Ran across this at the 25-cent table at Goodwill, and was struck by the cover - a young woman with short dark brown hair, and what looks to be a shaggy puma sprouting from the side of her head.
Despite certain issues in composition, I was struck by the hope that this story would include big cats (it does) and that it would have a heroine who wasn't a Rapunzel body-double (it did).
Rilsin (who my brain keeps insisting should be Rislin) Sae Becha is the heir presumptive, until a bloody coup leaves her family dead, and she only lives due to the effection of her elder cousin Sithli (may I note here that creating a character who is named SITH is perhaps not the wisest choice when trying to create nuance and ambiguity about the relative evilness of said character, but I digress).
Rilsin accepts that life changes, becomes her cousin's Sword (essentially Prime Minister and Commander in Chief rolled into one), and sits around moping while her bipolar cousin runs the kingom into the ground through graft, arrant stupidity, slave trading, and also the decay of a fleetingly-explored magical connection that the land should have to the ruler, and Sithli doesn't have.
After a bad marriage, a few wars, an alliance, and a magical transformation in a grotto with candles (no, I'm not kidding) Rilsin finally gets on with it, and thus ends the book in a solid tear of action to make up for the first three-quarters.
Now, that review sounds really harsh, and on the face of it - yeah, kindof. There are sequels, but I'm not really interested enough to hunt them down, which says a lot about how invested I am.
That said, it was an enjoyable light read, and while the story plodded in a lot of ways, there were always interesting characters and dynamics going on, even if there wasn't much action. In addition, the world was very well realized, with an interesting dynastic structure of squabbling family Houses and a gender-equal society where no one ever comments on how marvelous their gender-equal society is.
Plus there were hunting cats, which are always worth a few extra credit points in my book. :)
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