{"id":349,"date":"2014-10-09T16:37:14","date_gmt":"2014-10-09T21:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etoiline.com\/words\/?p=349"},"modified":"2014-10-09T16:37:14","modified_gmt":"2014-10-09T21:37:14","slug":"jen-reads-liesmith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/etoiline.com\/words\/2014\/10\/09\/jen-reads-liesmith\/","title":{"rendered":"Jen reads Liesmith: Book 1 of The Wyrd"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Liesmith:<\/a>Liesmith: Book 1 of The Wyrd<\/a> by Alis Franklin<\/a>
\nMy rating: 4 of 5 stars<\/a><\/p>\n

I have to admit, when I first read the blurb for LIESMITH I was worried that the book might devolve into some fanfic-worthy slash, but this is a solid urban fantasy where the two main characters just happen to be queer. Folks who loved the Avengers movie and folks who love to game (as in board or D&D games) will easily relate to our non-traditional protagonist Sigmund, who is designing his own video game and is taken aback, but not too much, when he finds out that his huh-I-guess-I-like-guys boyfriend is actually the Norse god Loki.<\/p>\n

For those who prefer their urban fantasy romance cis and white, you may be uncomfortable with LIESMITH. For those who want a good story, you’ll enjoy it. The romance is not too overt, and it’s well done when it’s there. Sig and Lain (Loki) come off as any other couple, at least any other couple where one happens to be a god who has birthed babies and the other carries the soul of the god’s dead wife…<\/p>\n

The story can be convoluted, and some of the imagery is harsh. The author doesn’t shy away from describing gory scenes that will probably make any reader squirm. But there is adventure here, and the plot, however twisted, makes sense in the end. I like how most of the plot points are tied up at the end, with the overarching storyline ready for another book.<\/p>\n

There is plenty of humor among the horror bits, and it’s satisfying to read a book where the protagonist is an unapologetic nerd. I may not be a D&Der but I love to play games and read fantasy, and that means that I can see myself in Sigmund. I’m really interested in this story and I’ll be on the lookout for the next book.<\/p>\n

Received as a free digital ARC via Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.<\/p>\n

View all my reviews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In which Jen reads LIESMITH and enjoys a fresh take on Norse-by-way-of-Australia mythology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"Layout":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Jen reads Liesmith: Book 1 of The Wyrd http:\/\/wp.me\/p3A5W1-5D","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[14,71,29,87,38,41,43,55,62,64],"class_list":["entry","author-admin","has-excerpt","post-349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-reviews","tag-contemporary","tag-debut","tag-geeky","tag-gods-and-goddesses","tag-magic","tag-mythology","tag-netgalley","tag-romance","tag-urban-fantasy","tag-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3A5W1-5D","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/etoiline.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/etoiline.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/etoiline.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/etoiline.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/etoiline.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/etoiline.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":356,"href":"http:\/\/etoiline.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions\/356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/etoiline.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/etoiline.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/etoiline.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}