SWORDCROSSED is a fun fantasy romance with the wool trade and cons.

In terms of world, this is quite a departure from Freya Marske's original trilogy - this is an original world, not a historical fantasy. I liked this world, with its guilds and their own specific gods. The traditions around weddings were also fun and didn't just feel like Western European traditions with the numbers knocked off, sitting comfortably instead into the world building.

There is also a lot of intrigue around trade, which I very much enjoyed. These merchant families are out for profit and not all of them are playing by the law to do it. Across the book, the process of making wool goods is explored and the ways it can be exploited. I really liked the plotlines around finding out what was happening and how to stop it.

There is far less swordplay than I expected, given the title and Luca's position. He does a lot more conning, which I did enjoy. He has so much energy and mischief, which brought a lot of fun to the book - and a nice contrast to the seriousness of Matti. It's a good pairing.

My one negative comment is that I wish more time had been spent on Maya, Matti's sister. I'd guessed pretty early on what was going to happen with her, but it just didn't feel like, when it happened, it had been set up properly. I would have liked to see more hints of how her part was developing. Then her role in the finale might have felt more earnt and like a win, rather than a convenient happening to save the family.

I feel like there is space for more tales set within this world - though probably in a different family. I hope we get to spend more time exploring this world.

This was the exact sort of decadent and delicious mess I enjoy. Swordcrossed was a super fun, fast read. The setup was just cute. The two men were so likable. The writing was great, with right balance of nice prose and witty dialogue.

DNF
I'm TIRED of this book it is so slow for no reasons . I need a book that grab my attention from chapter 1 and this ain't it.
The chapters are really long and nothing much happened until the 30% mark I think. I've even tried the audiobook and even with it I was bored.

freya is for the fujos. i enjoyed this a touch less than the last binding books, only because i'm a sucker for a good mystery

So as mentioned I really struggled with this book. I’m not entirely sure why but will try to be somewhat helpful if I can be. Most of the reviews look positive so I imagine a lot of it is just it not being suited to me.
I think my main issue was not feeling engaged in the story or characters. I know it’s common at the beginning of fantasy books to have some world building so I imagine a lot of it was that but it felt dry for me. I think the blurb was really promising and it just felt slightly flat of that to me. Maybe I just needed to stick it out a bit longer but yeah. Thank you for the opportunity to read/review this book and I really do hope it goes well!


I have not reviewed publicly due to this feedback being somewhat negative.

Mattinesh Jay is the heir to the Jay house, a family business involved with wool. He’s betrothed to Sofia, and as part of this arrangement he requires a best man in case of challenge at the wedding, enter Luca. The book is a sweeping romantic tale of Matti and Luca getting to know each other properly alongside trying to save Matti’s family house and Luca hiding his true origins. There is mystery and deceit, longing and tenderness, and an excellent final act revelation which I really enjoyed! All in all a great book for people interested in historical romance or the wool trade! 😂

Swordcrossed is equal parts cosy, heartwarming, showing characters with deep feelings of friendship and families who will do anything for each other, and at times, intensely and romantically steamy. If you enjoyed the author's The Last Binding trilogy, I think you will like this too. Whilst they are very different worlds, the writing is the same, the spice has very much the same feel, and the main relationship of Matti and Luca is equally captivating.

After reading and loving The Last Binding trilogy, I was super excited to read this book - and it didn't disappoint. I really enjoyed the world of this story. I'm not a big fantasy person, but I found the ideas and customs of this universe easy to understand. I also loved the dynamic between the two main characters and the romantic connections in the subplot. My only issue is that this isn't a series, either! I could have easily read more about the Jay family in a Bridgerton-style story structure. But I'll just have to wait for Freya Marske's next book instead.

This was very much a case of I liked it, but didn't love it. Sword crossed feels very plot light, focusing instead on building up a rich historical world filled with House guilds and industry. To call this fantasy is a bit of a stretch, rather an alternate history, but it felt very vivid and realistic. Matti is a delightful character. A worrisome bean who just wants to look out for his family, he falls to putting everyone else above himself. His relationship with Lucas, with his zest for life and endless joy and daredevil streak, contrasted well and made for some really good interactions. The yearning is top tier.

This just suffered because of the lack of a plot. It's very thin on the ground, and slow moving at that. There's a lot of business talk and talk of building alliances, and really I found it really uninteresting compared to these two wonderful characters.

Definitely a tale of two halves. Great characters. No plot. It's very much an all vibes, no story kind of deal. But honestly, that chemistry was so good I can almost forgive it. Almost.

A slow start because there is a fair amount of background info to be delivered about the merchant lifestyle which I struggled with a little, but it does all build into Marske’s usual excellent world building.

The romance is peak Marske, delicious pining and exquisite tension building, I loved it. I really enjoyed the side characters too,

Marske doesn’t miss with her beautiful queer normalised worlds, and this book is no different.

I had high hopes for this given how much I LOVE ‘The Last Binding’ trilogy and I was NOT disappointed like the vibe for this is immaculate!

Not to mention the TENSION between Matti & Luca, I mean one’s a con artist and the other is the person he conned who then blackmails him into sword lessons 🤣

Honestly I really liked Matti, he’s shouldering a lot of responsibility and I so badly wanted him to get his happy ending! Luca, meanwhile, had an air of mystery to him with the hints of his past and I feel like they both have quite a journey throughout the book, plus some excellent character growth!

While I loved them individually, I also ADORED them together! Like I said, the TENSION! The BANTER! The absolute YEARNING and PINING! Immaculate, truly. I shipped it hard and lowkey felt bad about it because Sofia’s actually (and surprisingly) nice!

Fortunately there’s a side ship to ease my guilt and it also happened to have me squealing!

Honestly, I really enjoyed the cast, they were vibrant, fun and certainly memorable. They also really brought the world to life which was giving quaint little country like Genovia or something 😅

Like it’s fantasy BUT it’s also giving historical romance vibes!

The world building’s intriguing too, yet also relatively straightforward which I appreciated! I thought the concept of duelists and warring merchant houses SO much fun but also unique!

Like YES this is romance focused BUT there’s also a dastardly plot complete with scheming & treachery! I was HOOKED and lowkey obsessed, ngl!

I also appreciate the normalised queerness as well as Marske’s usual brand of vivid, immersive writing which really pulled me into the world and held me there tightly!

My only gripe is that while the mechanics of importing textiles & textile manufacture in general WAS necessary to the plot, I felt that it was a bit too info dumpy and dragged the pace down a smidge.

I’d also hoped for more out of the duelist aspect BUT I still had fun regardless ☺️

Me gustó muchísimo la trilogía The Last Binding de Freya Marske, así que cuando se anunció la publicación de Swordcrossed no tardé en hacerme con ella. Sin embargo, no me ha terminado de convencer. Es un romantasy, como sus novelas anteriores, pero en esta ocasión la parte de romance se come prácticamente en su totalidad a la parte de fantasía, algo que me resulta menos atractivo.


Aunque los personajes de Swordcrossed son adorables, creo que parte de lo que hacía destacar The Last Binding era el mundo mágico en el que se desarrollaba la historia, perfectamente reconocible como un trasunto del Reino Unido a principios del siglo pasado, pero imbuido de esa magia feérica que tanto se agradece. En cambio, en esta nueva novela, el mundo secundario tiene solo de “extraño” las distintas religiones a las que va haciendo mención. Y ya está. No hay magia, no hay seres extraños y la verdad, se nota cierta obsesión por el mercado de la lana que llega límites de infodumping. Y esas poquitas diferencias le quitan la posibilidad de catalogarla como fantasía histórica, que creo que sería una categoría mucho más adecuada.

Marske es una experta en el típico juego de equívocos de la ejecutiva agresiva que en vísperas de Navidad se queda atrapada en Vermont, pero se lo lleva a su terreno queer de una forma admirable. Además, las escenas salaces que ya son su marchamo de calidad aquí están perfectamente narradas y salpicadas por todo el libro. ¿Qué es lo que falla entonces? Pues sobre todo, que es tremendamente previsible, tanto el desarrollo como el final. Apenas hay tensión de cualquier tipo a lo largo de las casi cuatrocientas páginas de la novela. La única que hay, y se resuelve bastante rápido, es la tensión sexual entre los protagonistas, que pasan de ser supercuquis a darse como a cajón que no cierra.

Las intrigas económicas que sustentan el conflicto por el que se llegan a conocer los personajes son tan transparentes, que la verdad, en vez de intrigas parecen juegos de patio de colegio. Y las relaciones familiares, pues qué queréis que os diga, todo maravilloso y estupendo y un mundo de la piruleta mientras la empresa familiar supuestamente se ha ido tan al garete que la única solución es un matrimonio de conveniencia. No sé, esperaba algo más de conflicto o de angustia.

Espero que este libro sea solo un pequeño tropezón en la prometedora carrera de la autora, así que mejor leed la trilogía The Last Binding que esa sí que mola.

I admit it took me longer to get into this book than the previous series by the author, mostly due to all the merchant talk. So, I admit, I started it twice. But when I got going, there was no stopping me – I loved the idea of different gods and Houses and wedding rituals and duels. And the story of Matti slowly coming out from his shell teased by Luca was sweet and wholesome. Another banger, it is just a shame that this looks like a standalone novel, because I finally got n grips with all the mercantile details of the book…

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I really enjoyed this - Marske seems to be a master at writing believable yet unique M/M romances. Both Matti and Luca are lovable but flawed characters, and the supporting cast is also a lot of fun. There's a great message about not making assumptions based on one side of a story, plus the dangers of burnout and sacrificing your happiness and wellbeing for presumed duty. Can't wait to read the next one Marske writes!

A delightful romp - instead of grumpy meets sunshine, this is chaos meets sensible. When conman Luca literally stumbles into businessman Matti, the two have no idea how their lives will be upended.

When Matti hires Luca to be his best man - his sword hand at his upcoming wedding to wealthy heiress Sophia - he’s just looking to turn around his family fortunes by making a good marriage, and maybe learn something about how to handle a sword himself along the way. (Obligatory wink wink.) But when the two happen upon what looks like a conspiracy, they’re drawn closer together and deeper into danger. And Luca has been keeping some secrets of his own…

The star of the show for this was Luca, for me: a defiant, rebellious, roguish scamp who is a perfect foil (ho ho) to serious, repressed, dutiful Matti. The details of the business were slightly lost on me - as on Luca - at first, but as the mystery deepens I, like Lucas, was drawn in in spite of myself. The side characters are also absolutely wonderful and I would love to see more in this world (which had something of a Regency flavour). Marske never misses!

This book was so cute! The romance between Matti and Luca was perfectly executed and the wedding scene at the end had me in stitches

All the tension, secrecy, anxiety and finally triumph of Matti and Luca so masterfully woven I couldn't put it down. Unbelievable delicious tension and heartache in all the right places with main characters you can't help rooting for from the start (also, food description so visceral you wish you had a plate of whatever they were eating too). Best of Freya's books by far!! Thoroughly enjoyed it and gutted I'd come to the last page.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an e-arc for a review.
This was such a sweet, lovely story! I really loved the couple and the tongue in cheek humour. The writing flowed nicely too. I did grab the audio to immersive read this and I would recommend just eye ball reading this one. The audio narrator had a very annoying use of breath throughout this book. There was great representation of all the pronouns and how normal it is... it wasn't a showy representation which was lovely. My only negative apart from the narrator for the audio, is that it read like a new adult rather than an adult. I think if it was advertised as a new adult it would allow readers to go in with a more accurate expectation.

Freya Marske is back! I requested this as soon as I saw it. While I enjoyed the world and setting, as well as the way society is set up – with the trade houses and their fascinating religions and customs – a lot of time was spent on the two main characters lusting after each other, and I wanted more time spent on developing their friendship and building the bond, rather than innuendo and seduction. Not to mention that once they get together there is a smutty moment about every other scene, when I was more interested in the plot. It’s the same reason I liked A Marvellous Light better than the final book in that series. Still enjoyable enough that I’m keen to see what she does next!

It took a while for me to get into this book, but in the end, I enjoyed it. However, I'm a bit confused as to why this is classified as fantasy when there is no world-building or any particular fantastical details that would indicate that this is set in a different world. Despite that this novel reminded me a lot of Marske's previous work A Marvellous Light, which I read a few years ago. Sadly, Swordcrossed didn't have the same appeal and, although it has beautiful prose, was weaker compared to the other one. I think that characters are interesting and charming, but as this is clearly a romance book, it is quite clear where the plot is going. Nevertheless, it is a light and enjoyable read.

Thank you Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinions!