That’s a fine choice! It’s the first in a trilogy, so you’ll definitely want to read it before Nos. 2 and 3, and you don’t need to read anything beforehand.

But you have two other choices for a jumping-on point if you’d prefer:

Option 1: Into the Bargain. It’s a standalone and can be read at any point. Set several months before Subversive, it focuses on different characters but has cameos from some of the folks in the trilogy.

Option 2: Clandestine. Set several weeks before Subversive, it follows the two main characters as they make fateful decisions that put them on a collision course. That book is available to newsletter subscribers here. (Reading it after Subversive is just as valid a move.)

One protagonist narrowly avoids assassination, a traumatic experience that affects other characters’ emotions and actions for the rest of the book. And one protagonist narrowly escapes death after an encounter with an antagonist.

No one is killed, and there are no battle scenes.

Q: Yes, but what about non-violent trauma?

This is more of a spoiler. You’re sure you want to know?

OK: One protagonist is entrapped into signing a magical contract that gives another character a tremendous amount of power over them.

No characters die.

Oh yes, this is a fantasy romance. Two characters develop feelings for each other against their better judgment. One of them suspects magic is playing an unanticipated role, and the other is anxious to avoid pressing that character into an unwanted relationship.

The evolving situation between these characters powers half the plot, with fantasy and political intrigue elements as other key drivers.

Yes. There’s one scene of moderate length and explicitness, and several shorter and less explicit scenes. These occur in a dream state the characters refer to as “dreamside,” and they’re all consensual.

Nope. (There’s a point where you might think it’s headed that way, but nope, if you define “love triangle” the way I do: One character can’t make up their mind about two other characters with feelings for them.)

Yes, but it’s not melodramatic (I hope not, anyway!). Though the novel isn’t lighthearted and the characters deal with increasingly stressful situations, they always find ways to cope.

The characters don’t swear like sailors, but they’re adults in the midst of a fantasy adventure and that stress does sometimes slop over into the words they use. Over the course of the book, characters say “fuck” (or variations on it) nine times.

Nope!

Uh … I’ll do my best! If you read it and realize I’ve missed something, let me know.

(For the trope skeptics out there: I’m not stuffing these in to check boxes. I just write and then figure out after the fact what popped up.)

▪ Enemies to lovers

▪ Forced proximity

▪ Wrong side of the tracks

▪ Hades/Persephone

▪ Morally gray hero

▪ Us against the world

▪ Fighting the patriarchy

▪ Secrets and intrigue

▪ Magic spell gone wrong

▪ Slow burn

▪ Small town

▪ Light dystopian (is “sort of cozy dystopian” a thing?)

If you squished the setting feels of All Creatures Great & Small and Anne of Green Gables together with the gender dystopia of Handmaid’s Tale, then turned it into a plotty fantasy romance, you’d pretty much have this series.

This is the first book in a trilogy, so it’s Act 1 of 3, and the ending reflects that. The novel wraps up some key plot threads, but others will continue to spool out over the second and third books. The romantic plot thread is not wrapped up here, and the main characters remain at odds with each other.

Q: I’m only investing my time in this if you promise the characters get a happy ending in book three. Do they?

You’re sure you want to know?

Certain?

OK, fine, yes. They do.