This is a delightful book. It's an alt-historical, queer-normative setting but there are no magic/high fantasy elements. The stakes aren't that high (the world won't end) but felt real and significantly threatening to add just the right amount of angst and tension to the romance and non-romance plot. The 2 MCs and their dynamic were irresistible - Luca is a chaotic con-man and Mattie is dutiful and self-sacrificing and their relationship and how it unfolds is absolutely delightful. The supporting female characters were also great. I'm already looking forward to re-reading this. Solid 4 - 4.5 star read. This is the first ARC I've read and I fear it has given me unrealistic expectations of future NetGalley reads.

When Matti needs a best man to stand up at his wedding, he of course hires a swordsman to take up the duty.
Luca is on the search of a new life after fleeing his homeland and finds himself in the employ of Matti as not only his best man but as his teacher in swordplay.

The premise of sword crossed is great and love the infusion of cultures with a focus on Indian lore.
However I found this quite laborious to read. It was clunky and it didn't have the flow it should. The description of the city come further into the book than I would like so I had to switch up how I was imaging everything which was rather jarring.
The insta attraction between the protagonists, seemed forced at times.

All in all it was a fine book but not one I would revisit in the future.

DNF at 27%. I tried this between 02/06/24 to 04/06/24. This just isn’t for me. I wanted to read this to read more queer/MM romance but I’m just not feeling it. I’m very bored and I’m not enjoying it at all.

"Swordcrossed" is a fun and flirty romance set in a fantasy world reminiscent of historical Merchant City like Venice. We follow Matti, son of a merchant family in need of a best man for his wedding, and Luca, a duellist with a few secrets in his pockets. Oh and there is a plot around Matti's House failure too, too help move things long. Their relationship starts strong with a little con morphing into a contract, permeated with an instant attraction and pinning. Myabe a bit too instant for my taste, but since the romance build slowly and takes its time, it balances out.
Matti is loyal and bound to his house to the point of forgetting his own wants and needs. Luca is there to remind Matti of those needs and wants, through words but also the mere act of existing. Luca has things going on his side too, between duelling jobs and schemes, as well as his own family and responsabilities' struggles. Contrary to Matti, ever so carefull, Luca is impatient and acts spontaneously, for better or worse.
They make a nice pair, balancing each other out. Matti's family also has its spotlight. A caring, loving family a bit lost in their respective role and inability to ask for help sometimes. Sophia, Matti's betrothed, also is quite nice character, supporting, strong in her own way, and I was glad to see the plot resolve things for her too.
Aside from the romance, the merchant and wool plot was quite well woven (pun intended) in the story. It might be a bit too present sometimes for some people but I liked it the way it was, since it is such an important part of Matti's life., and the worldbuilding is subtle enough while strong enough to be satisfying.
Overall, en enjoyable romance, not as steamy as I worried. Not the biggest emotions I have felt in romance, but it's doing it's job !

thank you to Netgalley for the arc!! ♡

This was an extremely fun book.
Swordscrossed is a romantasy between Matti, the perfect heir to the Jay merchant family and the duelist he hires for his arranged marriage, Luca. Matti is dutiful to a fault, setting aside his happiness for his family, and he's prepared to do so once more to save his family from financial ruin through an advantageous match. However, Luca's presence in his life changes things, sparking in him for the first time a desire to be something other than the perfect son and heir.

Matti and Luca's relationship is charged yet evolves naturally, growing from an unconventional meeting to mutual interest and attraction, and finally to intimacy and trust. Their interactions, particularly the way they infuriated each other, were extremely entertaining, and the tension was high whenever the two were together. I loved watching the two bring out the best in each other, navigating their insecurities and flaws and revealing parts of themselves they could never bring out in front of their family. Family is a core theme in this book, particularly in Matti's story which shows how love is about sharing burdens and shouldn't mean taking on responsibility to the point of sacrificing your own wellbeing. Both characters felt fleshed out and them healing from their fears and pain was extremely comforting.

Finally, the intrigue- while the relationship between the MCs is tender and made me smile throughout, there is also the plot describing the machinations of the merchant houses that form the political elite. The intricacies of the wool trade felt a little redundant, and I did wish it was cut a little considering the characters are definitely the main draw of the book, however it picks up pace significantly towards the last quarter. The plot also got a little confusing towards the middle, as I couldn't keep track of who the major houses and players were, however the ending felt satisfying and tied up all loose ends.

To summarise, Swordscrossed, while not being the strongest in terms of plot is a very fun character-driven romantasy with entertaining banter, fleshed out relationships and also many tension heavy sword fights. Perfect for those times where you just want to read something that gives you a dopamine rush, it has found a place in my exam-time comfort reads.

4.25/5 stars

After reading this author’s previous series, I was highly anticipating this release and it did not disappoint. This was such a fun read. Swordcrossed throws you into a world of merchant houses filled with secrets and schemes. It’s low stakes but filled with great characters and a fun plot.

Matti and Luca are great main characters, both bearing a lot of responsibility on their shoulders but handling it in different ways. Matti is a character who feels like he never got to be a child, he takes on all his family’s responsibilities and refuses to ask for help. Luca is more of an open book and while he does have his secrets, he lives more in the moment and chooses to run from his responsibilities. Due to their differences, it makes a really fun dynamic between the two where they push each other and bring out the best in one another. The story is also full of yearning and pining which I loved.

I also really appreciated the assembly of characters in this story. I especially liked the fact that Sophia was such a likeable character. The ‘betrothed’ character is often made out to be an antagonist in many books like this but I loved that she was so kind and open in this.

The plot is a lot of fun and keeps you interested throughout even though it’s not high stakes. It’s filled to the brim with adventure in a more subtle way from swimming at the pool to breaking and entering to sword lessons filled with tension. I really enjoyed this novel and I look forward to reading more from this author.

Matti while trying to do right by the family taking all the burden forgets to live for himself. Luca who's a con artist ends up being Matti's best man to defend Matti in case there is a challenge in Matti's wedding to Sofia. While Luca is trying to stay low he ends up tangled in helping Matti's crumbling family business.

That said, this is a low stake story that happens in a fictional world but not a fantasy story. The romance builds up to love and not instant. All the treachery and clever play are not that impressive and jaw dropping. It was a cosy fun read without stressing over the characters or their lives or the plot.

In Swordcrossed, Mattinesh Jay is the dutiful heir to his family's struggling wool business. He hires Luca Piere, a part-time con artist and charming swordsman, as his best man for an arranged marriage which will save the family's fortunes. Luca, seeking easy money and a fresh start from his own problems, reluctantly agrees to help. As they prepare for the wedding, both men uncover deeper intrigues and sabotage that threaten Matti's business.

I really enjoyed Matti and Luca's romance which was full of tension and banter. The two main characters were both strong and entertaining and really complemented each other. The side characters Maya and Sofia were lovely too. I enjoyed the plot regarding Matti's failing family business. It wasn't afraid to get into the specifics of the wool business in order to properly flesh out the plot. While I predicted where the plot was going, it was still really fun to see it all unfold.

I think I was expecting more 'fantasy' elements in the book's world though, given it's specifically described as a fantasy romance. Other than the presence of religion which is tied into the structure of the world - guilds and houses that are aligned with a particular god - there isn't anything that screams fantasy to me. It definitely has a fictional, historical setting but I think I was expecting magic, blessings from the gods, or just for the gods to be more involved in the world somehow. I don't know if this is just a personal issue based on my definition of fantasy but I was hoping for a bit more fantasy in the world building. What I did love about the world though was about how accepting it was of any and all relationships, and it was really lovely to see some of those relationships in the story.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from NetGalley but this is my voluntary and honest review.

This was fun! Definitely the best you can get from a low-stakes fantasy. Though it's not really a fantasy book in the strictest sense - it's set in a fictional place that reminded me of the Hanseatic League in the early modern period, but with progressive morals and queernormativity. Yet there is absolutely no magic in it, so in my opinion it reads more like a historical romance than a proper fantasy novel. I mention this because it may be a problem for those who loved Freya Marske's previous work mainly because of the magic system.

Anyways, I love a historical romance, and the general tone of this book was no issue for me at all. It still has so much of what I love in Marske's writing. Both main characters, Matti and Luke, are wonderfully written. Matti is more withdrawn and lives with a great sense of obligation to his family and work, which affects his quality of life. Luca, on the other hand, is not afraid to take on challenges and risks just to find his place in the world. At first glance, they seem completely incompatible, but as we all know, opposites attract, and it worked very well in this book. Also there is a lot of pining and yearning and I liked it A LOT.

When it comes to the plot, the book is marketed as cozy fantasy due to the supposed low stakes, and I’m also not quite sure if that is the case. I mean, it is definitely not an epic story, and the big intrigue boils down to business issues within wool manufacturing - but still, some political machinations do happen and I was quite invested in it. As this is basically a romance novel, the main plotline orbits around an arranged marriage that Matti needs to enter into in order to save his family business from bankruptcy. It is a common trope, and its solution was itself quite tropey. Yet I don’t mind because I was mostly reading this for the romance, which was lovely.

All in all, I enjoyed this book —even though I expected something slightly different. I honestly don’t know if anyone who loved Marske's previous books would like this one, but I’m pretty positive it will be great for all historical romance fans!

3.5 stars

<i>"High heat. Low stakes. Sharp steel."</i> is a pretty accurate description of what to expect from this book in very, very general terms.

A queer m/m romance set in an original medievalish world governed by different guilds from different city-states (no magic) with a simple plot, sizzling explicit scenes, fun bantering between the main characters and a guaranteed HEA.

This book is about how Matti and Luca's insta-lust drives ALL their decisions as they go from strangers to friends to lovers (I wouldn't say they were ever rivals though). Once you get to about the half-way mark, expect graphic sex, but let's be serious, that's why you're here. That's why I'm here, anyway, and the scenes were very, very good, so the <i>"High heat."</i> is well-earned.

Unfortunately, so is the <i>"Low stakes."</i> The stakes are <i>so</i> low, in fact, that there barely is any conflict in the story. Of course we know from the blurb that Matti hires Luca to be his bodyguard of sorts for his arranged wedding, and we also know that the book is about their budding romance, so it doesn't take a genius to guess that the main problem is that Matti is getting married. Also, Luca has a secret (also in the blurb, so it's not really a spoiler) and when his secret is revealed, they have to work together to solve the "problem" and uh, that's about it. This is just one of those comfort reads in which there is no real conflict, no real angst, no real hurt. So, yes. Low stakes, check.

Now, <i>"Sharp steel."</i> is just a tiny bit misleading. I expected more fighting and dueling, but there really isn't any sword action here (unless you count the sword action in the bedroom, which then again, why not?) The society in which the story happens has banned actual dueling, so Matti hires Luca to be his swordsman at his wedding as a bit of a "show" in which no one is expected to get injured. I don't think there is a single drop of blood in this story. Even the swords they practice with are blunt, so maybe that should have been <i>"Blunt steel."</i>

So far, so good though. I came in expecting a beautiful romance and I got that. So Matti and Luca going from friends to lovers and working together to find a solution to their problem is what 50% of this book is about.

Unfortunately that means that the other 50% of the book is world building.

Marske has concocted a whole new universe from scratch. That includes a complicated polytheistic religion (I lost count of how many gods and goddesses are mentioned) in which different deities are patrons of different city-states and manufacturing or merchant guilds. So, some guilds swear by one god, and then some guilds by another. There's a lot of "Huna's teeth" or "Maha's breath" or "X's arse". Which is fine. Really. It's fine. She's come up with an entire religion that makes sense, credit must be given where credit is due. Marske <i>can</i> world build.

In fact, she might be a bit too good at it and didn't know when to stop because the religion is only the beginning.

There's also an incredibly convoluted system of governance that is thrust up the reader's nose so hard I honestly had to sit up and <i>concentrate</i> and reread a few passages because suddenly I'm hearing about five different Guildmasters who are part of a Council of Guildheads (I'm sorry, I already forgot the right terms), each with its own patron god, and its own heirs who deal in their own trade and <i>all</i> of them are interrelated and sometimes in direct competition with each other, sometimes they marry into other families, sometimes they adopt each other...

So, one thing. Marske trusts in the intelligence of her readers. I appreciate that. She doesn't spoonfeed you the information, or adds a ridiculous monologue in which one character "thinks aloud" as a manner of explaining that "In our society, things are done this way..." Nah-uh. She just plows straight ahead, the way real people actually think. There are no exceedingly long explanations, so for example, you'll get a character say something like "The X guildmaster wants this canal built and so Y and Z are voting with them." and then another character replies, "Of course, that makes perfect sense."

And there is just <i>so much</i> of that. 50% of the book of that, in fact. If you lose track of a House name for a second, you won't understand entire pages worth of happenings, and so I found all this world building incredibly distracting from the story. And it isn't just the convoluted relationships between Houses and guilds and the excruciatingly detailed process of manufacturing wool, it's also in the food they eat, the clothes they wear, the social customs and the parties they attend. It's just TOO much world building for <i>such</i> a simple plot.

So, the book goes from a light little chapter on Matti and Luca's shenanigans (which are incredibly fun to read and super endearing) to another chapter in which you have to trudge through piles and piles of information about what type of caterpillar can and cannot be imported and the reasons behind the taxes and the conditions of the warehouses.

I poured myself a glass of wine to enjoy this book because I adored Freya Marske's The Last Binding trilogy with all my heart and I wanted to just sit back and relax, but around page 54 I decided I couldn't drink another drop of alcohol because the world building was too complicated and I needed to concentrate and keep track of about a thousand made up words that meant nothing to me going in, and to be perfectly honest, didn't stay with me after I finished the book. I feel like I wasted a lot of energy trying to remember a lot of names and things that will not be used in the future because this is a one shot and I'm not expecting to ever read about this world ever again.

(I will be honest here and say that I <i>will</i> purchase the audiobook when it's released and I <i>will</i> relisten to this story, and maybe I will have a different opinion on the matter having read it once before and being able to spare some RAM)

I'll take a moment to compare this book with A Marvelous Light. AML was set in a magical England, so there really was no need for world building other than explaining the magical society and how their magic system worked. Also, it was three books, so what you learned in book 1 was useful in book 2 and 3. It was <i>worth</i> understanding and retaining, and there wasn't much to remember anyway.

This book, ugh. Names of cattle (plot relevant), types of silk worms (plot relevant), sea passages from one exporting country to another (plot relevant), names of cities and their geography (to some extent, plot relevant), names of Houses AND their heads of House (very plot relevant), Guildmasters and their trades (very plot relevant)... I could go on. All of this for a story in which the ending can be guessed from the blurb.

There are a couple of plot twists that I didn't find surprising either, but I'm not going to say anything about that because I'm not here to ruin anyone's experience of this book. It is, after all, a Freya Marske book and it should be read no matter what, because the writing <i>IS</i> beautiful and the romance is everything.

And I will still read anything that Freya Marske writes in the future. She has shown her skill as a fantastic writer, and for that, I will always be her fan. This book just wasn't it for me.

So, I am giving this book 3.5 stars. It would have been a solid 5 stars if the world-building hadn't taken up so much of the book.

I am deeply thankful for the opportunity to read this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Oh, what an absolute delight it is to be able to read another fantastic book from Freya Marske, who is truly a master at her craft. A Marvellous Light and its sequels are some of my favourite books of all time, but I think, though I am astonished it is possible, that Swordcrossed might be even better. It is rare that I can find a book I can just completely lose myself in from the very first page, and yet I found myself doing just that with this wonderful, wonderful book.

I absolutely adore the way in which Freya Marske skilfully weaves romance in with conspiracy and intrigue, and how she creates characters that don't just seem to fit together well romantically, but also for mildly illegal sleuthing. I loved the way that Matti cared so fiercely for his family and their fortunes, even as I wished that he would stop struggling under the weight of everyone’s burdens because he thought they should all be his own, and I loved seeing the way that his and Luca’s relationship developed as he learned that he can do some things just for himself, sometimes. Luca managed to screw up so many things so severely that were this not a novel, I would be convinced he had offended at least a minor deity of luck, but were it not for his swordfighting skill and con artist ways he never would have ended up exactly where he needed to be, and he wouldn’t have made such a compelling character either.

There’s something about the way that Swordcrossed is written that makes it so hard to put down, which I couldn’t possibly hope to articulate. It was created such that even when I thought I knew what was coming next, it was such a joy to see how the story would get there. I thought the world it was set in was brilliant, and it didn’t take long to figure out how the system of Houses worked after a brief initial moment of confusion, but the information was woven so neatly into the rest of the narration that it was effortless to pick up the details as you went along.

I’m not sure I would describe it as a fantasy, particularly, it felt more like it was set in a pseudo-historical world with a religious system linked to the House system. There wasn’t any magic, the gods didn’t show up or grant favours, so while it had the air of a fantasy world it was overall pretty down-to-earth, and I really enjoyed that. I also loved how queernorm the setting was – there were side characters who were trans and nonbinary who were free to express that and be accepted within their society, and it was specifically mentioned that gay marriage had been around for 30 years, and there was no stigma against gay couples, which is always delightful and suited the story well – it also meant that a lot of the conflict with Matti and Luca’s relationship was that they were hopeless idiots, rather than forced to keep secrets.

The scheming that Matti and Luca set out to uncover was also masterfully done. Watching everything come together was incredible, and it became clear how things that seemed irrelevant or even confusing at the time all connected to produce an undeniable pattern. It was so clear that so much thought had been put into creating something so complex, and the way it was so gracefully handled I found very impressive.

If you liked Freya Marske’s other books, I guarantee you will love this one. And if you’re looking for gays, swordfighting, gays attempting to learn swordfighting and not being very good at it, or amateur detective work involving breaking into people’s houses and hiding in wardrobes, then this is certainly a book for you. I hope everyone reads it and I hope everyone loves it, because it is without a doubt a new favourite book for me.

Oh she's only gone and done it again.

Freya Marske is absolutely one of my favourite authors; the last binding trilogy had me on my knees so I've been waiting for this book with bated breath, and getting the opportunity to read it in advance was a dream come true.

It's almost scary when an author you love so much, who wrote some of your favourite books, branches out to something new. There's always a risk it won't meet up to your expectations, but that's not what happened here at all. Marske has once again created a captivating world, with wonderful, human characters, and told a story so compelling I couldn't put it down. This will absolutely become one of my comfort re-reads, just like TLB is for me.