#Solomon’s crown

[bangbangwhoa]

books I’ve read in 2023 📖 no. 096

Solomon’s Crown by Natasha Siegel

“I had been naive to ever assume I could keep us at peace. Kisses do not a kingdom make, nor love a conquest end. I loved him, but that was not enough.”

[nakedinashes]

books cristina read in 2023: solomon’s crown - natasha siegel

“When I was very young, I idolized him, fancying him a someday-saint. As I spoke to him, I would imagine the relics his bones would make. That evening he whispered to me in the soft rasp of a dying man, and all I could do was stare at his skeletal fingers, imagining them shut in a reliquary box.”

[angevinyaoiz]

Friend has been sending me excerpts from Warriors of God by James Reston Jr. and you know what, seeing this book be mentioned as a major influence on Solomon’s Crown actually makes perfect sense now. A funny thing bc i was so ?? When i saw that in the author’s note because i was like “This book deleted the crusades and anything uncomfortable how was it an influence”…but they are Constantly ukefying Philip…its like the historical book version of “when the art is SFW but u can tell who the artist has designated bottom.”

the main difference is that it seems to be in a lowkey kinda modern homophobic way thats like kind of anachronistically contrasting Richard as Cool and Action-ManlyTM even if chaotic with Philip as Passive and Delicate and constantly Bullied which. I mean not entirely UNTRUE in some contexts but one of those things that need to be analyzed by looking at different standards of rule, different periods of time in their conflicts, NOT just judging by what the Haters and Bertran de Born wrote. (However also recent media ALSO seems to love showing him be homoerotically Bullied, which is interesting…) But i can see where where that image came from in SC loool, which just took that but instead of running with the traits as negative kind of went more In the direction of “Desirable Fetish Object” which is based concept, but not nearly far ENOUGH to be interesting lol. Extremely minor but amusing cultural descendancy for me personally

[journey-to-the-attic]

funny picture allsort :^) (reference photos below)

[noahhawthorneauthor]

these are some of my favorites ✨🏳️‍🌈📚

[patroclusdefencesquad]

not kidding when i say that the line "and went to war with a man whose hips were still inscribed with the shadow of my fingertips" is bouncing around my head like the windows screensaver

[evenaturtleduck]

Solomon's Crown, p. 67

[shop5]

I tried to recommend a book to someone and they said 'I don't like reading rpf' and fair yeah, but the real people in question have been both mythologized in their own right and also dead for 800 years

[aurorawest]

Reading update

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers - 3.75/5 stars

I hate myself a little bit for using this word to describe this book, but it's a meditation on modern (western) culture, the drumbeat of living a purposeful life, and, imo, the millennial condition.

It also, separately from that, made me think of the song 'New Constellations' by Ryn Weaver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13EX7qGdUGI

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles - 5/5 stars

This book features Gareth Inglis, a member of the gentry whose father shipped him off to his uncle when his mother died. Gareth never saw or heard from his father (who remarried and had another child) again, and no one knew he existed because his father was a piece of human garbage. Which meant I couldn't stop thinking about my former father-in-law, who had two sons from his first marriage whom he, as far as I could tell, never had any contact with after remarrying and having another child. Life imitates art?

Anyway, it's KJ Charles, so you pretty much can't go wrong. I saw someone refer to this as enemies-to-lovers and realized my toxic trait is railing against people who want to apply enemies-to-lovers to everything. Spoiler alert, this is not enemies-to-lovers. But it is lovely, and includes Gareth and Joss Doomsday (a smuggler) bonding over beetles.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by SA Chakraborty - 4.5/5 stars

It was no Daevabad Trilogy, but then again, I remember finishing City of Brass and being like, yeah, it was fine, I'll probably pick up the sequel at some point. It wasn't until Kingdom of Copper that I grew to really love the series, so I'm hoping the same happens with this. This book was a lot of fun, and the fact that all the characters were middle-aged was pretty delightful. I'm definitely excited to see where this series goes.

The Long Run by James Acker - 5/5 stars

Excellent YA book about two lonely jocks in New Jersey.

Feel the Fire by Annabeth Albert - 3.75/5 stars

His Accidental Cowboy by AM Arthur - 4/5 stars

Brida by Paul Coelho - 1/5 stars

One of the reviews for this book on Storygraph says it 'aged like milk' and I can't put it better than that. This is a soul mate AU where souls undergo cell division, essentially, and your soul mate is from your same base soul from before the soul split in half. Okay, great. Oh but wait, the soul always divides into male and female. And your soul mate is always someone of the opposite sex, even though that doesn't make sense because as souls divide again and again, that means there are a lot of people out there who came from the same original soul as you. Also, witchcraft? Also also, even though the book is called Brida and is ostensibly about the title character, her whole journey was really just to serve the unnamed male character, the Magus. This isn't implicit either, it's completely explicit. At the end it's like, 'sometimes young women come along to show men the way' (I'm paraphrasing but...not much).

This went straight to my give away pile, and I hated it so much that the rest of my Coelho books joined it (except The Alchemist).

Enlightened by Joanna Chambers - 5/5 stars

Or, For The Love Of God Please Give David Lauriston And Murdo Balfour A Break, And Preferably A Happy Ending.

They got one, btw.

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao - DNF

Honestly, the Mad Libs YA title should have warned me off of this one, but I always give my Illumicrate books a try. Cartoonish villains and protagonists I find myself liking less the more we get to know them. The prose is quite good but not enough to make up for the character deficiencies.

Solomon's Crown by Natasha Siegel - 5/5 stars

Blurbed by no less than Tamora Pierce (Song of the Lioness supremacy!), Rainbow Rowell, Freya Marske, and CS Pacat. Did I go into this book with insanely high expectations? Yes. Did it mostly meet them? Yes! If you're a Captive Prince fan, this one's for you.

Siegel tells us up front, before the book even starts, that it's a romance and not historically accurate. So don't go into this expecting a historically accurate love story between King Richard of England and King Philip of France. It is, however, a gorgeous romance. The world-building is top notch. Even if it's not totally accurate to the High Middle Ages, it feels accurate, if that makes sense? Siegel really captures the feeling of being in a different world. Lush writing, amazing sexual/romantic tension, lovely sad boys. Highly, highly recommend.

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots by Cat Sebastian - 4.75/5 stars

I docked .25 stars because it bugged me that they didn't move in together at the end. Idk, just felt too 'look, I'm subverting romance conventions!' Still good, obviously.

Like Real People Do by EL Massey - 4/5 stars

A very wholesome and low stakes hockey romance. I found myself often thinking that the interactions of the men on the hockey teams seemed unrealistic, but it was charming and sweet enough that I didn't care.

The book reads like fanfiction, which is because it was fanfiction—but it's in a mostly good way, not a bad way (*cough* All The Way Happy *cough*). Apparently the original version was Check, Please! fanfiction, which I am vaguely familiar with as a thing that exists. Apparently it's a web comic? Anyway, I enjoyed the book enough to pick up the sequel.

[ladygodgiven]

this is what solomon's crown felt like ngl

[angevinyaoiz]

bruh this book got wild. I expected it to be very fluffy romance etc whatever not historically accurate but WOW even by those standards there were some unintentional fucked up behavior going on in it??? Geoffrey wasn't even homophobic he literally did not do a single thing wrong the entire story wtf he was getting strung along by Philip (who made treaty with him and then decided to DITCH him for his Situationship) and bullied by Richard the whole time and when Geoff comes to them with VERY REASONABLE CRITICISMS OF HOW RICH IS HANDLING THINGS Richard just is like "nyehhh you don't understand....our Special connection" then he fucking died with CONSTANCE WATCHING and then Philip and Rich are like hm....oh well...sad.....anyways. let's make out some more....Philip refuses to take responsibility for literally anything the entire book he's just like "I may be the most highest ranking man in this part of Europe. :( but my hands are tied....I'm FORCED to make these problematic decisions .....I couldn't help but break my promises to Geoffrey you know how it is......I was having my baby gay awakening....sorry for being a bad friend :/ but u know how true love is"

Like even without thinking about historical accuracy and whatever (and I could have LOTS to say) it's like everyone behaves SO shittily and the story kind of takes that "soft' approach to them in which no one ever makes a Bad Decision no one ever behaves truly selfishly, it's always like "I had no choice..." which. Don't get me wrong I LOVE characters being shitty but it's wild when the story itself just kind of shrugs it off like "Geoffrey??? He had bad vibes. Sucks to be him. Anyways ...here's the power of enduring love or whatever (living in a delusional world where ur decisions don't affect the world around you even if it literally the most powerful people on the continent) it's like supposed to be soft and a more positive story but somehow that framing of it being a Romance(tm) makes all the stuff look worse jfodfijf

[bibliophileiz]

"To think, I had feared you might be dull." His eyes trailed languidly over my face, from my hairline to my jaw; a cataloguing, exploratory sort of gaze, one that felt almost violating. "I thought you might be tedious, as your father was. But you are not." "What am I, then? If not dull?" "I do not know," he replied. "A contradiction. An enemy, an ally. A question and an answer."

Richard the Lionheart to King Philip, Solomon's Crown by Natasha Siegel, pg. 47

look, I don't care for Siegel's portrayal of Eleanor in this book, but she grasps the inherent homoeroticism of feuding kings.

[cordofcommunion]

i've just started reading a gay "retelling" of richard i and phillip ii's relationship that should be doing numbers on the lion in winter side of tumblr

[kazz-brekker]

i regret to inform you all that my curiosity has gotten the better of me and i am now reading the richard the lionheart/philip ii of france book that came out in march. so far it is committing the cardinal sin of being somewhat boring and skipping over the fun bits of history like richard’s literal teenaged rebellion against his dad but i feel obligated to stick with it at least until it gets gay to see what it does with that.

[noahhawthorneauthor]

I loved the audiobooks so much, I acquired trophies. 🎧📚🌈

Or vice versa in the case of The Last Sun (and series), and A Strange and Stubborn Endurance. I borrowed A Strange and Stubborn Endurance from the library, loved it, then listened on audiobook and later acquired a hard copy. I bought The Last Sun and series, and later listened to the audiobooks at least five times each.

Yes, really.

There's a method to my madness, I swear. In case you haven't noticed, I'm big on rereading, and relistening. I love to annotate, and I love the emotion that narrators put into the stories I love. It's a hand in hand experience for me. I've recently listened to Silver Under Nightfall and The Scottish Boy, so the next time I experience them will be in pages and pencil.

The second slide are audiobooks that I love, but haven't collected the print editions yet.

[babymagi]

Now the old King is dead, long live the King