Sacrati

Sherwood (In Too Deep) delivers an action-packed, muscle-driven, and occasionally thoughtful tale of a warrior and a scholar taming each other and their risky passions in a rich fantasy world. Theos is Sacrati, an elite solider inside the devastatingly capable army of the Torian empire, where the women rule the cities, the men are part of the war machine, and same-sex, nonmonogamous love is the norm. When Theos’s patrol captures a group of Elkati spies, he finds himself saddled with discomfiting knowledge about conspiracies within the military that threaten the prosperity and security of the Torian empire. Theos also tries to understand how Finnvid, the leader of the Elkati group and now his personal slave, could value intellectual pursuits over the glory of war—and value his homeland’s monogamous, homophobic values over giving in to his lust for Theos. The salacious tension is spiced with distrust and betrayal as Theos and Finnvid endearingly struggle to build a bridge between their worldviews and find their own way to love. There are a few faltering moments when politics from our world inexplicably intrude; nonetheless, this gripping fantasy is not to be missed. (May)