#lord arteloth beck

[cecilereads]

25 sapphic books + summary <3

1. She Gets the Girl - Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick

Alex and Molly don’t belong on the same planet, let alone the same college campus. But when Alex, fresh off a bad (but hopefully not permanent) breakup, discovers Molly’s hidden crush as their paths cross the night before classes start, they realize they might have a common interest after all.

2. Last Night at the Telegraph Club - Malinda Lo

Lily comes across an ad for the titular Telegraph Club in the newspaper and then discovers that one of her classmates, Kath, has been to the nightclub

3. The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon

Queen Sabran the Ninth's power in Inys is tenuous; she has yet to produce an heir to the throne and the Nameless One threatens to awaken again. Ead Duryan is an outsider from the South who acts as a lady-in-waiting and protector to Sabran, but is loyal to the secret mage society of the Priory, which has its own view of the history of Cleolind, the Mother, and Sir Galian, the Deceiver. Meanwhile, Lord Arteloth Beck, close friend of Sabran, is banished from Inys on a futile quest by those who seek to weaken the queen.

4. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid

An old Hollywood actor Evelyn Hugo is determined to secure an A-List spot in the industry by doing whatever it takes to get there. While attempting to complete her rise to stardom, she marries seven husbands and outlives them all.

5. This is How You Lose The Time War - Max Gladstone

Red and Blue are change agents who work for rival time traveling agencies–Blue for the Garden, a vast organic consciousness. Red works for the Agency, a Technotopia. While traveling to different “strands” of history and time to change history, they start to write each other letters…

6. I Kissed Shara Wheeler - Casey McQuiston

High school senior Chloe Green seeks to uncover why Shara Wheeler, the most popular girl in school, vanished on prom night soon after kissing Chloe.

7. We Are Okay - Nina Lacour

Marin lost her mother when she was 3 in a surfing accident. Her grandfather raised her and she grew up near that same beach in San Francisco. After her grandfather dies, Marin leaves for New York without talking to anyone or retrieving any of their possessions from their house. For months, she refuses to respond to or contact anyone from California. When Mabel comes for a visit after 4 months of silence, it’s time for them to reconnect with each other again.

8. One Last Stop - Casey McQuiston

For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures. But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.

9. The Falling in Love Montage - Ciara Smyth

A chance encounter at an end-of-term house party will change Saoirse's life in more ways than she could have ever imagined.

10. She Who Became the Sun - Shelley Parker-Chan

Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

11. Cinderella is Dead - Kalynn Bayron

Set in the town Mersailles, where every girl lives in fear of the day she is chosen by the King to attend the ball, it follows a girl who is determined to destroy the cruel rules she's been forced to follow called Sophia.

12. This Poison Heart - Kalynn Bayron

A teenager explores her magical connections to greenery and gods. Briseis Greene is a Black high schooler with magical powers that she hides from most people save her adoptive mothers, Thandie and Angie. She has an innate connection to plants and is even able to grow them from seeds using just her mind and hands.

13. Everything Leads to You - Nina Lacour

Finding an old letter written by a recently deceased movie star, Emi and Charlotte become swept up in the mystery of his life. The letter leads them to Ava, who lives in a shelter for teens. Emi is drawn to this talented and beautiful girl who could help Emi get over her ex-girlfriend and first true love.

14. Late to the Party - Kelly Quindlen

A girl who can capture someone's essence in a painting struggles with finding her own. Atlanta senior Codi and her friends, Maritza and JaKory, are restless and feel like they've missed out on the full teenage experience—living boldly and taking risks.

15. She Drives Me Crazy - Kelly Quindlen

After an embarrassing loss to her ex-girlfriend in their first basketball game of the season, seventeen-year-old Scottie Zajac gets into a fender bender with the worst possible person: her nemesis, Irene Abraham, head cheerleader for the Fighting Reindeer.

16. Something To Talk About - Meryl Wilsner

A showrunner and her assistant give the world something to talk about when they accidentally fuel a ridiculous rumor in this debut romance. Hollywood powerhouse Jo is photographed making her assistant Emma laugh on the red carpet, and just like that, the tabloids declare them a couple.

17. Who I Was With Her - Nita Tynda

17-year old Corinne her girlfriend, Maggie, suddenly dies in a car accident. But because both girls were still in the closet, nobody knew that they were in a relationship. We follow Corinne as she tries to deal with this loss while nobody knows what Maggie meant to her.

18. Sweet and Bitter Magic - Adrienne Tooley

A witch cursed to never love meets a girl hiding her own dangerous magic, and the two strike a dangerous bargain to save their queendom.

19. Crier’s War - Nina Varela

Ayla is a human servant of the Automae—a race of artificial humans that have become the ruling class. After her family is murdered by Automae, Ayla plans to kill the sovereign's daughter, Lady Crier.

20. Malice - Heather Walter

Alyce is a Grace, a group of magical girls who create potions and charms for all paying customers of the kingdom. But she is not like the other Graces. They call her the Dark Grace and she is feared for her dark magic. Princess Aurora is kind, gracious, and pure, and she is destined to be the future queen of Briar. When Alyce and Aurora meet, the unlikeliest of relationships begins to flourish.

21. Written in The Stars - Alexandria Bellefleur

After a disastrous blind date, Darcy Lowell is desperate to stop her well-meaning brother from playing matchmaker ever again. Love—and the inevitable heartbreak—is the last thing she wants. So she fibs and says her latest set up was a success. Darcy doesn’t expect her lie to bite her in the ass…

22. Mistakes Were Made - Meryl Wilsner

Cassie Klein and Erin Bennett meet at a bar and have a casual one-night stand. It's fine until the next morning when Cassie goes to breakfast with her best friend, Parker, only to realize they're meeting Parker's mom, Erin, the same Erin from the previous night.

23. Just Might Work - Katia Rose

As a self-proclaimed ‘cosmically guided matchmaker,’ she’s played every card in the deck trying to set Dane up with the perfect match she’s found. The problem? The ‘perfect’ match is Evangeline Hudson. Dane and Evangeline rent rooms in Dane’s eccentric aunt’s house, but that’s where their similarities end. Dane is a drifter who freewheels from one odd job to the next, and Evangeline is an overachieving undergrad with a ten year plan so detailed it reads like an autobiography.

24. Some Girls Do - Jennifer Dugan

Morgan, an elite track athlete, is forced to transfer high schools late in her senior year after it turns out being queer is against her private Catholic school's code of conduct. There, she meets Ruby, who has two hobbies: tinkering with her baby blue 1970 Ford Torino and competing in local beauty pageants, the latter to live out the dreams of her overbearing mother.

25. Read Between The Lines - Rachel Lacey

Rosie Taft is living her best life. She owns and operates her late mother’s independent bookstore in New York. Books are her life, and one of her true joys is finding just the right book for each of her patrons. She’s created quite a little community revolving around book clubs and author signings. The only thing missing from her life is a partner who will sweep her off her feet like the ones in the romance novels she loves reading.

#pride month 🌈 #books #sapphic #sapphic books #wlw community #wlw pride #lgbt pride #pride

[bronzewool]

This book took so long to finish I actually managed to read two other books in-between taking breaks from this one, and I'm not ashamed to admit I got the audible version just to get through the first 200 pages.

The Priory of The Orange Tree is set in a world where an ancient evil Wyrm called the Nameless One threatened to devour the land but was sealed away by Saint Galian Berethnet, weilding the mythical Sword Ascalon and becoming the first King of Inys. Nearly a thousand years later and signs begin to emerge signalling the the Nameless One's return. It becomes a race against time to stop the rise of the Fire Wyrms and slowly piece together what really happened all those years ago and how to defeat the Nameless One for good.

The novel follows four POV protagonists from different corners of the world. Eadaz uq-Nāra is the most prominent of the POV characters, a fire mage sent by the secret Priory of the Orange Tree to the western Isles of Inys to infiltrate the royal court and guard Queen Sabran IX, King Gallion's descendant, from several assassination attempts following a prophecy that says should the line of Berethnet fall, the Nameless One shall rise again. Ead has lived in Inys for eight years now, slowly rising through the ranks of the ladies in waiting and becoming one of Sabran's ladies of the bedchamber.

Lord Arteloth Beck is the childhood friend of Sabran and exiled to Yscalin at the begining of the novel due to their closeness and the court fearing Sabran's fondness for Loth would distract her from marrying a suitable Prince. His presence in Yscalin leads to him discovering the ruler of the Draconic Kingdom has become gravely ill and a puppet to the Nameless One who is raising an army, and Loth cannot return home without risking being infected by the deadly plague.

Tané is a member of the High Sea guard in the East continent of Seiiki where the water dragons are worshipped by the citizens, as opposed to their fiery western counterparts who are feared and hated. Tané wants nothing more than to become a dragon rider and be partnered with a dragon of her own. In order to ensure her success in the upcoming water trials she makes a selfish decision with lasting consequences that quickly catch up with her when her Dragon is stolen from her.

Niclays Roos is the last of the POV characters and the most morally ambiguous. A surgeon and Alchemist who failed to brew the elixir of life for Queen Sabran and has been exiled to Seiiki ever since. Desperate to return home at any cost, Niclays continues his research to uncover the secrets of immortality that will lead him to a crew of pirates searching for a fabled tree said to produce fruit that will grant the consumer eternal life.

The Priory of the Orange Tree has dense lore with a rich history and character politics surrounding the religion their kingdoms are built on and differing opinions of how the Nameless One was originally defeated. This divide in history is what causes the most conflict in the book and you understand each character's stance as their interpretation is seen as blasphemy to the other.

Going into this book I did not know this was a sapphic love story and was pleasantly suprised by the growing romance between Ead and Sabran, and the world's positive views on same sex couples in general despite having a medieval aesthetic. Ead and Sabran's romance isn't about whether they'll be accepted for what they are, but how their duties to the respective countries prevent them from ever being together.

Despite how perfectly woven each plot point was I couldn't help but think this book could have been split into two parts, with the first half focusing on Ead and Loth in the west, the return of the wyrms, the coup against Queen Sabran, and the involvement of the Witch of the Woods and her mysyerious connection to the royal family and the orange tree.

While the second half focusses on Tané and Niclays in the East, with the West attempting to form an alliance with the Emperor, Tané being blackmailed by Niclays for bringing an outsider onto the island, Niclays risking the life of his comrad just to obtain Dragon blood and scales, the pirates kidnapping Tané's dragon, the mystical stone in her possession and the search for the fabled mulberry tree.

Tané in particular feels underutilised despite having as much importance as Ead. She is present for most of the book but her story doesn't really take off until the second half when she is separated from her Dragon, banished from her home, and discovers the truth of her heritage. I would have prefered a slightly longer story split in two parts just to give Tané more focus.

Overall it was a well developed book with attention to detail regarding the character's speech, clothing, food, environments, politics, and interpersonal relationships. I can see why it's regarded as a feminist Lord of the Rings given the similarities in writing styles. The only aspects that let it down for me was how dry the first 200 pages were, and the not so memorable villains besides the Witch of the Woods.

Rating: 4/5

#long review for a long ass book #i'm gonna go and read something more lighthearted now #charl's book journey

[sillylittlestoryteller]

Just finished reading Priory of the Orange Tree and let me tell you, I am G A Y

#Actually I'm aro #And lord arteloth beck is my new favorite aromantic himbo #A man built on loyalty and not a drop of romantic feelings I love him and I am him #But also W O M E N #These women made me breathless and speechless and made me smile and made me cry and made me feeeeeeeel everything #Priory of the Orange Tree #Booklr #Queer book rec

[mpliego]

Lord Arteloth Beck

from The Priory of the Orange Tree

#the priory of the orange tree #arteloth beck #loth #samantha shannon #illustration #portrait #digital art #fan art #procreate #artists on tumblr

[sylvanas-girlkisser]

Ead: Men are all arrogant, chauvinist pigs.

Roos: Not all men

Ead: You’re right, lord Arteloth Beck, heir to Goldenbirch would never

#priory of the orange tree #eadaz uq nara #Niclays Roos #Arteloth Beck #I'm right and I should say it #Roos die by my blade challenge

[pleaseanotherbook]

Il priorato dell’albero delle arance di Samantha Shannon

«Per essere legata a un drago» esordì Nayimathun «non basta possedere un’anima d’acqua. Bisogna avere sangue di mare, e il mare non è sempre limpido. Non è mai omogeneo. Contiene oscurità, minacce, crudeltà. La sua furia può spazzare via intere metropoli. I suoi abissi sono insondabili, e non conoscono il tocco del sole. Essere una Miduchi non significa essere puri, Tané. Significa essere mare vivente. Per questo ti ho scelta: in te batte un cuore di drago.»

“Il priorato dell’albero delle arance” di Samantha Shannon è un high fantasy pubblicato in italiano da Mondadori nella collana Oscar Vault. Quando mi hanno chiesto se avevo voglia di leggerlo in anteprima non avevo nessuna idea di cosa aspettarmi. Poi mi sono immersa in questi regni in lotta, minacciati da più fronti, impregnati di misticismo e magia e me ne sono innamorata.

La casata di Berethnet ha regnato sul Reginato di Inys per mille anni. Ora però sembra destinata a estinguersi: la regina Sabran Nona non si è ancora sposata, ma per proteggere il reame dovrà dare alla luce una figlia, un'erede. I tempi sono difficili, gli assassini si nascondono nell'ombra e i tagliagole inviati a ucciderla da misteriosi nemici si fanno sempre più vicini. A vegliare segretamente su Sabran c'è però Ead Duryan: non appartiene all'ambiente della corte e, anche se è stata istruita per diventare una perfetta dama di compagnia, è in realtà l'adepta di una società segreta e, grazie ai suoi incantesimi, protegge la sovrana. Ma la magia è ufficialmente proibita a Inys. Al di là dell'Abisso, in Oriente, Tané studia per diventare cavaliere di draghi sin da quando era bambina. Ma ora si trova a dover compiere una scelta che potrebbe cambiare per sempre la sua vita. In tutto ciò, mentre Oriente e Occidente, da tempo divisi, si ostinano a rifiutare un negoziato, le forze del caos si risvegliano dal loro lungo sonno.

Entrare nel mondo della Shannon è una scommessa perché non sai di preciso se ne uscirai tutto intero, si tratta di una storia lunga ottocento pagine e potrebbe intimidire da più punti di vista. Eppure le immagini che la scrittrice riesce ad evocare entrano dentro e superano le barriere della pagina scritta per fagocitare completamente il lettore. È un fantasy di vecchio stampo, con un mondo completamente estraneo al nostro, ma che allo stesso tempo lo richiama vuoi per usanze, vuoi per cibi, vuoi per i luoghi. Allo stesso tempo le leggende si intrecciano per creare una storia nuova, un mondo immenso e terribile minacciato da forze oscure in cui alchimia, magia, e lotte per il potere si combattono per la supremazia. La storia procede lentamente in ogni angolo del mondo conosciuto, Oriente e Occidente, separati dal grande Abisso devono scendere a patti con le proprie divergenze se vogliono sconfiggere la minaccia del Senza Nome. Infatti i mondi di qua e di là dell’abisso sono divisi dalla loro religione, se per l’Oriente i draghi d’acqua sono delle divinità da proteggere ad ogni costo, in Occidente i wyrm sono malvagissimi, vanno annientati a qualunque costo, perché portatori della peste draconica che ha distrutto il mondo fin dall’Età Dolente. Ma il nemico di ogni regno si sta svegliando dopo mille anni e non ci si può più nascondere dietro niente.  

Quattro sono i narratori di questa storia: Tané, Niclays Roos, Lord Arteloth Beck e Eadaz du Zāla uq-Nāra. Tané è una giovane apprendista, ma migliore della Casa di Mezzogiorno, che lotta fin da piccola per entrare a far parte dei Guardiani dei Mari. È un’orfana di Seiiki uno dei regni orientali ed è cresciuta nella convinzione che l’onore più grande che possa ricevere è combattere al fianco di uno dei draghi che popolano le acque orientali. Tané non sa nulla del suo passato, ha una dedizione irremovibile e una forza di volontà paurosa, che piega tutto. Vive solo in funzione di realizzare il suo sogno, nient’altro conta. A Orisima, l’ultimo avamposto mercantile occidentale a Seiiki, esiliato dal Libero Stato di Mentondon (un regno Occidentale) si trova Niclays Roos anatomista e alchimista, alla ricerca dell’elisir di lunga vita, ma soprattutto devastato dalla perdita del suo amore più grande. Si arrangia vivendo di espedienti e della generosità non sempre concessa del Signore della Guerra di Seiiki. Ma il dottor Roos è un opportunista e appena ne trova il modo si lancerà alla ricerca di un modo per sopravvivere. Alla corte di Sabran Nona, regina di Inys, primo regno dell’Occidente, si nasconde Eadaz du Zāla uq-Nāra sotto i falsi abiti Ead Duryan Domestica Ordinaria nell’Alta Servitù. Ma Eadaz non è chi dice di essere, infatti è una delle ancelle del Priorato dell’Albero delle Arance, una comunità antichissima del regno di Lasia, da sempre votata ad uccidere i wyrm, gli sputafuoco, con un compito molto importante, proteggere a tutti i costi Sabran, ultima erede della Madre o Donzella, a seconda del culto di cui ci si riferisce, Cleolind Onjenyu ultima che ha combattuto contro il Senza Nome e l’ha gettato nell’abisso. Ead è più coraggiosa di qualunque altra ancella, e ha anche un dono particolare. Lontana dalla sua casa Ead si adatta come può e soprattutto deve farsi forza per rinnegare il suo credo e abbracciare le Sei Virtù di Virtudom portate avanti da Sabran. Meno male che alla corte della regina più potente di Occidente ha trovato degli amici, soprattutto Lord Arteloth Beck, soprannominato Loth, erede della provincia dei Prati, ricca regione a nord di Inys, e della tenuta di Betulladorata e soprattutto amico di infanzia di Sabran. Loth è un uomo coraggioso, generoso e intrepido la cui fede viene messa a dura prova ad ogni pagina e che non si dà mai per vinto. Ma la storia è in mano alle donne, sono loro le vere guerriere, sono loro che fanno sacrifici immani per superare le loro debolezze e per riconsegnare all’oblio il nemico giurato di ogni regno di questa storia. È incredibile la complessità dell’architettura su cui si muovono i vari personaggi che finiscono per convergere in una battaglia che non risparmia nessuno e che mette in discussione ogni cardine della storia.

È questo il problema delle storie, bambina. Non c'è modo di valutare la verità che contengono.

Da un lato le leggende, dall’altro le fonti dei saggi che racchiudono verità sconvolgenti. Quando il lettore crede di avere ogni tassello per ricomporre il puzzle ecco che si accorge che c’è un altro pezzo che non aveva considerato, in una matrioska di tradizioni, indizi e scintillanti manufatti. Non c’è un unico punto di vista da cui guardare questa storia, non c’è un unico filo conduttore. C’è l’eterna lotta tra bene e male, cosa è giusto e cosa sbagliato, ma c’è anche uno scavare intenso nell’animo umano, nella tensione tra il proprio trionfo e la propria sconfitta. Cosa ci fa tendere fino allo spasimo? Per cosa siamo disposti a sacrificare tutto? È un libro interessante non solo per la mole e per l’intreccio, ma anche per la prospettiva che crea, le complesse divisioni e consuetudini e soprattutto per la caratterizzazione dei personaggi di cui ve ne ho citati a malapena un quarto.

 Il particolare da non dimenticare? Una cassetta di metallo…

 L’impressionante danza tra Oriente e Occidente, tra wyrm e draghi, tra magia e potere, tra le potenze del bene e quelle del male. Samantha Shannon ha creato una architettura magnifica con descrizioni ricchissime di particolari, l’azione sempre intervallata da una cura precisa per un mondo che esiste solo tra le pagine di questo libro.

Buona lettura guys!

Ringrazio immensamente Mondadori Oscar Vault per avermi regalato la bellissima opportunità di leggere questo libro in anteprima in cambio della mia onesta opinione.

#Samantha Shannon #fantasy #high fantasy #recensione #review #Oscar Vault #Mondadori #Il priorato dell'albero delle arance #traduzione #earc