Friday Friyay: 'Lady Hotspur' by Tessa Gratton

 I absolutely LOVED Tessa Gratton's The Queens of Innis Lear and yet it has taken me until now to get around to reading her other take on Shakespeare, Lady Hotspur. Honestly, it sounds so up my alley that I'm mad at myself for taking so long... will I ever learn from these experiences? Probably no.

STRIKE FAST, LOVE HARD, LIVE FOREVER

This is the motto of the Lady Knights—sworn to fealty under a struggling kingdom, promised to defend the prospective heir, Banna Mora.

But when a fearsome rebellion overthrows the throne, Mora is faced with an agonizing choice: give up everything she's been raised to love, and allow a king-killer to be rewarded—or retake the throne, and take up arms against the newest heir, Hal Bolingbrooke, Mora's own childhood best friend and sworn head of the Lady Knights.

Hal loathes being a Prince; she's much more comfortable instated on the Throne of Misrule, a raucous underground nether-court where passion rules all. She yearns to live up to the wishes of everyone she loves best—but that means sacrificing her own heart, and so she will disappoint everyone until the moment she can rise to prove those expectations wrong.

And between these two fierce Princes is the woman who will decide all their fates—Lady Hotspur, the fiery and bold knight whose support will turn the tides of the coming war.

Book Beginnings is at home on Rose City Reader, hosted by Gilion Dumas, and Friday 56 at Freda's Voice, hosted by Freda. I'll also be joining the Book Blog Hop, hosted by Billy over at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. 

BB:

'Hal was not yet a prince when she fell in love with Lady Hotspur, but she would be within the hour.' p.1

What a way to get us started! Also, so excited about women being princes and knights and badass. God I'm excited to dig into this one on the train tomorrow!

F56:

'Inside, the air smelled of earthy water and crisp woodsmoke, of fallen leaves and roses. The keep had been gutted, the wood rotted away long ago, and so it was only the shell of what it once had been, and roofless. Holes appeared at every level where support beams had once been placed, and the hooded alcoves that would have been hearths held deep shadows.' 56%

I love how Gratton does descriptions. I can just see it, perfectly, even though I have no idea where in the plot we are, what we're looking at exactly, but I can see the building, I feel like I can smell the air. 

BBH:

This week's question was suggested by Julie over at JadeSky/Stepping Stones Book Reviews:

Would you ever consider dressing up as a book character? If so, which one?

Oh absolutely, if I could get away with it! A big part of me absolutely wants to flaunt around in Edwardian dresses all day any day like Elizabeth Bennet, or stomping through Northern fens like Catherine Earnshaw, or (kinda cheating) embody a mecha-robot like Zetian in Iron Widow, wrecking the place. OR maybe full on armour like I'm hoping the ladies in Lady Hotspur are? OORR Hogwarts robes?! I guess in reality I'm dressing like Chloe Sevre from Never Saw Me Coming cause I'm constantly in yoga pants and slouchy sweaters...

So yes, I would! I don't know if I would do it to a literary fest or convention, though. People there are so good at creating cosplay and really putting work and effort into it that I would just feel a bit bad about my own attempts I think!

That's me for today! What are you reading? And if you have dressed up as characters, pleaaaseee add photos to your post and link, I'm desperate to see it!