The Feisty Female Protagonist Gets Married

Maybe it’s a trend in the Young Adult publishing industry, or maybe it’s just a personal preference revealed in my book choices, but it seems like so many of the books I’ve been reading feature a young woman who gets partnered off to a mysterious, handsome man and learns to navigate his strange world. Do you remember when a decade ago all the books coming out were about vampires and werewolves? It feels like that.

It started off with A Winter’s Promise, part one of the Mirror Visitor Quartet by Christelle Dabos. Ophelia is introverted, enjoys museums, libraries and other archives of stories, and can read the history of any object with her bare hands. She is betrothed to Thorn, a cold and intimidating man from another floating island. When she goes to live with him, she finds that everyone in his world is cruel and two faced and there is something weird going on under the illusions. The quartet isn’t finished and translated yet, so it stands to be seen whether Ophelia decides to like Thorn or not.

A while later, I encountered a description of A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas. It was, according to the description, a very sexy retelling of Beauty and the Beast and the tale of Tam Lin. It sounded exactly like the kind of trash I wanted to read while snuggled up inside in the depths of winter. I found that it was also a very dark retelling, involving graphic torture and mutilation. The second book in the series, the protagonist Feyre finds out that her fiance Tamlin is emotionally abusive, and the story converts into a retelling of Hades and Persephone with a different handsome face, Rhysand.

While looking for more fantasy books to read, I put a hold on The Ghost Bride, by Yangsze Choo, and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. In The Ghost Bride, Li Lan is courted by a ghost who really wants to marry her despite his struggles with being dead. Li Lan is not keen on that idea so she travels into the afterlife to give him a summary kick up the backside. The romance happens with the other male characters in the book. In Spinning Silver, Miryem uses her skills as a moneylender to raise her family’s fortunes. I enjoyed the relationship building between the rich cast of female characters in the book. They weren’t all friends, but that wasn’t necessary. But alas, both Miryem and Irina find themselves unwillingly married off and must learn to navigate court politics to save their people.

Last Friday, all of my local libraries closed down for the foreseeable future. I prepared for the shutdown by placing holds on books on Libby. I didn’t put much effort into finding out what the books were about - I just needed stuff to read. The first book to arrive on my kindle was The Star Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi. I’m halfway through, and guess what! Our protagonist Maya marries a mysterious man who has a mysterious kingdom. His redeeming quality is that he is a very good kisser.

Next up on the reading list is The City of Brass by S.A Chakraborty.

Here are some commonalities of this trope:

• Arranged/forced marriages

• Slowly falling in love

• Uncovering secrets because the husband cannot or will not provide information

• Loneliness because the rooms are empty and the servants won’t talk

• Exploring a parallel spirit universe

• Saving the world