★★★★★ 5
Beautiful, Lovely, Nearly Perfect Fantasy Romance (with Mature FMC!!)
Format: Kindle
Man. I am just so incredibly touched and impressed and just blown away by this book. I picked up Preistess by Kara Reynolds after a glowing recommendation from the r/fantasyromance subreddit. I was immediately sold on the fully mature, 38 year old female lead, but if that's not enough for you, there is a richly detailed, original world, a lively cast of characters, queer rep, and a male lead who is all about consent. My expectations were high based on the reviews on Reddit, and this book lived up to and even smashed them.
I will say that at first I was not sure I was going to like the book. In the beginning, I don't know exactly what it was, but I had a hard time with the author's tone. The lack of paragraph indentions drove me nuts for awhile, but by the end of the book I didn't even notice it anymore. And while I wasn't fond of the author's style to start with, now that I've finished the book, I honestly don't remember what I didn't like about it. In my opinion, it takes around the first 10 - 15% for the story to really find its way, but once it did, I was captivated.
One thing that put me off initially, but that I came to love, was the large cast of characters. Edie, the main character, is with a group of eight other women, and at first it was hard to keep them all straight and remember who was who. Before long I was able to tell them all apart easily, as they all have distinct personalities and individual characteristics. I quickly became invested in all of the women, and the men when they were introduced as well. Each of the couples was adorable in its own way, and each had their own difficulties to overcome. We see everything about the secondary couples through the eyes of Edie, the POV character, but their stories are still sweet and fun to see.
Something that I really loved about this story was the worldbuilding and the depth with which the author went into describing Tintar and its traditions and religion. Edie's becoming a Preistess plays a large role in this book, and the message contained in these pages is so beautiful and relatable and heartwarming. I don't want to give anything away but this is the kind of positivity that SHOULD come from religion. The themes of acceptance and love contrast with the oppression often associated with religion in the real world.
I mentioned the themes a little bit above, acceptance and love being two of them. But there are many themes and concepts reiterated in this book. Independence and self worth. Female friendship and found family. The value of consent and the joy of giving pleasure to someone you love. There are a few spicy scenes but I found them all to be in good taste and they added to the story instead of distracting from it (don't get me wrong, I like smut as next as the next person, but not when it comes at the cost of plot). What we have here instead of a lot of smut is the development of a relationship between two people who are slowly falling in love with one another. The relationship between Edie and Alric feels realistic and develops organically. When they finally confess their love for one another, I really, truly believed that they were in love. This is that rare find in romance books these days: true, sweet, romantic love. (As opposed to instalove and lust.)
Overall, I am so glad I picked this book up. Endlessly grateful to the person who recommended it to me on Reddit. This is a beautiful adult love story, with main characters who are in their late 30s/early 40s. It is a story filled with found family and female friendships, with mystery and excitement. All in all I found Preistess to be such a treat. There are a few grammatical issues (and the missing indentations), but I would have put up with much more because the story itself was so engrossing and enjoyable. I will recommend this story to anyone who will listen and I will absolutely be looking for more from this author.
If you are a middle aged woman, like me, who longs for a well written fantasy romance with a fully mature heroine, with romance that actually feels like romance and the type of worldbuilding that *should* be in a fantasy novel, then Preistess by Kara Reynolds just may be the right book for you.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2025
