Winter's Orbit

 Book recommendation time! (Full disclosure- I wrote this review while drinking)

I read Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell almost all in one sitting the other day and VERY very much enjoyed it. 

This was another serendipitous find: I saw the cover art for her second book, Ocean's Echo, on my library app and thought it looked intriguing. Then, I clicked on it, saw it was a queer romance space opera, and sighed in resignation, realizing immediately that I was going to go out and read the whole series now even though I have a lot of other things on my "to read" list. 

I would eventually come to find that this was a misunderstanding: the two books are not actually a series, they just take place in loosely the same universe but involve none of the same characters or even planets at this point. But nevertheless I put a hold on the first book first. Luckily I was only hold for like two days before it became available. I have no idea why there's not more demand for it, because it was utterly enchanting from the first page. 

This book splits perspectives between two protagonists/ romantic leads. The first one introduced, Kiem, a roguish space prince, somehow managed to be entirely charming though a little rough around the edges, despite the author making it abundantly clear that his main personality trait is supposed to be "entirely charming, but a little rough around the edges". I'm listening to an audiobook now (I won't say the title because I don't recommend it) with a similar "himbo with a heart of gold" sort of character who, despite doing many more charming things that our buddy Kiem here, has somehow managed to fall short of the mark of actually being charming. Idk. I don't know how to explain it. Anyway, Kiem's deal is that he's the emperor's grandson, but sort of the one she doesn't talk about and has been involved in some scandals due to drunken carousing and free love and blah blah blah. The inciting event: his cousin just died, and so now to keep an important treaty with one of their vassal states (planets) solvent, Kiem has to marry his widower. 

It's a neat, contrived, fanfic-like plot that immediately had me hooked. From the very first chapter, I was salivating for more. My tastes are simple, and even the appetizer satisfied. 

But then it gets better. Because the real best character in this book who has temporarily taken the role of being my emotional support blorbo gets introduced several chapters in. This is Jainan, the grieving husband of Kiem's cousin who just died. And he is EVERYTHING. His character and situation is revealed slowly, and more by what isn't said rather than what is. The very first scene is him admittedly feeling dead inside, preparing for the funeral. The chapter goes on, and slowly, you start to realize: he's said that his world was tilted off its axis since his husband died. He said he was worried about the future. He has a blunt, dazed sort of affect. But he never says at any point that he is sad that his husband died, despite Kiem in his POV having made the assumption from observing them from the outside that the two were a very strong and functional couple. 

Then, the real story starts to unroll: it had actually been an abusive relationship. He's mentally prepared for his hastily-thrown-together new marriage to be more of the same, can't fathom that it won't be, but then, shock of all shocks, Kiem is a decent person, they fall in love, and the healing process begins. 

Though this book also does have a genuine plot besides the romance (political intrigue, shady mining operations, cooked books, podracing, wilderness survival, bandit rehabilitation, you name it this book has it), the romance is deeply integrated into every part of it and takes the front seat. So, even though the plot has some surprises, you can immediately foretell from the setup exactly what sequence of romantic and emotional beats it's going to follow. It's more of a book that makes you feel comfortable than one that makes you think deeply. But it does it in a really deeply satisfying way. Reading it made my brain feel like it was drinking chicken soup on a sick day or something. I plan to reread it in the near future. 

So yeah, pick it up! I awarded it the highest honor: "buying it for my own collection after my library loan ended". I did end up reading the second book and didn't love it as much (I had an aversion to one of the protagonists for very specific personal reasons 🙃), but it was well-done too. Very much looking forward to more by this author.