A Reader Recommends: Janette Rallison

There are only a few RomCom authors I will auto-buy and Janette Rallison is one of them. She is consistently clean (with YA romances that are actually appropriate for teens!!), hilarious, and occasionally has some deeper arcs/themes as well.

It is especially exciting for me when she dabbles in fantasy, like the Wizard’s Mark.

It takes you a minute to get your bearings in this one because we are jumping timelines a lot in the first quarter of the book, but you get a chance to really get to know the main characters and how their initial “friendship” developed—despite the class difference between them. You also see the incident that (somewhat literally) tore them apart.

Now, she is a servant turned undercover freedom-fighter with secret magic.

He is a noble wizard prodigy working for the king.

As they are pitted against each other, lots of magical and romantic sparks fly, and because it’s Rallison, also some humorous moments as well. The worldbuilding is interesting (lots of people turning into animals and trees) and the political conflict has some depth. Good standalone, but I wouldn’t say no to more in this world if the author ever feels inclined.

But yeah, I am going to keep reading everything she writes anyway, so it really doesn’t matter. Even the RomComs. ;)