nikki ༗'s Reviews > The Familiar

"i was wrong when i told you to fear men and their ambition," he murmured in her ear. "fear nothing, luzia cotado, and you will become greater than them all."

i definitely see why LB says this is her most romantic book yet.
reading the familiar was a very sensual journey. we get to enjoy the lush riches of the nobility in the golden age of spain: the seven course feasts, the elaborately tailored gowns, the fine wines and sweet desserts, the gold-filled rooms. we enjoy the simple things; an orange grove, a juicy pomegranate.

fate can be changed. curses can be broken.

there are the calculated political machinations of the court at its height of the inquisition. there is history of the sephardic jews and others who are hunted down, tortured, and slaughtered by the alguacil. there is the magic luzia creates with the language of her ancestors, a blend that's traveled across seas.

and then there's the romance. if my man ain't simping for me the way santángel does for luzia, i don't want him.

"he forfeited his life when he tried to take yours."
"because i belong to victor de paredes," she said.
santángel hesitated. "i suppose that's a way of looking at it."

it stuck in his mind like a thorn, infecting him with a kind of fever, the thought of luzia cotado unraveling.

"i would spend a lifetime braiding and unbraiding your hair."

i did not expect to get emotional in the end, but i was really tearing up with this one. anything that manages to make me cry i gotta give it 5 stars.

"i should warn you, this isn't a happy story."
"i don't recall asking for such a thing."
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jewish fantasy set during the Spanish Inquisition FUCK YEAH