I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review!

In this book, Molly Ringle presents a beautifully crafted fantasy world with lovable protagonists, good world-building, and delightfully casually queer characters.

I have previously complimented Ringle's writing style and the natural flow of background information throughout the book, and I have to praise this book for having the same quality. I often find fantasy books a bit tedious with the abundance of details, and I even get mixed up with character names at times, but I never once had this issue with Sage and King or Lava Red Feather Blue. As a non-native English speaker, I truly appreciate books that don't give me terse paragraphs or overly complicated descriptions to wade through. Sage and King manages to build up a beautiful world, and teach about its history and its characters while maintaining a lovely, flowing writing style. At no point did the information presented feel out of place/confusing, and we also see more of the main characters' shift in dynamic while learning about this magical world. The writing style is often the first thing I make note of when reading, and we all know that easy reading is damn hard writing so I must applaud Molly Ringle for delivering on that front.

Sage and King is (by the author's description) a book inspired by Merthur but is not Arthurian. Despite the book drawing inspiration from Merthur, and presenting a dynamic similar to the well-loved Arthur/Merlin, the main characters of the book are their own people with their own traits and personalities. I found Zaya endearing and thoughtful, and felt for him even when he made misguided decisions out of anger. The baseline for Zaya's character is a kindness that shines even when he's put in bad situations and I found myself thinking that this is probably what "chivalrous" actually means. This trait gives his and Col's dynamic an even more interesting spin due to the events of the books, and the information that we as readers are privy to -but Zaya is not (watch me try to word this well without spoiling anything). I enjoyed the budding relationship between Col and Zaya, and the underlying tension that came with Col's chapters while Zaya remained oblivious. Overall, I enjoyed these characters together and I enjoyed their relationships with other characters in the book. In fact, I really wanted to see more of Zaya and Del's friendship!

Another point to bring up is the characters' age. Zaya and Col are both in their mid/late twenties, and I honestly adore having queer characters my own age in a fantasy setting. Oftentimes queer novels are either set up with far younger characters in coming-of-age stories, or with older character destined for trauma and tragedy. Therefore it was lovely to have queer main characters in their mid/late twenties in a novel combining fantasy and romance.

Furthermore -and yes this needed its own paragraph- I also really loved all the talk about plant magic. I pride myself on knowing a lot about plants due to my heritage, so it was particularly fun to see what type of magic each plant got assigned and how it was used by Col and the other magicians. I would honestly read a novella just about Col living his every day life in this world. No plot required.

A final thought is that this book doesn't waste any time on homophobia within its fantasy world. In fact, Sage and King features a bisexual MC, a gay MC, and casual mentions of queer relationships and nonbinary people -which is a refreshing, welcome change from fantasy books that still use homophobia to push the plot. Overall, the book is a fun, light read and a lovely escape from reality for a few hours. The plot is well set up and easy to follow and the world-building is fantastic.

I highly recommend that you buy this book if you're looking for something well written, romantic, and has lovely high fantasy elements.

A feel good story.

A book with a simple plot without much drama, but still entertaining. I think this books is written like a fairy tale, with that beautiful ending that we all hope for heroes.

I really liked the dynamics between Col and Zaya... this story between a king and a sage is fabulous. The contrast between someone who knows nothing about magic and someone who has known it all his life. And despite the very different lives they have, Zaya and Col have similar hearts: with a lot of love, loyalty and two men who seek the good of the kingdom.

I have the biggest grin right now. And my heart is still fluttering.
Molly Ringle has a gift when it comes to writing novels that feel like one of the fairy tales we all loved and read when we were children, masterfully weaving that timeless, magical and all-encompassing atmosphere with mature themes, a lovely romance, high-stakes and life-or-death situations.
I loved her previous novel "Lava Red Feather Blue" with my whole heart, so when I saw "Sage and King" on Netgalley... I've never requested a book faster. I'm so glad I got to read and review it in advance. Like it's predecessor, I know I'll be thinking about it for weeks on end.

The plot revolves around Zaya, whose life is upended when he is inherits the throne of a fantastical kingdom where magic exists and is severely frowned upon, where strict laws limit magicians's lives, and Col, a young sage with great magical powers and that has been chosen to guide Zaya through his first weeks of reign.
The plot is fairly straight-forward, but it captures the reader's attention from the start. Ringle blends sweet and soft moments between the two MCs with conversations about morals and prejudices, tough decisions and life-alterning secrets, complicated familial relationships and divided loyalties.
I loved both Zaya and Col so much. They're both young and artless in some, different, ways, but they're also nice and decent, and yes, wise, both desperate and eager to make the right choices when their life-plans get upended. Together, they were sweet and soft and made my heart ache for all the best reasons.

When this book comes out in May, go and buy it. If you're looking for a story with a magical, timeless atmosphere, a romance that will leave you sighing and starry-eyed, this is the novel for you.

This was a lovely, fluffy LGBT fantasy. I’m not a big fantasy reader, but I really enjoyed the sweet and steamy love story of Zaya and Col. It was a super easy read and I thought the world building was very good, it was sort of medieval-esque with magic thrown in. Since finishing the book I’ve seen the author state that she was inspired by the BBC series Merlin which I haven’t seen but that was pretty much the aesthetic I imagined just from reading it. I thought the characters were likeable, the drama was predictable but still worked well, and overall I did really enjoy this book.

Ringle has done it again! Sage and King is a thoroughly enchanting fantasy that made me laugh and cry happy tears.

This book is loosely Merthur story. I am not familiar with Arthurian legends so can't comment on the parallels however I can testify that this book is an absolute joy to read even if you aren't a Merthur stan.

This book is my favourite kind of romance, filled with a yearning, slow-burn romance but also has a little bit of spice ;)

I genuinely think Ringle's work gets better with every book that she writes!