Strong Wine

I was given an advance copy of this book, but I'd have happily purchased it, had things been otherwise. As I anticipated, this third book in the 'Sword Dance' series was as enjoyable as the first two. I love the historical flavor of the setting and the world-building that made it that much more entertaining and believable. I adore the two main characters and how the author has slowly revealed little bits here and there about their pasts and their personalities. The view of Dami's family is... wow... 'dysfunctional' barely covers it, but it's probably more relatable (and, frankly, interesting) than a sweet, loving, 'perfect' family would be. There's a very good murder mystery tied into the deepening of Damiskos and Varazda's relationship, along with their hopes and fears about their future together. I was hooked straight away and if life weren't so busy this month, I'd've probably read the whole book in a day, maybe two - dang the need for sleep and RL necessities! I highly recommend "Strong Wine" as a great read in a great series!

AJ Demas delights as always! This is probably my favourite of the trilogy, and in my opinion it’s the strongest as well. The novel focuses on the theme of family, this time Damiskos’s blood family, alongside a classic murder mystery plot--Varazda makes a fantastic detective, if I do say so myself. Strong Wine starts a dialog that puts face to face blood family and soul family, our duty to duty versus our duty to love. Meaning sometimes the best way to love and help one’s family will require breaking free from their beliefs, even if they see it as a betrayal, and bringing to the table your own authentic self, with a fresh and different perspective. And we see the return of a fair few characters from book 1, from the beloved to the loathed, which was a treat. :) What will stick with me the most I think are the scenes and the atmosphere at Damiskos’ parents’ place. As Dami himself says, he feels like a character in a bad play that is hurtling towards absurdity, and I think most people who have had to spend time with family they don’t see daily will relate to the feeling. Going through the motions because what else is there to do, all the while the gap between what you want to say and what others are saying keeps widening until you’re left on two different sides of a canyon. AJ Demas does a phenomenal job recreating that tense atmosphere, but without tipping it over into being painful to get through or giving me secondhand embarrassment. I think the book’s simpler structure serves it well, there aren’t so many threads to follow and tie up, and as a result the novel feels tighter and the conclusion very satisfying; the deductions are easy to follow but interesting, and we get to spend more time with the characters interacting rather than chasing down leads. The book’s humor tickled me immensely, my book is filled with highlighted witty lines; one favorite I can share without risking spoilers is this-- Dami: Look, the family situation is very simple [proceeds to explain family situation that requires a diagram and the confused math lady meme to understand] I am so taken with the descriptions of the river, they’re so poetic and evocative, like “the river, winking in the sun as it scrolled down from the mountains”. ❤️ TLDR: A wonderful end to the trilogy and a beautiful goodbye to the characters, expect all the good things we love about AJ’s writing: communication, even when the characters are bad at it, slight angst and lots of comfort, a little bit of heartbreaking confessions, wit and beautiful descriptions, tenderness of course, as well as a whole lot of worldbuilding I am very much a nerd for. PS- I am now very invested in Bion’s life, and I lowkey hope he gets a spinoff :) I received an ARC of the book.