Swordcrossed

[4.5, rounded up] i don't even remember requesting this but omg??!?!? i have 0 regrets

⚔️ we follow mattinesh jay, heir to a House that's falling into debt and disrepair, and is due to marry the daughter of another (more successful) House. he needs to find a talented swordsman to defend his honour at the wedding when his bride-to-be's (alleged) lover inevitably challenges them, but (surprise surprise) the only one he can afford is the mysterious guy who ran a con on him days prior and cheated him out of 200 gold. woah.... interesting..... you guys wanna read this so bad... 🌀🌀

okay if that somehow didn't intrigue you, LISTEN UP 🗣️
its a historical fantasy(!) focusing on a m/m romance(!) in a world where queerness is normalised!! the main character, matti, is brown (which i rarely see in fantasy books) and has (implied) anxiety. the other main character, luca, has (implied) adhd and dyscalculia. plus there's nb, transmasc and wlw side characters!! also, for people who love tropes, the author managed to include tropes without beating you over the head with them, which i really liked.


⚔️ i personally think the tension was perfectly done, usually i feel like romantasy books are either way too strung out, or (more often) there's insta-love and you don't feel a connection with the characters or between them.
but this time i rooted for matti and luca the moment they met again in the centre of a practice room. their banter didn't feel forced, both characters were interesting in their own ways, and i liked how they contrasted :3 they were hilarious, fun to learn about, and easy to understand and empathise with. seriously, i loved them sm i caught myself looking up fics for this book before i remembered that its just an arc atm 😔

ALSO i'm also very surprised that i didn't lose all interest as soon as they started getting 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂, cause that tends to be a big problem for me usually 😭


⚔️ the reason i didn't give this a five was that despite how interesting the setting was, it wasn't fleshed out enough, and the book could've really benefited from an exposition dump (which is not something i say often 😭)
since i found it hard to understand the plot and the wool-related stuff (?) i honestly found myself tuning it out and just focusing on the characters, the relationships between them and the Houses, and the wedding.
and speaking of the wedding, i think i would've liked more of it (considering how it was like the main plot point of the book,,) but i did think it was done really well and was delightfully dramatic despite how short it was.

anyways i know this is a standalone but freya marske if you can hear me i need a second book 🙏

Swordfighting, secrets, shenanigans, and spice.

If you take the swordfighting and silliness from The Princess Bride and mix it with the mundane light-fantasy aspects of the Discworld, you'd get this book.

Freya Marske has done it again. I must say I was worried about delving into her writing outside of the Last Binding world, especially as Swordcrossed has a much higher focus on the romance, but I'm so happy to anounce that this is a 5 star book.

This is not a rinse and repeat of the romance plots of her previous books; Matti and Luca feel like completely new characters and I fell in love with them. I was truly giggling and kicking my feet by about 25% of my way into this. Their dynamic and chemistry was unmatched, and I love the way that Freya writes romance as well as the more steamy scenes. This book was able to tie in enough intrigue and secrets to make the plot outside the romance entertaining as well.

The villains did not feel too one-dimensional and the political, spiritual, and guild aspects of the worldbuilding was interesting. This is a very casually diverse world, with a queernormative society and visible people of colour including main characters.

I definitely saw a lot of the final events coming, but it's what I wanted to happen so I am not upset in the slightest. I don't really see the comp to Legends & Lattes beyond the fact that they eat a pastry a couple of times, but I do think that the world has a bit of that cozy vibe to it.

Overall I adored this, and while I don't think it will have as much rereadability for me as The Last Binding does, this was a really fun world to dive in to and Freya Marske writes romance specifically for me.

Oh, what an absolute delight it is to be able to read another fantastic book from Freya Marske, who is truly a master at her craft. A Marvellous Light and its sequels are some of my favourite books of all time, but I think, though I am astonished it is possible, that Swordcrossed might be even better. It is rare that I can find a book I can just completely lose myself in from the very first page, and yet I found myself doing just that with this wonderful, wonderful book.

I absolutely adore the way in which Freya Marske skilfully weaves romance in with conspiracy and intrigue, and how she creates characters that don't just seem to fit together well romantically, but also for mildly illegal sleuthing. I loved the way that Matti cared so fiercely for his family and their fortunes, even as I wished that he would stop struggling under the weight of everyone’s burdens because he thought they should all be his own, and I loved seeing the way that his and Luca’s relationship developed as he learned that he can do some things just for himself, sometimes. Luca managed to screw up so many things so severely that were this not a novel, I would be convinced he had offended at least a minor deity of luck, but were it not for his swordfighting skill and con artist ways he never would have ended up exactly where he needed to be, and he wouldn’t have made such a compelling character either.

There’s something about the way that Swordcrossed is written that makes it so hard to put down, which I couldn’t possibly hope to articulate. It was created such that even when I thought I knew what was coming next, it was such a joy to see how the story would get there. I thought the world it was set in was brilliant, and it didn’t take long to figure out how the system of Houses worked after a brief initial moment of confusion, but the information was woven so neatly into the rest of the narration that it was effortless to pick up the details as you went along.

I’m not sure I would describe it as a fantasy, particularly, it felt more like it was set in a pseudo-historical world with a religious system linked to the House system. There wasn’t any magic, the gods didn’t show up or grant favours, so while it had the air of a fantasy world it was overall pretty down-to-earth, and I really enjoyed that. I also loved how queernorm the setting was – there were side characters who were trans and nonbinary who were free to express that and be accepted within their society, and it was specifically mentioned that gay marriage had been around for 30 years, and there was no stigma against gay couples, which is always delightful and suited the story well – it also meant that a lot of the conflict with Matti and Luca’s relationship was that they were hopeless idiots, rather than forced to keep secrets.

The scheming that Matti and Luca set out to uncover was also masterfully done. Watching everything come together was incredible, and it became clear how things that seemed irrelevant or even confusing at the time all connected to produce an undeniable pattern. It was so clear that so much thought had been put into creating something so complex, and the way it was so gracefully handled I found very impressive.

If you liked Freya Marske’s other books, I guarantee you will love this one. And if you’re looking for gays, swordfighting, gays attempting to learn swordfighting and not being very good at it, or amateur detective work involving breaking into people’s houses and hiding in wardrobes, then this is certainly a book for you. I hope everyone reads it and I hope everyone loves it, because it is without a doubt a new favourite book for me.

Oh she's only gone and done it again.

Freya Marske is absolutely one of my favourite authors; the last binding trilogy had me on my knees so I've been waiting for this book with bated breath, and getting the opportunity to read it in advance was a dream come true.

It's almost scary when an author you love so much, who wrote some of your favourite books, branches out to something new. There's always a risk it won't meet up to your expectations, but that's not what happened here at all. Marske has once again created a captivating world, with wonderful, human characters, and told a story so compelling I couldn't put it down. This will absolutely become one of my comfort re-reads, just like TLB is for me.

I love Freya Marske so much. I have read her previous series, but I think she has really knocked it out of the park with this one. I giggled, I swooned and I did not see the twist coming. Freya writes LGBTQ-characters with respect and love. They dance of the page and nothing seems too much or little. It’s very clear that the author loved writing this, it shows in the way our two men fall in love. The worldbuilding is something different than from other books, and I can’t put my finger on it, except that it is a unique Marske way. I highly recommend this book to everyone who has read Freya’s other series and enjoyed it. I was such a wonderful read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

(Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.)

“Swordcrossed” is a thoroughly delightful Fantasy of Manners about an overworked Good Boi and a precious ADHD disaster scapegrace whose colliding paths lead them to unexpected solutions for their respective pressing problems, but create entirely new ones.

When I was seventeen years old I read and fell in love with Ellen Kushner’s novel “Swordspoint”. Freya Marke’s book has an entirely different plot, setting and characters, don’t get me wrong, and the prose style and narrative voice are quite different, but I think it’s fair to say that this is very firmly in the same GENRE as Kushner’s book: less baroque cruelty, more cosy cinnamon rolls, similar levels of swashbuckling and identity porn.

Both novels are fantasies of the firmly unmagical variety, but whereas Kushner’s Riverside actively evokes many European cities and is largely focused upon the aristocracy and those who work for them, Marske’s Glassport feels like its own place. Marske’s worldbuilding is engaging: we’re firmly embedded in the merchant class in a world of guilds jockeying for power. The class system is based on Houses, to be sure, but these Houses and their power structure are firmly rooted in commerce, and this is a world where people can change their status and responsibilities by marrying into a House or being adopted into one: most fantasies out there tend to favour Special Bloodline shenanigans as the basis of power, whether magical or temporal, so it’s a refreshing change to be given a world where social mobility is possible, and where the class structure doesn’t hinge on some variation of eugenics.

Relatedly Marske gives us a world where coming-of-age rituals provide young people with the opportunity to affirm or repudiate their birth gender: one protagonist has an older brother who is clearly trans, and although he is married to a woman (and Matti himself is marrying a woman) the story is set in a world where samesex marriage is unremarkable. Because bloodlines really aren’t treated as A Big Deal in this world, and adopting a worthy employee as one’s heir is clearly an everyday matter, there’s a similarly relaxed attitude to premarital sex and pregnancy, and a related absence of systemic misogyny, and can I just say what a blessed RELIEF I found this? (I’m making a point picking out this aspect of the worldbuilding because I really appreciated the thought that went into, but it’s very much just a background thing. It isn’t what the story is ostensibly about, but the worldbuilding naturally shapes the story.)

All too often one finds fantasy worldbuilding with elaborate systems of magic or deities, where gender roles are grimly familiar and constraining - or else the author tries to flip gender roles in an estatz medieval world without really thinking through the consequences, and it doesn’t ring true; I really appreciate that Marske has clearly sat down and reflected upon how to build a world where LGBTQ characters have as much chance to live their best lives as the cishet ones. It’s lovely.

I’m trying NOT to just retell the plot here, because I’m sure that plenty of other reviews will do that, and I very much enjoyed reading the novel with only the blurb (and, tbh, Freya Marske’s previous books) to shape my expectations. However: in “Swordcrossed” we meet overworked young wool merchant Mattinesh Jay, who is on the brink of clawing his House’s way back from impending financial disaster via a marriage of convenience to a very nice young woman from a very wealthy House of wine merchants. Unfortunately it is traditional for the “does any man here present know of a reason why these two should not be married” part of the wedding ceremony to involve the opportunity for other swains to duel for the hand of the bride (or groom), either personally or via a professional duellist - and Matti knows for an absolute fact that his bride’s other suitor (a noted swordfighter) is going to challenge the wedding. He doesn’t know one end of a sword from the other. Thus he needs to employ an extremely capable swordsman as his Best Man.

What he gets is scapegrace con artist Luca Piere, an excellent swordsman brand new to Glassport with enough baggage for an entire airport and enough charm to steal the heart right out of Matti’s chest.

The sexual tension between the two of them is wildly inconvenient, but also undeniable; the building trust and friendship is something neither of them expected, but both of them treasure.


There are nefarious villains and violent thugs to be dealt with, and secrets to be divulged, but this is firmly a romance with the promise of a HEA, and the issues that separate the protagonists are reasonable and believable ones. Matti and Luca are both absolute sweethearts in their very different ways, and Matti’s family (and fiancee) are all very likeable too.

I loved it. I’m not sure whether I loved it MORE than The Last Binding trilogy as a whole, but I think I did enjoy it more than “A Marvellous Light” - not least because as an ADHD hot mess myself my level of sympathy for Luca was off the charts. He is doing his best! (At first I thought he was going to be a Locke Lamora-esque professional con artist, but the reality is that he’s more Wyle E Coyote than Eugenides of Edis. Clearly the poor lamb suffers from dyscalculia as well as ADHD, and I really enjoyed the way Marske quietly shapes his backstory around his neurodivergence.)

“Starcrossed” feels like a standalone, and its ending was very satisfying, but I hope that Marske revisits the world she’s built for this story, in the same way that Bujold uses the World Of The Five Gods as a backdrop for stories about different people.

Intertwining swords and wool, weddings and snooping around, fire and gentleness, Swordcrossed is a breeze of a book that lives up to the legacy of The Last Binding.

Meet Matti, heir to the honourable Jay House. Honourable, but currently in debt thanks to recurring bouts of bad luck. Matti’s marriage with the wealthy Coopers’ heir should change Jay House’s fate, but for that to happen, the marriage needs to go through. That wouldn’t be a problem, if only Matti’s betrothed didn’t have another suitor, more than ready to challenge the wedding… and possibly stop it altogether. What Matti needs is a best man capable of defeating the suitor in a duel if it comes down to it. Enter Luca Piere. Charming conman and talented duellist just arrived in town, Luca is fleeing his past and trying to lay low. He is all Matti can afford to pay for but luckily for Matti, the bargain is more interesting than it seems. Especially when the two of them discover that the Jays’ misfortune may not just have been bad luck, but rather a plot to sink them.

With Swordcrossed, Freya Marske proves that she never fails to deliver novels that are delightful and enticing from the beginning to the end. From a captivating plot that kept me on my toes until the very end, to vivid and endearing characters I could read ten more novels about, all of this completed by a rich and colourful world, Swordcrossed is perfect, and a fantastic follow-up to Marske’s debut series The Last Binding.

Marske decided to go with a lower-stakes fantasy here. By lower-stakes, I mean that the world is not about to end, and that the stakes are only personal. The danger with lower-stakes is that they are sometimes too low to be interesting to the reader. Never fear when it comes to Swordcrossed, the characters’ personal stakes are high and the fact that the characters are so endearing and lovable means I had no trouble being invested in the story. As usual, Marske’s pace is mastered, a perfect blend between fantasy and romance, with beats that fell just at the right moment. Languid enough that it feels like a summer novel, quick enough that I had no time to get bored.

Not that I could’ve gotten bored with such fantastic characters as Matti and Luca. I could probably read a whole novel about them just spending time together and doing nothing. Not only are they fascinating characters individually, both of them vivid and complex, their dynamic is also amazing. As with Marske’s other novels, the number of time I found myself giggling because of the relationship between Matti and Luca is frankly indecent. But Marske sure knows how to write relationship and tease the reader while she’s at it.

Everyone who has loved The Last Binding trilogy will without a doubt love Swordcrossed, and I am of the opinion that Alexandra Rowland’s fans should love the novel as well. Swordcrossed feels like a summer novel to me, perfect for those looking for a light fantasy that features a well-developed, prominent romance.

Thank you to PanMacmillan and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book. All opinions stated in this review are mine.

Absolutely gorgeous romance between an heir and swordsman.

This book made me smile so many times! The back and forth between the MCs in training and outside of it was perfect.

I loved the political backstory surrounding the families.

Overall loved it!

Thanks Netgalley & Tor UK for the e-ARC

I had high expectations of this book as the Last Binding trilogy is among my favorites, and this one did not disappoint.
The setting is a second world, but without magic or anything supernatural. Rather, it is a made up world with a historical feel, but better in terms of gender equality and queer rights, though there are still many issues. Most important, the position of people with House status (Houses are wealthy trader families) in comparison to people without a house, and while this is not the focus of the book, the inequalities are highlighted and the MC's father is in an important political position because he wants to do something about this inequalities.

The MC Matti is drowning under family pressure. His House's wool business is on the verge of collapse and the only way to save it is for Matti to marry Sofia Cooper, a second daughter of a very wealthy house who'd bring her own fortune into Matti's house. Matti is not particularly excited about the marriage, but he's very dutiful and likes Sofia well enough. I loved Matti's characterization as the dutiful son who takes everything upon himself and his character arc of realizing he has to live for himself too and not take everything upon his own shoulders.

The only thing standing in between Matti and saving his family is Adrean Vane, the son of his father's employee, and poet. He is madly in love with Sofia, and is convinced she loves him too but is forced to marry for status instead, despite Sofia repeatedly telling him she's not interested (I really appreciated this plotline). A tradition in this world is that in a wedding, you can challenge for either of the people getting married and you'll fight a duel with either the other person getting married or their best man and if you win, this means the gods are against the marriage and most likely it won't go through. Adrean happens to be an expert duellist and plans to challenge for Sofia. Since Matti can't fight, he'll need to hire a best man. I liked this part of the world building, it felt fresh and original, but also believable within a historical context. The book doesn't go deep into history, but does imply that in the past duels were typically to the death whereas in modern day this is rarely the case and a lot of duels are more for show, though the ones at a wedding are still taken very seriously.

Luca is a swordsman new to town, running away from his problems, and he's the best duellist Matti can afford with his limited budget. Their relationship starts off at the wrong foot as Luca had just conned Matti out of a significant sum, but Luca tries to salvage this by throwing in free sword lessons on top of his services as a best man, and over these lessons they grow closer.

They also begin investigating some strange happenings within the trader houses, people running schemes and aiming to destroy Matti's house for their own gain, and I liked this subplot. Luca is great at investigating because he doesn't really care about breaking and entering or conning his way inside.

The romance starts primarily physical and over the course of the book it develops into romantic too. Matti is engaged to Sofia through most of the book, and he does sleep with Luca during this time. In this book's world, a business engagement doesn't really count in terms of cheating, not through the marriage, but I can imagine some people might be uncomfortable with this. I personally didn't mind so much.

I also really appreciated the side characters in this, especially Sofia and Maya (Matti's younger sister), and I liked how Sofia's character was handled as Matti's fiancée. She's not in love with him either though she does like him as a friend, nor does she like Adrean who claims to be in love with her. She's clever, helps in the investigation and saving Jay house later on and she and Matti part on good terms (how exactly is a spoiler but I really liked how it was resolved).

Would recommend this book to fans of Freya Marske's earlier work, queer romantasy and queer historical romance. I'd say it feels more historical romance than fantasy.

After reading The Last Binding trilogy and absolutely loving it, I was being excited to read Swordcrossed, but, it did mean I had really high expectations.

I am so happy to be able to say this book lived up to every one of those expectations. The relationship between Matti and Luca grows slowly but blindingly, you feel the pair of them fall in love whilst both weighed down by known and unknown secrets. The way Freya Marske writes the scenes between them is a level of intimacy that I haven't seen rendered in text in a long time. She made the most ordinary things sensual, made my breath catch at the heat and heart in some scenes.

Past the relationship there was the world building which was expertly don't, with deities and guilds and geopolitical histories. But... Nothing was too heavy or too dry, she gave you just the information you needed to enjoy the rich world she had created.

And finally the mystery -- it was just enough to keep the intrigue going, and as a person who is a member of the current guild of Weavers, spinners and dyers, she was about 95% correct with her wool processing knowledge!

This book was so good it's made all my other 5* reviews pale in comparison. Definitely check it out!