***This is a NO SPOILERS review***
I don’t often do book reviews. In fact, I think this is my first.
But I just had to talk about the romantasy novel What Fury Brings by Tricia Levenseller.
I finished the book recently and here are my thoughts on it.
First, the basic plot premise from the book's Amazon listing:
There's a shortage of men in the kingdom of Amarra. After a failed rebellion against the matriarchy, most noblemen in the country are dead. Now the women of Amarra must obtain their husbands (should they want one) by kidnapping them from other kingdoms.
Olerra, a warrior princess vying for the throne, is determined to prove her worth by kidnapping a husband. And not just any husband. To outmaneuver her treacherous cousin, she needs the best...
Okay, we can stop there. That's the basic set-up of the story. If you’ve read this blog for a while, you know I have issues with traditional romance. Traditional m/f romance of old usually starts with the man in a powerful or “up” position and the woman in a vulnerable or “down” position. For me, reading those stories is always a gamble. Will the woman empower herself by the end, or will she passively allow herself to be rescued?
Today’s romances are way different from those of my girlhood. For example, my late mother read Barbara Cartland romances. I never got into those myself but I understand the appeal. It’s escapism and light entertainment. The traditional romance basically is a rescue fantasy because until recent decades women didn’t have the freedom or means to empower their lives, independent of men.
So today, there are many more romance stories that feature empowered female MCs. And I appreciate it, I truly do. But how many of these stories are about completely dominant female MCs?
And this is where What Fury Brings comes in, and where I can unequivocally state that this is unlike any other m/f romance story I’ve ever read.
The society Olerra is a part of is basically a queendom and not a kingdom. She is the niece of the queen and one of the contenders to be chosen for the throne. Her evil cousin Glenaerys is the other main contender and also her primary nemesis in the story.
In this queendom, women have extreme physical strength. Olerra is a trained warrior and general of the army, but she hides a certain weakness (don’t want to give it away, you have to read the book) that she believes would take her out of the running for being named the next queen. So she reveals it to no one, except for her trusted female lieutenant Ydra.
Once the romance begins, we find out the reasons why Olerra is reluctant to fall in love with the prince that she kidnapped from the neighboring patriarchal kingdom. The prince also has his reasons for holding back, despite his attraction to her. Levenseller deftly weaves their twin journeys of self-discovery together into a believable slow-burn love story.
Despite the prince being a somewhat interesting character himself, the author never lets the focus stay on him for too long. Olerra is undisputably the main character, and as the readers, we are wholeheartedly in her corner. She's fighting not only the patriarchy of the Kingdom of Brutus (lol - I know - more than a little on the nose ;-)), but also the court intrigue centered around the powerful Glenaerys and her co-conspirators at home.
She demonstrates enormous physical courage and it's believable. It all feels believable.
There are scenes of brutal violence. Each of them serves the story and is not gratuitous, but some are likely to squick you.
In all, What Fury Brings is the most perfect flip of the male-female dynamic in a romantic fantasy novel I've ever read. Some might consider it a fancifully unrealistic premise, but the author presents and maintains the humanity of the characters very realistically and she also doesn't shy away from showing that women can be as vicious and violent as men.
In other words, just because it's a matriarchy it doesn't mean that everything is perfect and equitable and everyone gets along with each other. Even though Amarra's laws are definitely equitable and favor women and the protection of children, life is life and people are people and conflicts will always be present.
The ending made it feel like this was a standalone novel, but I'd love it if it became a series.
I highly recommend What Fury Brings and hope it starts a trend of dominant warrior queens in more fantasy novels. =D
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