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A book review podcast where we discuss how authors treat and traumatize their characters. Part of the Certain Point of View network.
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7 days ago
7 days ago
Greetings and welcome to Reviews That Burn: Series Reviews, part of Books That Burn. Series Reviews discuss at least three books in a series and cover the overarching themes and development of the story across several books.
Powerful noble families known as the beat-of-fours, answerable only to a ruler and the mysterious, godlike fae, scheme and squabble amongst themselves, and go to war for the chance to put one of their own on the throne. But the fae might be pulling more strings than the nobles realize and they definitely have their favorites. A series of love stories loosely centered around the political crisis that led to the current ruler, featuring oblivious librarians, crafty though loving kings, an innocent half-fae noble, a legendary outlaw turned conqueror, worried warriors, clever guards, and an infamous beauty.
PUBLISHER: Independently Published
LENGTH: ~1000 pages so far
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy, Romance
RECOMMENDED: Highly
Queer Rep Summary: m/m and m/m/m fantasy romance
TITLES DISCUSSED
- A SUITABLE CONSORT (2021)
- A SUITABLE BODYGUARD (2023)
- A SUITABLE CAPTIVE (2023)
- A SUITABLE STRAY (2025)
OTHER TITLES
- BLESSED (2024) - Omegaverse AU
- A SUITABLE BRAT (2025)
Before I get into my review of the series so far, I have two brief announcements!
First, I'm excited to announce that I've joined the Creator Accountability Network. CAN is a nonprofit dedicated to reducing harassment and abuse through ethical education and a system of restorative accountability. I joined because I care about the safety and well being of my community members. If you feel my behavior or content has harmed someone, please report it to CAN, either via the reporting form on their website, CreatorAccountabilityNetwork.org, or via their hotline at (617-249-4255). They’ll help me make it right, and avoid repeating that mistake in the future. CAN also needs volunteers from our communities to help with their work, so if you have skills you think would be helpful, or time and a desire to help, please visit their website to find out how you can volunteer. Most importantly, get the word out to other creators who you think would be interested in getting credentialed. Help us build safer communities together.
Second, the Suitable 'Verse has a new entry! I wrote and recorded this before the November 5th release date (and Patrons get this review early), but by the time this is posted for everyone else, the new novella, "A Suitable Brat" will be available. I reached out to R. Cooper and confirmed that this won't be the end of the series. In my series reviews I've left open the possibility of reviewing a portion of a series that is ongoing, as long as there are at least three books available at the time. In this case, there are four, so I'm proceeding with my post in its original scope. If this series sounds like your thing, there's already more for you to read.
Minimal Spoiler Zone
Series Premise
Each of these stories follows an achillean romance from the point of view of someone who was not expecting to be desired by anyone, let alone by the person or persons who endeavor to show them just how much they are cherished. Each is told from one person's perspective, generally whomever is the most neurodivergent-coded in the potential relationship, this character will also be either closely or distantly descended from the fae, who have taken an interest in the kingdom where the books are set. This allows for a slow burn feeling without padding the page count to achieve it. I'm fond of books which show someone figuring out not just what they want but how to go about it, especially in the context of a relationship. R. Cooper treats these relationships as ongoing conversations, where words, actions, and body language combine as communication. Different characters need different things, and even among the variously oblivious protagonists there are degrees of understanding, knowledge, and context which they are quicker or slower to realize.
This series is very queer, set in what appears to be a queernorm world where polyamory is accepted and implied to be relatively common. Thus far, sexuality or orientation have not been remarked upon as anything significant, and this trend seems likely to continue. These books feature some politically tense and sometimes violent situations, but do not wield most real-world bigotries as bludgeons. I say "most" because the most prevalent bigotry I spotted was classism, followed by whatever the right term for bigotry against the fae, given the way they are inhuman and neurodivergent-coded.
Recommended Reading Order
There will be some distant day when this series is complete and it's possible to read the stories from start to finish in chronological order. Today is not that day, and until that point I advise reading them in publication order, especially since that is not the chronological order. I give this advice for anyone who enjoys figuring out timelines, what's going on, and where things relate to other things. Each book's position in the grander saga of political upheaval and new governance helps inform the others in the series, overlapping enough that some pieces could be missing without losing too much of that arc. The loose fit of the stories in relation to one another means that if any of them contain particularly triggering content for an individual reader, that book could be skipped without losing too much of the overall story. The individual stories are self-contained and could be read in any order, but elements of the worldbuilding are explained in varying detail depending on the needs of the individual story. I enjoyed the revelatory feeling of figuring out where the second and third books fit in relation to the first, though I do not consider that information to be a spoiler for any of the stories involved. Instead, they allow for a sense of context and history in this fictional world, and for excitement as the pieces come together for the reader.
Here There Be Spoilers
Main Characters
Each book has a different set of main characters, and is set in a different point in time. Some characters appear in multiple books, depending on how close they are in time to one another. Even though the different point of view characters have a great deal in common in terms of their autism-coded neurodivergence and general obliviousness to social cues, they're different enough in other respects that it does not feel like they're one character. Mattin is very aware of social forms, rules, and political implications of various actions, he just doesn't seem to think of them as having any positive effects for him, personally. He's likely to get lost in research or chasing some history through the archives. Tiiran is very focused on the rules and the way things ought to be, thinking through what it means when those norms are broken, and what bad actors with corrupt motives might do to preserve current inequalities. He tends to be very pessimistic, thinking of himself as discarded by the Fae and unimportant.
Fen doesn't have much of a sense of self-preservation. He'll take risks to achieve a better outcome than the one that would happen if he did nothing. I'm not sure if he's optimistic or just pragmatic, at least in the beginning. By the end, Fen is helping Lan make strategic moves that show he's thinking further ahead than even what Lan had dreamt. Zelli has such a low sense of self preservation that he let himself actually die and needed to be brought back by the fae.
Character Twists
In A SUITABLE CONSORT (For the King and His Husband), Mattin is a librarian and advisor to the king, Arden. When one of the nobles suggests the king marry again (said while his husband, Mil, is in the room at Arden's side), the king takes the suggestion seriously and asks Mattin to help him choose someone. Mattin adores the royal couple and the story of their romance, so he compiles a list of potential spouses who would meet the political goals of such a union without being slighted by being a lower priority as the new member of an existing marriage. Despite meeting all the criteria he outlined to Arden and Mil as being relevant for compiling the list, Mattin doesn't for a moment consider putting himself in as a candidate. It turns out that Arden and Mil have already been interested in Mattin, but were worried his apparent lack of interest was because they were too old for him. Arden asks Mattin for advice on courting and then he and Mil proceed to follow all Mattin's advice... on Mattin, who still doesn't realize what they are doing. A crisis at the palace forces the issue when Mattin is in danger and Mil and Arden rescue him, bringing him to their bedroom and providing a space for a conversation which finally clears up the various confusions about each person's actions and intentions. Mattin didn't put himself on the list because he didn't think of himself as someone two people as great as the king and his husband could want. He was very wrong, and they take great delight in showing him how much he is cherished.
Later Series Developments
I've become used to the linearity of series in a way that is, I suspect, common for anyone who reads as many books as I do. The Suitable 'Verse, as published, is not a linear story, and I think it's stronger for it. The larger context builds slowly, requiring minimal description in subsequent books to place them in relation to A Suitable Consort. This may be a chance meeting between characters, an epilogue, or the shape of the current situation in a more general sense.
In A SUITABLE STRAY, Tiiran spent a long while completely oblivious to the fact that not only are both Orin and Nikola interested in him, but that he desire both of them and wants to be desired in return. Because most of this book is not spent with anyone in active danger, at least as far as Tiiran knows, the pacing is more languid, with more room to linger in each phase. In contrast to A SUITABLE CONSORT, where two-thirds of the book was spent with Mattin completely oblivious to how he was being courted, A SUITABLE STRAY has more time spent with Tiiran actively in a sexual relationship. This is while, somehow, taking even longer to realize that the way Tiiran has become entangled with Orin and Nikola means that he is not just pleasantly passing time with them, but in love with them and wants the three of them to be together.
In A SUITABLE CAPTIVE, Fen offers himself almost immediately to the so-called "Wild Dog", seeming to accept the idea that Lan (as he prefers to be known) might use his body in the course of that captivity. Fen is hoping for no more than that it would be a better version of the fate he had avoided by running away and accidentally getting captured in the first place. To me, it seemed fairly obvious that Lan was interested in Fen, but, without quite using this language, he was mindful of the power dynamic between them. Lan is as powerfully averse to taking advantage of Fen as he is attracted to him. Gradually, they negotiate the space between them, growing to understand each other better. Over time, that new understanding eases their communication, which in turn allows for their physical situation to become more intimate in a way that is meaningful to both of them. They built a personal ritual that is unique to them, and part took in a along established ritual from Fen's mother's people.
Themes
Series themes include difference and belonging, found or chosen family, and obligations of care. There's a focus on communication, and the importance of paying attention to both speech and silence, of noticing when someone isn't all right.
Fae heritage is used metaphorically for a blend of real-world characteristics for which people are often marginalized, but as a fantasy analogue it carries very little of the baggage which would accompany its realistic counterparts. As with any marginalization, the fae-touched protagonists have different reactions to their various levels of fae heritage. This heritage manifests unevenly, giving them smaller-than-human-average stature, but also some... flashier differences, such as hair which moves of its own whim and eyes which rapidly change color. Their fae-touched natures were a very minor detail for Mattin in A SUITABLE CONSORT, but a very important part of A SUITABLE CAPTIVE and A SUITABLE STRAY. Tiiran hates the fae, loudly saying "Fuck the Fae" if anyone mentions them positively. He views them as child-abandoners, passive observers of the world's injustices when they have the power and responsibility to do much more than just intervene in politics and sire random children.
Twists and Turns
Normally, when looking at individual books in a series, I note whether they leave something for later books to pick up. This is an odd case where the first book left space for stories set before and after it. It builds the impression that this is a place with a history, and bits of that history are being fleshed out a little at a time through these romances. The most shocking moment for me was getting to the epilogue of A SUITABLE CAPTIVE and realizing when it was set in relation to A SUITABLE CONSORT. Having looked at R. Cooper's website, I don't think that is a spoiler, precisely, but it is the kind of detail I enjoyed realizing in the moment.
Current Status
The series is ongoing, with a novella releasing this very month. I don't know how many books are planned, and I don't think it matters, not to me as a reader. These books are a delight, and I will read as many of them as R. Cooper writes. The open structure distributes the narrative weight until there's a lot of room for more stories to fill the vacant space. A palace has a great many people in it, with the whole country being larger still, which would allow for many books taking place even before the timeline is considered. The earliest book so far takes place several hundred years before the events of A SUITABLE CONSORT, and there have been several mentions of when the old queen was deposed. That might not be an ideal setting for a romance, but this series is no stranger to love amidst tragedy.
If you like this you may like:
- One Night in Hartswood by Emma Denny
- The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
Major Series CWs: sexual content, violence, war, death.
Miscellaneous CWs: classism, physical abuse, alcohol, murder.
Each book has specific content warnings provided by the author near the copyright info.
Bookshop Affiliate Buy Links:
- A SUITABLE CONSORT (For the King and His Husband)
- A SUITABLE BODYGUARD
- A SUITABLE CAPTIVE
- A SUITABLE STRAY (For an Outguard and an Assistant)
- A SUITABLE BRAT (link forthcoming)
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Reviews That Burn is a review blog which accompanies the Books That Burn podcast. Books That Burn is a member of the Certain Point of View podcast network. Essays, blog posts, and reviews are by Robin. All music was composed by HeartBeatArt and is used with permission.
This content is CAN credentialed, which means you can report instances of harassment, abuse, or other harm on their hotline at (617) 249-4255, or on their website at creatoraccountabilitynetwork.org.
Monday Oct 13, 2025
Monday Oct 13, 2025
Greetings and welcome to Reviews That Burn: Series Reviews, part of Books That Burn. Series Reviews discuss at least three books in a series and cover the overarching themes and development of the story across several books. I'd like to thank longtime Patron Case Aiken, who receives a monthly shoutout.
This series is sexually explicit, and the review contains low-detail descriptions of sexual content. It is not safe for work (NSFW) in the classic sense. While I can, and have, reviewed sexually explicit books without the review containing those details, it forms such a large part of the narrative in this trilogy that to elide over those concepts would be to give a false impression of the text.
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Reviews That Burn is a review blog which accompanies the Books That Burn podcast. Books That Burn is a member of the Certain Point of View podcast network. Essays, blog posts, and reviews are by Robin. All music was composed by HeartBeatArt and is used with permission.
This content is CAN credentialed, which means you can report instances of harassment, abuse, or other harm on their hotline at (617) 249-4255, or on their website at creatoraccountabilitynetwork.org.
Wednesday Sep 24, 2025
Wednesday Sep 24, 2025
Greetings and welcome to a Reviews That Burn blog post by Robin, part of Books That Burn. I'd like to thank longtime Patron Case Aiken, who receives a monthly shoutout.
I have a few updates for everyone! They're all good things and have been a long time coming.
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Reviews That Burn is a review blog which accompanies the Books That Burn podcast. Books That Burn is a member of the Certain Point of View podcast network. Essays, blog posts, and reviews are by Robin. All music was composed by HeartBeatArt and is used with permission.
This content is CAN credentialed, which means you can report instances of harassment, abuse, or other harm on their hotline at (617) 249-4255, or on their website at creatoraccountabilitynetwork.org.
Monday Sep 08, 2025
Monday Sep 08, 2025
Greetings and welcome to a Reviews That Burn blog post by Robin, part of Books That Burn. I'd like to thank longtime Patron Case Aiken, who receives a monthly shoutout.
I've joined the Creator Accountability Network (CAN) as a provisionally credentialed creator! The provisional period is three months long, and at the end of that time I'll be fully credentialed if nothing disqualifying comes to light.
I'll be excerpting details from their website as the best way to explain what this is and what it means for me as a content creator and for you as readers and audience members. The short version is that I've undergone ethics training as part of the credentialing process, and that if you feel my actions have harmed you (now or in the future), you can report harassment, abuse, or other harm to CAN. Quotes in the rest of this post are from CAN's website as of August 16th, 2025.
Sunday Sep 07, 2025
Sunday Sep 07, 2025
Greetings and welcome to Reviews That Burn: Series Reviews, part of Books That Burn. Series Reviews discuss at least three books in a series and cover the overarching themes and development of the story across several books. I'd like to thank longtime Patron Case Aiken, who receives a monthly shoutout.
This episode discusses The Kingston Cycle by C. L. Polk.
In an original world reminiscent of Edwardian England in the shadow of a World War, cabals of noble families use their unique magical gifts to control the fates of nations, while one young man seeks only to live a life of his own.
Magic marked Miles Singer for suffering the day he was born, doomed either to be enslaved to his family's interest or to be committed to a witches' asylum. He went to war to escape his destiny and came home a different man, but he couldn’t leave his past behind. The war between Aeland and Laneer leaves men changed, strangers to their friends and family, but even after faking his own death and reinventing himself as a doctor at a cash-strapped veterans' hospital, Miles can’t hide what he truly is.
When a fatally poisoned patient exposes Miles’ healing gift and his witchmark, he must put his anonymity and freedom at risk to investigate his patient’s murder. To find the truth he’ll need to rely on the family he despises, and on the kindness of the most gorgeous man he’s ever seen.
PUBLISHER: Tor Books
LENGTH: ~975 pages (~32 hours) across three books
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
RECOMMENDED: Highly
TITLES DISCUSSED
- Witchmark (2018)
- Stormsong (2020)
- Soulstar (2021)
I have previously reviewed all three books in the trilogy: Witchmark, Stormsong, Soulstar
If you like this you may like:
- A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
- Blind Man's Wolf by Amelia Faulkner
- Death by Silver by Amy Griswold and Melissa Scott
More by C. L. Polk
- The Midnight Bargain
- Even Though I Knew The End
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Major Series CWs: confinement, kidnapping, racism, classism, fire/fire injury, mental illness, violence, gun violence, medical content, body horror, slavery, murder, death.
Miscellaneous CWs: coercion, drug use, suicide, torture.
Bookshop Affiliate Buy Links:
Monday Jun 23, 2025
Monday Jun 23, 2025
Greetings and welcome to Reviews That Burn: Series Reviews, part of Books That Burn. Series Reviews discuss at least three books in a series and cover the overarching themes and development of the story across several books. I'd like to thank longtime Patron Case Aiken, who receives a monthly shoutout, as well as returning patron Chris Alvarado.
Teeth: The Complete Meal by Chele Cooke
TEETH: The First Bite
Being dead just got complicated.
Spencer’s life began after his death. Being a vampire is better than any teen flick made it out to be. After all, what’s not to like? He’s stronger, faster, and deadlier than any predator. He has a job, a home, and he’ll be young and pretty forever.
When Thomas wakes up in the throes of transitioning, Spencer is assigned to train the newly sired vampire. He thinks it’ll be fun, but it could turn the afterlife upside down for everyone, even the people Spencer didn’t know existed.
Spencer is about to learn that the rules he has been abiding by since his death are all lies. And he must help Thomas adjust to his new life before they are turned from predator to prey.
PUBLISHER: Independently Published
LENGTH: ~800 pages across a trilogy and a short story collection
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
RECOMMENDED: Highly
Queer Rep Summary: Gay/Achillean Main Character(s), Bi/Pan Main Character(s).
TITLES DISCUSSED
- TEETH: The First Bite (2014)
- MEAT: The Second Serving (2017)
- BLOOD: The Third Course (2018)
- TURN: Three Short Sirings (2018)
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Bookshop Affiliate Buy Links:
Indie Story Geek Pages:
Monday May 19, 2025
Monday May 19, 2025
Series Reviews discuss at least three books in a series and cover the overarching themes and development of the story across several books. Thank you to Patron Case Aiken who receives a monthly shoutout.
Eugenides, the queen’s thief, can steal anything—or so he says. When his boasting lands him in prison and the king’s magus invites him on a quest to steal a legendary object, he’s in no position to refuse. The magus thinks he has the right tool for the job, but Gen has plans of his own.
PUBLISHER: Greenwillow Books
LENGTH: 300 to 450 pages per book, there are six books as of spring 2025
AGE: Young Adult
GENRE: Fantasy, Romance
RECOMMENDED: Highly
Queer Rep Summary: Gay/Achillean Secondary Character(s).
TITLES IN SERIES
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The Thief (1996)
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The Queen of Attolia (2000)
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The King of Attolia (2006)
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A Conspiracy of Kings (2010)
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Thick as Thieves (2017)
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Return of the Thief (2020)
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Moira's Pen (2022)
Monday Mar 10, 2025
Monday Mar 10, 2025
I love The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I have read the unabridged version more than once, and my most recent reread was in 2023. At that time, I wrote a couple of brief essays which I posted on Tumblr, one of which was about a canonically queer character and the other discussed a character who is often left out of the various adaptations. I present for you these essays with expansion and alteration, because I keep returning to them as pieces of writing and because I don't want them to be limited to those original posts.
I'd like to thank longtime Patron Case Aiken, who receives a monthly shoutout, as well as new patrons DivineJasper and Sasha Khan.
(Quotes are from Robin Buss’ English translation of Alexandre Dumas’ work.)
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Canonical Queerness in The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Edmond No Longer -- The Importance of Haydée in The Count of Monte Cristo
Monday Jan 13, 2025
Monday Jan 13, 2025
Hello Patrons and general audience members! Welcome to another Books That Burn essay by Robin. Thank you to Case Aiken, who receives a monthly Patron shoutout.
[Full Transcript Available Here]
This is the fifth and final entry in a five-part essay series discussing two long-running book series by queer authors: October Daye by Seanan McGuire, and Inheritance by A.K. Faulkner. I chose these series because I love them both, they were intended from the start to be long series, neither of them are finished yet, and the authors have different structural approaches to developing each series across so many volumes. Purely coincidentally, they are both long-running contemporary fantasy series mainly set in California in or near the 2010's, with major characters named Quentin, and whose fast-healing protagonists have a tendency to quasi-adopt a gaggle of magical teenagers. After a brief moment in the 1990's, October Daye begins in earnest in 2009 and has reached 2015 as of the eighteenth book, while Inheritance is ambiguously set in the mid-to-late 2010's. Each of my essays focuses on a particular topic of importance to long series such as these two. They're designed to be intelligible on their own, and can theoretically be read in any order, but most readers will have the best experience if they start with the first essay and proceed linearly.
Long Series and How to Read Them - Somewhere Is Better Than Nowhere
- Introduction (1:38)
- Episodic Series (4:02)
- Linear Storytelling (5:59)
- Periodic Onboarding (6:39)
- What's a Reader To Do? (7:50)
- Five or Fewer (9:11)
- Six or More (12:01)
- Conclusion (14:24)
Monday Dec 16, 2024
Monday Dec 16, 2024
Hello Patrons and general audience members! Welcome to a two-part reading of some Books That Burn essays by Robin. Thank you to Case Aiken, who receives a monthly Patron shoutout. These two essays are both about my thoughts on generative AI, but neither was long enough to be an episode on its own.
As a reviewer of books, I'm very concerned with the news and societal reception of the resource-guzzling plagiarism machine, especially when Indie authors are among those most immediately harmed by having their work stolen and struggling to stand out in a sea of AI-generated slush flooding the ebook market. While I understand that there are useful versions of AI which aren't used to push out garbage no one actually wants to read, the existence of that particular firehose does need to be addressed.
With that out of the way, please enjoy my reading of two essays about generative AI.
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The Problem Is Not That You Want What Generative AI Promised, The Problem Is That They Lied About Whether It Could Deliver (01:14) [Link to Full Text]
A Reflection on Path-Dependent Processes (07:26) [Link to Full Text]