Winter's Orbit

For a debut novel I was impressed. Unlike other reviewers I don't think it was mis-marketed. I liked the romance because it was realistic. I'll definitely read Maxwell's next book.

What I liked most about the book was the action scenes which were very well written as well as the world building and mystery plot. It was a very well plotted novel, the only issues I had were with the characters.
Initially it was pretty difficult to get past Jainan's personality and inner dialogue. He's obviously a product of 5 years of emotional and possibly even sexual abuse but over 300 pages of him jumping at each little thing or totally shutting down was frustrating. He shows no initiative to speak about his issues; he is very meek and nervous, but instead of voicing concerns or fighting for himself, he just shuts down. Nearly everything we learn about his past as the reader is from Kiem finding out from 3rd parties or guessing so not totally reliable. I personally have a hard time with empathy so instead of making the character more realistic and making me sympathize with him, I quickly got to the point that I wanted to tell him to go to therapy or get over it. Many of his issues, besides the physical from Taam which aren't known to the reader after 100s of pages in, seemed to stem simply from misunderstanding or assumptions or simply a lack of confidence on Jainan's part and that's really what made it so hard to understand.
I did start to like him more in the latter half of the book when his abuses weren't a big mystery and he started to get more comfortable around and with Kiem, plus his interactions with the other characters.
Kiem himself is a lot more straightforward and he was immensely patient and accommodating to Jainan with little to no feedback. When they finally do show intimacy, it seems almost like a Stockholm Syndrome reaction than genuine attraction and was pretty unexpected at that point.

Overall, a good study in world building and interesting scifi tech, but not really a book I'd recommend unless you have a very empathetic personality.

CW: past domestic violence

I still remember how excited I was when I first saw the cover and premise of this book and couldn't wait to get to it. Now that I'm done, I can just say that I have a wide smile due to how much I enjoyed it.

When someone says that a book reads like fanfiction, I find that to be a compliment because fanfics have been the ones that have gotten me through the year from hell. The writing in this book does resemble that, being very easy to read and accessible. It's a space opera but the world building isn't too complicated, the author giving us just enough information to understand the political intrigue. There are unexpected twists and betrayals and lots of political maneuvering that makes it a very interesting read that'll keep you engaged. We have some very beloved fanfic tropes like arranged marriage, only a single bed, the unlikely couple getting stranded and bonding over it and also lots of miscommunication and yearning because of it. And one of the most fascinating parts of this world is how normalizingly queer it is - gender is chosen by every individual and they can present themselves as whatever they want using symbols on their person, and relationships between any genders are just part of life. It's just so lovely to read more stories like this where homophobia and gender binaries don't exist.

But the strength of this book is definitely the characters. Kiem is kind of an insignificant Royal who is thrust into an arranged marriage in a very short notice while Jainan, who is from a vassal kingdom doesn't have much choice either. While Kiem is kind, charming and capable of talking himself into and out of any situation despite being not at all political savvy, Jainan is more reserved, thoughtful, slightly anxious and thinks many times before even uttering a word. They are definitely opposites, which means the attraction is inevitable. While there was a lot of communication between them for a while which made me quite tense about what was gonna happen, it was also so lovely to see them slowly become reliant on each other and then able to talk about their feelings. I was literally sobbing with happiness seeing them get together and then work with each other to figure out all the mysteries. The ending was particularly very amusing and I was full of joy seeing the proceedings play out.

Even the side characters are quite interesting and each has their own arc. I especially loved Kiem's assistant Bel who was a total badass with an interesting backstory and was such a supportive figure throughout the mystery solving. The Auditor and Agent Rakal also turned out to be fascinating despite me doubting their motivations. Gairad was a sweet addition while the Emperor was kinda subtly funny. But it was Taam, Jainan's dead husband who felt like a constant presence despite not being alive and the author did such a great job creating and solving all the entanglements.

To conclude, I'm so happy that I got to read such a cute and lovely romance early on in the year. This is such an easy read in the space opera genre but the author balances the love story, the politics and the murder mystery perfectly - making this a very memorable book. It made me giddy and emotional and I couldn't have asked for anything more. I highly recommend this one, especially if you like queer worlds and sweet romances.