I didn’t come out until I was 18/19 years old. I had multiple “Gretchen”s in my life telling me that there was no way I was queer or that I was appropriating queer culture in some kind of way. This book put that experience to words perfectly. I think my only issue is that queerbaiting was used incorrectly multiple times, bc real life people cant queerbait as it’s just a lense through which media is critiqued. Overall, this was such a sweet sapphic romance and I wish that I had found a queer friend group in college like Lili did.

This was a slow start for me and at the beginning the multiple pov changes caught me off guard. That being said, those were the only flaws I found with this book. This was one of the only books I’ve read set in pre colonial America and I found each characters arc compelling in their own ways. Serapio was conditioned since childhood to be a sacrificial god. Xiala would never be able to return home, cursed to never fit in. Naranpa, the sun priest, looked down on and schemed against for the crime of being earth born. And Okoa, a carrion crow son who lost his mother. I cannot wait to read the second and I am so glad that I read this for my book club. I cannot wait to see what Roanhorse does next because her imagery and writing are impeccable

I’m not typically a romance or cozy book type of person but this book felt like a warm cup of tea. The way the main characters slowly fell in love just felt real. All Magic aside. Shout out oomf for the recommendation, this was fantastic