I needed a book with a Fae protagonist for reading bingo, and this was recommended to me. Which I appreciate, because this was beautiful and I can't imagine how I might have found it otherwise.
So this tells the story of a half-Fae prince from a Frankish kingdom far to the west, come to the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the reign of the Leper King, Baldwin IV. And it tells the story of an Ifrit woman enslaved to serve the Assassins (the actual historical Islamic sect).
This was almost a checklist of things I love in a book. Character-driven. A slow burn. An interesting setting. Inspired by a time/place/culture with which I'm unfamiliar (in this case the Crusader states). No clear good guy or bad guy.
It's not going to be for everyone - many people will find it dull, I'm sure. And it took me most of a month to get through it, because it took a while to really catch me. But once it did it didn't let go at all.
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