Status Updates From Between the Wild Branches (...

I love how Lukio is determined to be honorable

~ [he dropped] all pretense of the haughty Philistine champion. Instead, he was my Lukio. The sweet boy with the tender heart who’d promised to keep me safe from every harm. ... Who’d dried my tears and caressed my hair while holding me tight under our sycamore.

~ So, in low, quick tones I told her everything. Of my childhood friendship with the champion of Ashdod. Of my stumbling into his announcement of the betrothal. Of our midnight meeting on the terrace and my resolve not to repeat it.

~ None of those men were my Lukio. The boy whose friendship had been my salvation when I was young was gone, and it was foolish to hope for anything different.

I love how this book keeps calling Lukio the “champion of Ashdod”

Is Lukio part Viking?

~ And everything had stopped for the space of five eternal heartbeats. In those moments he was not the brutal champion of Ashdod, known for his unapologetic and emotionless method of beating men senseless on the fighting grounds, but the boy who’d taught me how to climb trees and differentiate between bird calls, who’d left sycamore figs on my windowsill as a sign to meet in our special place.

Pre-read: this arrived at the library this morning and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. I was intensely interested in Lukio and Shoshana in the last book, and I am beyond thrilled to finally be reading it.