The Heretic Royal by G.A. Aiken

We are on the fourth of the three Smythe-Ferguson sisters (the third being a scheming bitch who is trying to build an empire), Ainsley, in this book. She feels like a forgotten sister. Keeley, the oldest, loved her brothers and sisters and the forge. Gemma was a fighter and then a war monk. And she was always Ainsley's main sparring partner and now the first to dismiss any of the contributions Ainsley is trying to make. But, now that the dragons have arrived (a crossover from Aiken's Dragon Kin series) and that might change the odds. 

There are SO MANY characters in this book. You will have a little bit of a chance if you've read either the Dragon Kin books or the Scarred Earth books so far but there are still a LOT of people to keep track of. Aiken is great at spinning off side characters and that happens again in this book but we also get a return of the rather large group of characters from the previous book in the series. So, a lot of page space is taken up with these characters. did I still enjoy this book? Mostly, yes. I really wish we had gotten to see more of Gruff, the centaur who doesn't usually talk, especially in the building of his relationship with Keeley. As it's own book, this is about three stars but as an addition to the overall series, four stars.

Scarred Earth Saga #3

Three and a half stars

Follows The Princess Knight

This book comes out November 24, 2022

ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Reread as ebook from Libby February 2024

The Princess Knight by G. A. Aiken

The focus of this book is Brother Gemma. Although it's hard to call her "brother" at the beginning of the book because she feels abandoned by her god and is hardly worshiping him. In fact, everyone thinks that she's drinking like her cousin. However, when someone (not Beatrix!) starts attacking religious sects (starting by slaughtering almost all of the peace monks), Gemma is not especially excited about helping but she saddles up along with her squire Samuel, her sister Ainsley who Gemma and Keeley seem to always forget, and two of the Amichai Laila and Quinn. Quinn is a thorn in Gemma's side though he is definitely a good fighter.

First, they travel to Gemma's past to visit the place where she trained and the other War Monks. There, we learn a bit about why Gemma is the way she is as well as more about the politics of the War Monks. We also get to meet Ragna, another War Monk; one who is even more dedicated to the cause than Gemma. She is the one who ultimately gives Gemma a list of sects to pick up including temple virgins, witches, divine assassins, war priests, a truce monk, and a nun (the Abbess Butcher). Oh, she also gets back her horse Kriegszorn. The one she lost in battle and had to raise (battle monks tend to win battles by bringing the dead back to life.) So what if he's only half normal horse and half rotting corpse? It's her horse!

We do get to see Queen Keeley (who gained such love from me in the first book that I had trouble switching over any to Gemma) and how she's building her kingdom. There are glimpses of Beatrix and what her evil plan is ultimately going to be. And then, a brief glimpse at some special guests who are going to be in the next book.

Definitely start with the first book in this series. This is an Aiken book through and through with characters that go so far beyond zany that you have to love them because they are so well-definied in their own brands of crazy. The beginning was actually a little slower than some Aiken books but it picked up nicely.

Scarred Earth Saga #2

Four stars

This book comes out November 24, 2020

Follows The Blacksmith Queen

Followed by The Heretic Royal

ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Reread as ebook from Libby February 2024

The Blacksmith Queen by G. A. Aiken

Adjacent to Aiken's Dragon Kin series (though you don't have to have read any of those books to understand what is going on), this book dumps you into a land where the king has died and his sons have all immediately started killing each other off in order to inherit the throne. However, there is a seer who has proclaimed that the next ruler will actually be a woman.
From there, we are dumped in the middle of a fight where a boy, Samuel, is saved by a blacksmith, Keeley. But then... there's a lot of world-building. We meet Keeley's family, including her sister, Gemma, who left and has returned a rather "chunky" nun. Also introduced is Keeley's sister Beatrix who is reported to be the next queen. But will it be her or is the prophecy somewhat murkier than first thought?
It took me awhile to get into this book. I love the zaniness of Aiken (especially in her romance series writing as Laurenston) but it took a lot of time to get to a point where the world was built enough to really enjoy the craziness that I think this series will get into. Normally Aiken is much better at building the worlds simultaneous to getting characters developed. For me, the book was sort of a bell curve with the best part of the book being the middle but you sort of had to wade in to get to it. Hopefully the second book will be better because all of the back story will be behind.

Three stars

Followed by The Princess Knight
This book came out August 27th, 2019
I borrowed this as an ebook from the library

Note: I borrowed this as an audiobook later and it was even BETTER
Opinions are my own

Reread as Audible audiobook January 2024