Winters orbit series#

Kiem had a wild, party-boy phase in his late teens and early twenties after the death of his father (#coping) but has more recently tried to do positive things with his social skills and royal wealth, like engage in charity work. I loved both of these characters, separately and together. Shock me with your hidden eye-sparks anytime, Jainan!! Jainan’s dark eyes gave a hidden spark of electricity to an expression that was otherwise entirely proper. Kiem had the photo in his head, but it was still a shock to see that grave stare right in front of him. The first time Kiem meets Jainan in person, he thinks: This delicious sense of smothered yet intense attraction between the two principals is clear from the get-go. If you like pining, Winter’s Orbit has you covered. These (incredibly respectful but unfortunately misguided) misunderstandings pile on until they are each convinced that the other person is REPULSED by them while also having a secret pining crush on them. Kiem is quite cognizant of imposing himself on Jainan, and Jainan interprets this as Kiem finding him lacking, which makes him further withdraw from Kiem, which makes Kiem more conscious of respecting Jainan’s boundaries.

Winters orbit series#

In also classic romance novel fashion, this is mostly because of a series of misunderstandings. Even though each person thinks the other person is quite cute and does not completely hate the idea of the union, the marriage gets off to a pretty awkward start. The narration alternates between Kiem and Jainan’s perspectives in classic romance-novel fashion. A backwater interplanetary empire! Love it.

I found it kind of fun that while the stakes in this book were very high for the planets of the Iskat empire, it’s also clear that within the broader scheme of the Resolution, Iskan V and its vassal planets are considered a small-potatoes backwater. The Resolution basically protects the relatively small Iskat space empire from being conquered by the much larger and more advanced space empires in different galaxies. While Prince Kiem balks at the haste with which a newly bereaved person is going to be rushed into another political marriage, it has to happen quickly so that the empire’s agreements with an enormous intergalactic space bureaucracy called The Resolution can be renewed. More on the gender system of this world later!) (One interesting thing to note about the world-building here: all honorific titles are gender-neutral. The book opens with somewhat feckless Iskat Prince Kiem being told by his grandmother, the Emperor, that he needs to marry his cousin’s very recent widower, Count Jainan of Thea, literally tomorrow to maintain the interplanetary alliance/vassalage relationship. The planet of Iskan V rules over several vassal planets, and imperial marriages are used to cement ties between Iskan V and the vassals. The setting of this book is an interplanetary empire, the Iskat empire. This book manages to twine a lot of plot threads together into one coherent, thematically consistent whole as well as providing a love story with a beautiful focus on mutual emotional healing and growth. I mean, this is a bona fide queer science fiction slow-burn romance with an arranged political marriage, interplanetary political intrigues, a murder mystery, and a creepy and mystical intergalactic bureaucracy that must be placated. I feel that this book could only be the result of someone, somewhere, telepathically spying on me and then tailoring a book directly to my personal interests. I found it to be handled well and not graphically detailed when described, but this theme is not something I would have picked up from the blurb so readers should be prepared.īitchery, I feel personally attacked by how good Winter’s Orbit was.

While overall hopeful and happy, this book deals pretty heavily with the fallout from emotional and physical abuse.