Anhaga

Starred review from May 27, 2019
With a quick-paced fantasy romance wherein meager beginnings belie magnificent magic, Henry (Adulting 101) pushes past traditional concepts of romance to show love in many forms. Min Decourcey is the best thief in the city of Amberwich. When Min’s beloved 16-year-old adoptive nephew, Harry, seduces Lord Edward Sabadine’s granddaughter, Edward inflicts a deadly curse on him—but promises to lift the curse if Min retrieves Edward’s grandson Kazimir, a simple hedgewitch trapped in the fae-occupied village of Anhaga. Min pursues Kazimir, but the young man proves to be both beautiful and magically gifted, and he soon wins his captor’s heart. Min won’t hesitate to save Harry, even if that means sacrificing Kazimir, but he suspects that more about this job has been hidden from him—and he might have to risk revealing his own secrets to save the people he loves most. Set in a world where gender is irrelevant in marriage but status and place reign supreme, the narrative is swift and action-packed with moments of wit (“Friends don’t reanimate friends’ corpses”) and poetic beauty, proving that even the most shameless rogue can have a heart of gold.