Bull Moon Rising

Bestseller Dixon (Barbarian’s Taming) leaves the sci-fi milieu of her Ice Planet Barbarians series behind and dives into historical fantasy in her raunchy Royal Artifactual Guild series launch. Lady Aspeth Honori, heiress to Honori Hold, sees the writing on the wall. Her father has gambled away what’s left of their family’s fortune. At 30, she’s unlikely to marry her way out of the problem, and the estate’s lack of funds makes the Honori family a target for their rivals. Her solution is to join the guild of magical artifact hunters and find enough ancient magical treasures to save her home. But as a woman, she’s laughed out of guild training by the other new fledglings and all the mentors except for guild member Hawk, one of the Taurian race of minotaurs, who is looked down on for his half-bull body. He and Aspeth strike a deal: he’ll mentor her and her friend at the guild if, in exchange, she’ll marry him in time for the upcoming Taurian rutting season. The result is a steamy marriage of convenience featuring all the unusual anatomy Dixon’s fans expect. The worldbuilding is well done and the love story convincing. Dixon should win a whole new set of readers with this. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary. (Oct.)