The Tarot Sequence

[got_quiet]

On around midnight of the 16th, aka the last second of the last day of a three day weekend, the second book in the Tarot Sequence came out of hold for me so of course I fucked myself for a second time by starting to read it immediately. I did however manage to control myself enough that I put the phone down at around 3AM, instead of losing the entire night of sleep. And then I kept stealing glances at it at work the next day, finished it around midnight that night, and immediately checked out the Hourglass Throne because that one doesn't have a wait list. This time I only stayed up reading til 2 AM, which is usually when I finally manage to go to sleep anyway, so I'm very proud of myself. And the next day I again spent a lot of my workday trying not to just straight up read when I had things to do, and again just finished the whole thing in the evening. With no more books in the series left for now the demon has been exorcised in some sense, but I'm going nuts that my go-to compulsion immediately after getting the Bug for a canon, gorging myself on fan art, is not available here because book fandoms so rarely seem to attract fan artists. There are a a few cute pictures I've dug up but somehow there are noooo horny artists coming at this even though there are so many opportunities. So... so many opportunities. I'm actually going a little crazy. This is why small fandoms drive me nuts.

I wish I could draw!

A quick note about why I enjoyed the series so much: The trope hooks are some serious loyalty kink, soul mates, everybody gets trauma, mutual pining, and a will they won't they sort of love triangle that appears to be rapidly resolving into the thruple, but has not yet hit that point by the end of the third book. The  main character, Rune Saint John, is the last Atlantian scion of a fallen house, and survives in his impoverished state by being a fixer for the very powerful man that took him in after his entire family was slaughtered. The books start out with just him and his Companion, Brand, who is a human who was magically bonded to Rune from the crib. Over the course of the book they keep picking up strays, including Mr. Perfect, Addam, who is the extremely wealthy scion of a different house and the damsel that has to be saved in the first book.

The majority of the book is straightforward adventure. There's a mystery, or a baddie, and the gang has to figure out how to deal with it. There's an interesting magical system where spellpower is held in artifacts, and the richer you are the more artifacts you have, so the more power, but the power creep is pretty severe and by the third book a lot is going on that doesn't rely on this and Rune is kind of rapidly reaching the top of the heap. There's also political intrigue, and an underlying plot where Rune is trying to figure out who was it that killed his family and how he can get revenge.

Most of the books are a romp. A couple times the combat bogs things down a little, but the pace is otherwise great and does a good job of balancing out a lot of humor, some feel good found family stuff that I'm not so into but eh it's nice, and some gruesome violence, as well as dark issues like sexual abuse. The trauma that Rune suffered at the hands of his attackers is a big fucking deal and the books do a good job of showing how that has an effect on him, not just on over the top ways but in smaller moments like how he's affected by the knowledge that Brand has familiarity with the red light district.

There's an ever growing cast of characters, as every time Rune gets himself in a mess he ends up adopting someone. They all have strong personalities but the Rune/Brand relationship is the cornerstone for me. The loyalty kink is off the charts with these two. Brand was basically raised from a toddler to be Rune's right hand, but he's human so doesn't have the tools that an Atlantian does and occasionally goes a little nuts when Rune leaves him behind. He has a tough love approach to everything and fights with Rune constantly but in a very loving way. The both of them spend a lot of time protecting each other not just physically but emotionally from a lot of nasty shit. Rune hides some terrible secretes from Brand and worries about things like Brand killing himself if Rune dies while Brand is one of the few people who know how bad it got for Rune during the attack and will set fire to the whole world to protect him from anything like that ever again.

When Addam showed up I was ready to mean girl him because I do not care for sweet, understanding, instantly attracted, smooth talking love interests. They're boring. I'm still not into Addam and Rune the same as I am with Rune and Brand but Addam has kind of stepped it up in the second and third books... possibly because he had a talk with Rune and was like "yeah there's no way I'm matching what you've got with Brand and I'm not going to try" lol. I swear I'm usually a multi-shipper. In this case Addam was just not as interesting to me.

There are kind of sexy times in the books. The first one has something I think qualifies as a more explicit sex scene, but because of Rune's aforementioned trauma things go real slow. It's a point of anxiety for Rune because he feels inadequate and frustrated with himself that even many months after Addam basically becomes his boyfriend he struggles with intimacy. I liked that the books are taking their time with that, and they approach a lot of the nasty stuff that comes up as something that's going to have an effect on a person probably for the rest of their life, not a sort of adventure over, shake it off sort of way.

But on top of all of that the books are really quite funny. Since I borrowed ebooks and can't easily reference them again after I just copied a bunch of my favorite lines. I don't know if they are as good out of context, but they also show off some of the characters.

Have some excerpts:

The smell of toast woke me the next morning. Since Queenie had the day off, I was curious, so I threw on a pair of sweatpants and padded downstairs. Brand was standing by the kitchen counter with his arms crossed. He was showered and combed and wearing a tight T-shirt that said, "Jesus loves you except when you act like an asshole." When he saw me he rolled his eyes and tipped a plate of toast into the trash. "It was bait," he said to my outraged expression. The toast had landed in old coffee grounds. And the bag on the counter only had two end pieces left.

"What the hell," I said.

"I don't have all fucking day for your four-hour morning routine. We need to plan."

---

Brand bit down hard on his teeth and glared at me, then threw his arms up in the air. "I am fucking mad at you again!" So I said the one thing I knew would calm him down. It was one of the dirtiest tricks we played on each other, and it always worked. I admitted I needed help.

"Can I hold your arm while we walk?" I said. "It'll keep me grounded. Don't worry, not your knife arm."

Brand watched my face sullenly. "As if I throw better with one hand than the other." But he looked a little mollified, and held out an arm to me.

---
(Quinn is Addam's baby brother and still a teenager)

"Rune," Quinn said in a plaintive tone. "I really think I need to be nearby."

Everyone stared at me, including Addam, who didn't look like a man who thought he was about to be overruled. "Well, first, allow me to take this opportunity to genuinely thank you, Quinn, for forcing me to negotiate your presence in a possible firefight. This will absolutely deepen my bond with Addam."

Addam's face hardened. Now that was the face of someone who knew he was being overruled. "You think they should go."

---
(Lord Tower is Rune's benefactor, and Mayan is Lord Tower's Companion)

Lady Death stepped over the banshee's head and stared at the door. "I can make it brittle. We'll need to ram it."

Brand cleared his throat. "I may be able to help with that. I... forgot... I had some plastique on me."

"Brandon," Lord Tower sighed.

"I brought some accidentally as well," Mayan said in solidarity with Brand.

 

--
(This is after a crowd gets mind-controlled to do the baddie's bidding. Mayan and Lord Tower do not get too much focus in the books but when they do it's pretty choice.)

Their weaponless hands hung limply at their sides. Their eyes were fixed on the shoulders of the people in front of them. My own anger flared - but it was a candlewick against Lord Tower's sudden fury. He strode away from us, and I followed. None of the scions in the front rows even glanced at him. Lord Tower marched up to Mayan and put a hand in front of his chest. Mayan didn't resist or attack, and the peoplebehind him - including Corrine - merely walked around. Lord Tower put his hands behind Mayan's head and drew their foreheads together.

"Mine," he hissed. Mayan sucked in a deep breath and began coughing.

"Mother fucking horsefire shit!" he gasped. "I couldn't..."