Fireheart Tiger

Award-winning author Aliette de Bodard returns with a powerful romantic fantasy that reads like The Goblin Emperor meets Howl’s Moving Castle in a pre-colonial Vietnamese-esque world.
Fire burns bright and has a long memory….
Quiet, thoughtful princess Thanh was sent away as a hostage to the powerful faraway country of Ephteria as a child. Now she’s returned to her mother’s imperial court, haunted not only by memories of her first romance, but by worrying magical echoes of a fire that devastated Ephteria’s royal palace.
Thanh’s new role as a diplomat places her once again in the path of her first love, the powerful and magnetic Eldris of Ephteria, who knows exactly what she wants: romance from Thanh and much more from Thanh’s home. Eldris won’t take no for an answer, on either front. But the fire that burned down one palace is tempting Thanh with the possibility of making her own dangerous decisions.
Can Thanh find the freedom to shape her country’s fate—and her own?

I have been meaning to read Aliette de Bodard’s work for a long time now, so I practically jumped when Tor.com approved me for this eARC!! I’d like to start this review with the AO3 content warnings and tags that the author wrote herself:

[tw-abuse, tw-assault-non-explicit] sword lesbian, diplomat lesbian, sunshine girl, fire girl (who is also sunshine girl), colonialism, sapphic shenanigans, symbolically unsubtle chess, garden flirting & more, drawn sword, tea on fire, scary tiger

If you didn’t know, AO3 is a fan-fiction website and their tagging system is godly. I need all books from now on to be described in this way, THANKS.

I’m gonna keep this review real short, since the novella itself is very short. I don’t want to say too much and ruin the experience of reading it!

Aliette de Bodard’s writing is beautiful. It reminds me a lot fo Nghi Vo’s writing. They both have their own distinct style of course, but both are so beautiful and lyrical that I just want to read their prose forever. She also manages to pack a lot of things in a tiny little novella – which you can see from the AO3 tags. Lesbian princesses, betrayal, mother/daughter relationships, magic, political machinations, and more. All things that I love!! Also, there is a definite element to the story that is similar to Howl’s Moving Castle – which I LOVE. And!! I love that the main setting was totally Vietnamese inspired. Hell yes to Asian fantasy settings.

I really liked all of these elements! However, at the end of the day my major complaint is that it was just…too short. Like yes, it is a novella, but it’s even short for a novella. Also, it’s short in a way that makes it feel a little underdeveloped. I needed a bit more world building and time to get to know more about the characters, since they fell a little flat. But other than that, I really liked this novella and will absolutely be reading more of de Bodard’s work.

Fireheart Tiger is out today!! Happy book birthday!

Thank you Tor.com and NetGalley for the eARC for review!