking sweet. I am a huge fan of the writing and I loved the both of them so very much and they're super precious with each other. The entire story is told from Lucian's POV and right from the get-go, we witness how enchanted he is by She-Wolf, our badass and really caring FMC, and it never stops and only builds and builds and builds. 🤭

I absolutely loved the kinks present (ALL the praise, ALL the caring and everyday life touching and patting, and a wonderful rightful appreciation for She-Wolf's strength) in this and how Lucian reacts to everything. The slow burn was worth it for the great spice! Lucian undergoes a lot of personal challenges as he forays into the bigger world for the first time in his life, but I love how through it all, he NEVER ONCE wavers from his desire to be dominated by the She-Wolf. 🥰 These two had amazing chemistry and I also liked that there's a slight age gap (she's older than him by 5 years)!

His Secret Illuminations also has nice LGBT+ representation and I enjoyed all the side characters too and the magic and adventures are great! I can't wait to dive into the next book!

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🥇Gold🥇
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Book 1: His Secret Illuminations - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🥇(12/15/22)
Book 2: His Sacred Incantations -

[Pearl O'Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely, pretty read and a love letter to submissive men. An awesome heroine that covers the nuance of a talented warrior who isn't required to sacrifice gender.

Imagine Mercedes Lackey wrote a femdom erotica novel with lots of high fantasy and romance. Your inner nerd will glow as you follow the two hereos through various adventures that slowly draw a sheltered novice magician and a seasoned warrior woman closer together and, closer to surrender to her.

FEMALE GAZE FEMDOM

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Glory is an okay character, though definitely a Mary Sue. But Lucian feels like he's 12. An angelic 12, to be sure, but 12. Which makes the romance aspect feel skeevy.

The author has a knack for funny dialogue and I bet they could pen an awesome contemporary romance. But the fantasy window-dressing in this one hurt rather than helped it.

[b · Rating 3 out of 5]

UGHHH i have so many mixed feelings about this 😤

first it was different because it's only written from mmc's pov and he's a monk. then there's our fmc she's a warrior (kind of like vikings 🤨) and he sees her at monastery a couple of times and likes her but because he's a monk he's been taught not to speak with women etc.

anyways for some reasons they have to travel together and it's his first time leaving monastery and i have to admit plot didn't really interest me they're tracking some books i guess something evil happening 🤨

the reason why i'm not sure if i liked the book is SHE'S older and bigger and stonger etc. that's not the problem but the way he keeps mentioning it 😭 it felt like grooming 😭 he doesn't know anything about the world(literally) and she's nice but he's so impressed it was so weird 🥲

later they got together but it was still weird but somehow cute and i thought this was a romance book(i found this on reddit😡) but it was more of a fantasy AND there's a cliffhanger 😡

am i going to read second book because i wonder what happens to missing books or because i want to know if their relationship gets more weird ahhahaa 🤠

[Miss Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

very cute! it's a slowburn romance between a monk getting his first glimpse of life outside his monastery and buff bi warrior lady who he really REALLY wants to dom him. the emotional throughline is very sweet, lucian and glory care very much for each other and are both very invested in not accidentally stepping over each other's boundaries. the pov is very modern in a way that occasionally threw me off but i mostly vibed with it! 3 stars

[Sadie Forsythe · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
I saw His Secret Illuminations recommended in a Fantasy Fans forum where someone had requested books with strong, martial women defending weaker, nerdier men. I've read a couple books recommended in that thread and, I have to say, this is the first one that REALLY fits what the OP was asking for and I really enjoyed it. I went right out and bought book two on finishing this one, in fact.

Having said that, I'll acknowledge that the plot is slooooow. So slow you have to occasionally remind yourself that there is one. So slow that it's clear that it's really just the set design that Lucian and Glory's burgeoning relationship plays out against. Usually I'd have a problem with that. But, honestly, I just love Lucian so much I couldn't bring myself to care. I liked Glory too, but the book is from Lucian's POV and he's just a marvelous character.

And I just adored seeing so many tropes and unspoken expectations turned on their head. There's the obvious, like Glory being significantly larger and stronger of the two. But there's also subtler things like her being a deadly warrior, but not also being the literary equivalent of an emotionally stunted man with tits. She wears makeup and dresses, does needle point, has 'monthlies,' etc. She is both deadly and allowed to express traditionally female traits. This is a lot rarer than you might think. So often authors seem to think being strong means being manly and therefore a strong woman isn't allowed to simultaneously be womanly. I really liked seeing Gale not fall into that trap.

The writing is quite readable. The book is genuinely longer than it needs to be and a word, phrase, or mentality clanged as anachronistic on occasion. There is definitely a bit of what feels like modern mentalities being painted on historical peoples. But it's fantasy, so Gale's free to do that. It certainly makes for more pleasant circumstances. All in all, I can't wait to jump into His Sacred Incantations.

[Bridget · Rating 5 out of 5]

Someone, somewhere recommend this to me and I wish I could remember who because it is SO GOOD and I would like to thank them. If you like fan fiction, heroines who can bench press the hero, found family, pining, and/or slow burn romance you should speed yourself to your nearest book getting place and read this immediately. Our library has it via ebook, you can buy it on ebook or paperback from lots of places, and it is worth EVERY PENNY. I haven't even started the sequel yet (it's a duology), but I liked this so much that I bought both of them as soon as I finished reading the library's copy of this.

The characters are amazing. I couldn't put it down. I immediately went to find the author on AO3, and I will absolutely read anything she chooses to publish in the future. Apparently Ursula Vernon and a few other authors have been delighting in this over on Twitter lately, and they are all absolutely right about it if you want to read a more cohesive/sensible review. Anyway, 12/10 will read repeatedly.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cinnamonk roll Lucían goes on a wholesome adventure with warrior woman She-Wolf.

This is a personal taste 5*. There were some typos and the main plot got a little out of focus at times, but it hit all the personal taste buttons too well: healthy relationship, sweetheart hero, taller and older heroine, strong heroine (who also doesn't need to reject her love of things typically categorized as feminine), working through issues together, everyone is portrayed as competent in their own way, memorable side characters, tons of queer rep. This is a *very* slow burn book, but it's just what's needed to really sell the tenderness and intimacy between the leads. Looking back, my notes are all 'aww', 'omg', 'so cute'. Reading this felt like falling into a pile of unicorns - a soft, rare, and precious book.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay but not great. There's an awful lot of conscious "therapy talk" for a book set in a nebulously historical setting, and frankly a total lack of actual femdom sex scenes for a book billed as femdom romance. The romance might have been improved by a split perspective -- it's all in Lucian's POV, and it can get a little repetitive in places. I didn't realize going in that this was a duology with the narrative split across two books, so it was a little annoying to get to the end of a big chunky book and not have the plot OR the romantic tension fully resolved!

[・❥・jam · Rating 4 out of 5]

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ What a great read! This was so cute, and wholesome!🥺 In the book we are in the head of our sweet and innocent H, Lucien who was just a cinnamonroll who you can't help but want to protect as he discovers the world.😭 He was just a breath of fresh air from the abundant alpha heroes out there. While the h in this one was a badass! I love a pansexual warrior.😭 The book was really refreshing it was really nice to see things reversed for a change where the h is the more dominant one or alpha-like in the relationship. It was pretty slow burn, but it had enough heat to it to satisfy my love for smut lol🤣 and when they finally get together it was just glorious🤌🏻 Can't wait to read the next book, because I heard it gets much more steamier!🤩

╰┈➤𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞? yes

╰┈➤𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐨? he's more needy, and worshiping than possessive. but i love love both types so you won't see me complaining at all.

╰┈➤𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐞? we are mainly in the H's pov in the book so we don't get to know the h that well, but for me she was pretty likeable.

╰┈➤𝐨𝐰/𝐨𝐦 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐚? exes of the h appears but little to no drama happend

╰┈➤𝐬𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧? none

╰┈➤𝐩𝐮𝐬𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐥? hero was a monk before so he was quite sheltered so he's quite conflicted and confused with all the stuff that he is feeling hence he tries to push th h away.


✎𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚎:
𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚊 𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚒𝚏𝚒𝚌 𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚌𝚔 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚖𝚢 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚜 𝚝𝚊𝚐𝚜 / 𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚒𝚝, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚋𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚒𝚝 𝚖𝚊𝚢 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚜𝚙𝚘𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔.
𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚢 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐! ☻

jam✧·˚ ༘
₊˚ପ⊹jam

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a sweet story. Lucían made my heart ache, he was so endearing and sweet. I loved how Glory was written. The sexual tension really could have been sliced by the Knife. I had been craving a romance couple like this one, a man who wants to worship and be taken care of. Perfect find.

This book was very character driven, which was refreshing, and I suspect the second will be a bit more plot driven based on where we left off. Can't wait to read the second in the duology!

[Vae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just an absolute delight and I need the second book immediately.

[Nadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I imagine Glory to be like a chiropractor (cause she's buff), I WISH we got Glory's POV. We need more m/f books featuring queer heroine's and queer hero's

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where is my warrior woman smelling of pine and salt? Life is not fair.

[IsagelCharles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is clearly not meant to stand alone, so I’ll have more of an opinion when I’ve read the second one. For now, I just want to say that I LOVE reading a femdom m/f D/s relationship, there should be many more books like this. And also a heads up that this is a much queerer book than it seems at the start, which was a happy surprise.