This book is incredibly fun, addictively fast-paced, and charming in all the right ways. It doesn't push the main characters together just because they're the main characters, it doesn't have a "gotcha, they were secretly straight the whole time" twist, and it doesn't even push the main characters into relationships with their romantic interests too quickly. It lets the characters breathe, lets them figure themselves out and find their places in this politically complicated faux-medieval-England. It lets them grow on the reader, too. That said, it has rough edges where it breaks immersion and characters very occasionally contradict themselves in ways that don't make sense. It combines a fast pace, a loghtheated sense of humor, and a serious plot that doesn't hold back. It also has a very minor plot thread or two that come loose from the main story and never really get woven back in properly. Those last things do bother me, but reading this story and getting to see queer people like myself fighting for their rights even in fantasy was well worth ignoring them.