It’s available in many places, including:

• Kindle
• Nook
• Samhain
• Blio
• Kobo
• Sony
• iTunes

You can read an excerpt here. This is a Norther Shifters story.

While I know not all my readers cross over to my Joely Skye books, Running Wild, which is twinned with Running Free (the heroes in each book are twin horse shifters), got four stars at RT Book Reviews. (This fourth book in Skye’s Northern Shifters series is absolutely adorable… The slow-build romance will keep you flipping pages to see what happens next…)

Warning: The first half of the first book is difficult to read, with abuse and rape, on page and off.

Different posts in different places have talked about it and the discussion has been fascinating:

• Janine reviews Captive Prince at Dear Author
• Vacuous Minx has notes here and here, about Orientalism and slavery among others things (lots of spoilers everywhere)
• Coffee and Ink has interesting things to say in this post and this post
  
• Joanna Chambers posts some thoughts on CP
• Romance Around the Corner posts a review

So now I’m kind of casting around in terms of what to read next. It’s been a bit of a strange reading year for me. In that I’ve been reading very little, but when I am reading the book has been very long (or very short) and very impressive, if not, well, eating my brain. And it’s all been m/m when I usually mix things up more.

Books I’ve read that bring to mind Captive Prince, or vice versa:

1. The Rifter by Ginn Hale. Portal fantasy. Follows two men from very different places with their slow-build, slow-burn romance, despite the fact one man is supposed to kill the other. Lots of UST. Lots of danger. Super highly recommended :)
2. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. Victorian England setting. Betrayal and reversals when Sue sets off to help a con man seduce Maud, a wealthy heiress, and develops feelings for Maud herself.
3. Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner. Politics and intrigue. Fantasy world with no magic. Swordfights and men in love. Excellent sequel with The Privilege of the Sword.
4. The Thief by Megan Whelan Turner. No romance, but if you love how Captive Prince uses point of view to reveal and hide what is really going on, this might appeal. Political intrigue and an appealing, clever protagonist. (Romance arrives in later books.)
5. Inversions by Iain M. Banks. I should really reread this before I put it on the list. Yet, the stranger entering into a foreign court and trying to figure out what is going on plays out here. Yes, it’s a Culture novel and therefore science fiction but has fantasy trappings.
6. Lymond series by Dorothy Dunnett. If you loved Laurent, Lymond is his predecessor. Not only that, if you make it to book 5, you’ll have a long-in-the-making romance over the next two (long) books.

If I think of more, I’ll add them! If anyone else has suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

• Black cowboys rare? That’s just a Hollywood whiteout. This article made me think of different conversations I’ve seen where the argument is put forth that it isn’t “realistic” to have women or people of color either present or able to do X, Y or Z.
• Linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo speaks about ending homophobia in professional sports.
  
• At least 3000 native children died in Canadian residential schools. These are confirmed numbers. Heartbreaking.
• Josh Lanyon interviews the narrator of his Adrien English books, Chris Patton. I actually have trouble focusing on audiobooks, and listening. I tend to just want to read. But this interview is fun, and it’s clear audiobooks are taking off.
• Kate Elliott asks What role does consensual sex and love play in epic fantasy? Good stuff in the comments too.
  

  In some cases I am sure there is “too much” for some people’s taste (and it is important to acknowledge that people’s tastes vary and that is how it should be). More often in my own reading I see less examination of the place of these central human emotions and desires. Consensual sex can be love or it can be sex. It can be romantic but it can be other things too.

   

   

I’ve also put up an excerpt here. It’s the opening scene of the book.

————–

The pup had disappeared. Again. Honest to God, thought Zach, these moon-run outings were going to be the death of him.

Storm was too young to be out and about on his own, and Zach was too big and, well, too much of a horse to scrabble under the bushes. He had to go around, and while he had a pretty good idea of where Storm was headed—the pup being fond of the clearing in the middle of the small woods—Zach didn’t like not knowing exactly where Storm was at all times.

There were coyotes out here, and a werewolf pup should be running with older wolves, not on his own. Or should be running with his horse guardian—if only the pup’s mind didn’t forget that important fact the moment the moon called to him.

The damn thing shone overhead, lighting Zach’s way. The wet snow was deep tonight. Not a problem for Zach’s long legs, but a struggle for a small body. Storm would be clumsy and slow in the snow, oversized paws almost flapping. A sitting duck if anything were to attack the child.

Zach knew how it would go. Soon Storm would stop and look around and wonder where Zach was, wonder why a large horse hadn’t been able to follow him under brush. Then he’d be sorry he’d run off, sad he’d disobeyed. He’d been distracted by the smell of rabbit or something, but he’d end up by himself, shivering or yipping forlornly at the moon.

Trying to make Storm’s time alone as short as possible, Zach moved faster. Five more minutes max, he hoped. There had to be a better way to run under the moon than this. The hell of it was, though, he couldn’t quite figure it out.

As he cornered the last bend of the path, the entrance to the clearing came within view—and a scent brought him up short. Despite his urgent desire to find Storm, Zach plowed to a stop and breathed in hard to identify the smell of danger—of wolf. Wolf, adult and male. All Zach’s senses went on high alert. He wasn’t able to discern whether the scent meant wolf or werewolf, and he didn’t care. He didn’t trust either creature. He didn’t trust wolves, period.

Continue here.

Romances often delve into the most intimate of their characters’ feelings and actions, and I wonder if the intimate narrative point of view paradoxically keeps us from feeling like voyeurs, interrogators stripping the lovers of their privacy.

• Via Kate Nepveu, The NFL’s Response to Brain Trauma: A Brief History

One rather constant claim is that the NFL has always been always been straight about head trauma and that players “knew the risks.”

• Jane Austen and the Modern Reader

Jane Austen gave her female characters as much agency as a woman could have in those days, and the narrative is mostly seen through their eyes.

1. The Rifter by Ginn Hale. (Of course.) My mother always read books slowly like she didn’t want them to end. I’m usually at the other end of the spectrum, where I need to finish and find out what happened. But with The Rifter being quite long, and having convenient stopping places, I am enjoying my time with the story. And I think about the characters quite a lot.

2. The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett. This was only immersive for me during a reread. I stopped and started the series during my first read-through. But my reread was one right after another, and not only that, I read Lymond directly after reading Dunnett’s House of Niccolo series, Lymond’s prequel. I think Lymond may be my most intense and satisfying read ever. Be warned: Book 4 ripped my heart out.

3. Adrien English by Josh Lanyon. Watching Adrien and Jake slowly get together (and break apart) while solving mysteries captivated me. I can’t say why these guys became so real to me, but they were. It’s interesting to me that this is the only contemporary series on this list. I reread the first two books more than once, and straight through the series once book 4 was released. I still remember the day I started on book 4.

4. Crossroads Trilogy by Kate Elliott. Though this wasn’t a reread like the others, the series was immersive for me. In part because these are three long books; in part because Elliott creates a complex high-fantasy world that drew me in. I was so taken by the giant magic eagles bonded to their humans, as well as the winged horses. And there was lots of creative, thoughtful world-building beyond that.

Oddly these are all from the past ten years of reading, but I’m quite sure I had immersive reads before that! I just can’t think of them. I know that if my series reading is spread out over time it doesn’t have quite the same effect, even if I can’t wait to read the next installment. (The Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold comes to mind.)

I’m not too regretful though, given I’m thoroughly enjoying it now. I’ve finished book three, Black Bones. So don’t spoil me! I’m avoiding any posts about it till I complete the entire book, at which point I’ll go visit Dear Author, which reviewed the bulk of it, and its GoodReads page.

I’m quite worried about the characters. I’m engrossed, the world fascinates me, and I can’t wait to see how the different pieces of the story fit together. But the characters seem in quite a bit of danger in a way that kind of hooks into my chest and makes me fret for them. We will see what book four brings.

But this type of worry reminds me of when I read The Charioteer by Mary Renault. That book rather wrung my heart out—for different reasons. The danger to the characters is entirely different, given the settings (portal fantasy vs. post-WWII England), but neither place is the easiest place for gay men. I think it says something about the writing and the story when the characters come so alive for me that I am concerned for their well-being.

This happens to me less in the romance genre. The Rifter is fantasy and The Charioteer is general fiction (and contemporary for its time). I guess when it’s full-on romance, if you will, I can’t quite escape the knowledge that the two main characters are heading for an HEA.

Don’t get me wrong, I love romance for its structure and its HEA. But it’s been a long while since I fretted about characters in it like this. I do think that used to happen to me with early Susan Elizabeth Phillips, actually, and some Laura Kinsale, but I’m trying to remember others! I’ll have to think on it.

• Kate Elliott has some new books out in digital (USA/Canada only). I devoured her Crossroads trilogy (beginning with Spirit Gate) and thoroughly enjoyed Cold Magic (DABWAHA contender), and I intend to read its sequels. Now I can easily pick up King’s Dragon, which won the Nebula.
• Malinda Lo is asking, for YA Pride, if you know of a 2013 YA novel with LGBTQ characters. Lots of interesting novels listed. I’m not a big reader of YA, but some have piqued my interest, including a selkie one named Teeth.
• I don’t read a lot of non-fiction, and hardly ever online, but Vanity Fair’s The Expendables by William Langewiesche, about the French Foreign Legion was fascinating and well written. (Via Sandra McDonald.)
• Liz at Something More is doing a book club thingy on Vicki Essex’s Superromance, Back to the Good Fortune Diner. Chinese-American heroine has piqued interest in this book, and it’s getting good buzz elsewhere too.
• Kate Elliott again, where she discusses Falling Into Books. I love getting so caught up that nothing else exists in the moment of reading except this place and these people that another mind has fashioned and sparked with an odd sort of life. She cites Susanna Kearsley and Ben Aaronovitch.
• I find it hard to concentrate when I read short stories online, but this one, Selkie Stories Are for Losers by Sofia Samatar, sucked me in. I hate selkie stories. They’re always about how you went up to the attic to look for a book, and you found a disgusting old coat and brought it downstairs between finger and thumb and said “What’s this?”, and you never saw your mom again.