Feather and Blade
A pampered, naïve girl with the forbidden gift of witchcraft. A jaded, bitter political pawn held captive under the city-oasis where she lives. Two lives about to collide.
Emrie Das fully understands her role in her status-seeking family. She’s to stay quietly and politely out of the way. When she gets struck by a burgeoning gift of witchcraft, she knows she must rid herself of it before anything happens that might embarrass the family or get her caught and killed.
Her father comes to her with a proposition. Master the witchcraft. Use it to keep alive the imprisoned younger son of the city-oasis’s ruler. Do so without being recognized, especially by the prisoner himself.
Deriek Valiyard has always known his brother would eventually kill him, and that’s regardless of Deriek’s mastery of sword and strategy. Deriek’s death was foreordained by his birth, a brutal burden that’s left him angry and untrusting. When a wide-eyed, terrified girl enters his dungeon-prison, he pegs her as a puppet and thus his enemy.
But they need each other. Deriek to survive the imprisonment and escape his deeply seeded bitterness. Emrie to master not just the witchcraft but the twisted political games of the city-oasis. It’s the only way one of them won’t end up dead.
"I picked up this book the moment I received my ARC even though I was in the middle of four other books, and yet I did not regret it one bit.
I went into it thinking that it would be another boring romantasy which is all I see online anymore. But instead, the author gave me this incredible fantasy with the perfect slow burn that made me scream when they would sit close to each other.
(And the love interesttt… ❤️)
~Gemma
This is the debut novel from Rachel Taylor Thompson and it is a strong one!! I was intrigued by the summary plot: a young woman is asked to use her newfound but unwanted powers to keep a prisoner alive, at significant risk to herself, her family, and ultimately to her city-oasis. But the world-building that sentence overlooks is shocking. The author creates a completely foreign society in just a few chapters.
~Elizabeth
★★★★★
★★★★★
Reviews
"With the tilt of his lips against her hair, something else moved as well. A tiny shift. One that wouldn’t have been noticeable if he wasn’t laying so still and so tired. He was aware suddenly of the beat of her heart against his chest, the feel of life under her skin where his hand cupped hers, the slow rise and fall of her breath. And he adjusted his own to match.
Such a small thing. So innocuous. So unexpected. He gripped his arms around her unconscious form, holding her tight. She sighed, and the sound seemed too loud. He was suddenly too warm. Too close to her.
Too defenseless.
For just a moment he considered the possibility, the what-if of letting this moment seed and sprout and entwine them both in its branches."
Tropes
Playlist
Extras
No Laughing on this one... But I fell in love with this music in high school. (and...err...Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain...) It just fit the big feel of the story for me.
Free Novella set in the same world as Feather and Blade (and lightly linked):
Rho's Tale
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Political
Romantasy
Enemies to Lovers
Risk it All
Slow Burn
Forbidden Magic
Dark Secrets
