r/fantasyromance

https://www.polygon.com/bg3-baldurs-gate-3-astarion-prequel-novel-release-date/

This is by M.K. Lobb and is set to come out August 25, 2026.

Guys. Stop what you’re doing and request this book. I mean it.

This is an urban fantasy. It took me a few minutes to get into it but once I got in, I was IN IT. The premise is excellent. Sinning manifests as a disease called bloodrot, which visibly rots your veins. The powerful/wealthy hire “sinners” to do their dirty work to keep themselves pure. The world building is fantastic because it’s basically delving into actual cult and religious fantasist culture. It’s fascinating and the author did a great job exploring those dynamics.

FMC is a sinner, working for the Prophet. He sends her to do a job where she meets the Warden who is honestly a great MMC. He is kinda unhinged and dark but it works. FMC is kinda jaded but likable. Their banter is good — not overdone — and even though they are attracted to each other there isn’t insta lust. They acknowledge the attraction and I felt like there was actual tension. It’s partially because even though they’re attracted to each other they don’t always really like each other? It’s honestly great.

There are also multiple betrayals, lying and shady behavior from multiple parties. I wish I could say more. I feel like if you liked Daggermouth you’d like this book. It was much better than I was expecting and I’m glad I picked it up. I’d definitely recommend grabbing the sample of the book bc I know others may not share my opinion.

Solid 4.75 for me. The slow beginning brought it down but again, minor peanuts compared to how much I liked the rest of the book.

In addition to our Book Bingo, we wanted to add a Diverse Reading Challenge for the community!

The challenge is for any reader who wants to expand their reading horizons, discover new books, and uplift underrepresented authors and stories.

We have been thinking about how we can highlight more diverse reads and spotlight hidden gems on this sub, and this is one of the ideas we came up with. We hope to inspire everyone to discover new amazing books and step out of their comfort zone a bit!

The r/fantasyromance Diverse Reading Challenge will run for a year, from May 1, 2026, to April 30, 2027. We will post regular check-ins every quarter so you can share your progress, as well as a final turn-in post at the end of the challenge.

##How to Complete the Challenge

We want to encourage people to try and complete as many challenges as they can. We’re not making this a bingo, so you don’t have to worry about completing a row. Rather, we hope you’ll try to complete as many squares as you can, or even complete the full card a year from now!

For those who want to give themselves an extra challenge, we’ve come up with a hard mode where you complete the entire card with only minority or marginalised authors.

As a bonus challenge, we ask users to post a review of their favourite speculative fiction read(s). You can use the ‘Diversify Your TBR’ flair for these reviews.

The prize for completing the challenge will be a special user flair.

##The Optional Rules

We don’t want to limit participation, so we encourage everyone to pick the ‘rules’ that fit best with the amount of reading you can manage in a year.

The optional rules are:

• The challenge can’t include any re-reads
• An author can only be used once on your card
• A book can only be used for one square

Because expanding horizons is part of this challenge, not every read has to fit the fantasy romance genre (and some squares actively encourage you to try something else!).

##The Template

You can save the photo in the post and edit the image on any photo editing software. The second photo has the prompts at the top so you can still see the prompt when you put a book in the square.

We have also created a direct link to the Canva Diverse Book Challenge Template. Once you open the template, you can go to File and click “Create a Copy” to edit the copy on your own Canva account.

##StoryGraph Challenge

For those of you who would like to track this challenge on StoryGraph, you can join the challenge below!

Reddit's r/fantasyromance Diverse Reading Challenge 2026

You can also add suggested books for each category in StoryGraph.

##The Squares

We have come up with 20 different categories you can complete. Below we have a short description of each square (in order of top left to bottom right).

• Indigenous Author: read a book written by an indigenous author.
• Story About Belonging: read a book that heavily centres the theme of belonging.
• Queer Romance: read a story where the main romance plot is between queer characters.
• Disabled or Chronically Ill MC: read a book where one of the main characters is disabled or chronically ill. This includes invisible illnesses.
• Literary Award in 2026: read a book that won or was short-listed for a literary award in 2026.
• Middle Eastern Setting: read a story with a Middle Eastern setting or where the world is inspired by the Middle East.
• Rec From ‘Diversify Your TBR’ Flair: a book that was recommended under the ‘Diversify Your TBR’ flair on the r/fantasyromance sub.
• Not Originally Written in English: read a book that wasn’t originally written in English. If you can read multiple languages, this can include books that haven’t been translated to English yet.
• Published Before 2000s: read a book that was first published before 2000. You can check out the ‘Old but Gold’ flair for recommendations, too.
• (Sub) Genre You Don’t Usually Read: read a book from a subgenre or genre you don’t usually read. If you want to stick to fantasy romance, feel free to pick a subgenre within the wider genre you usually skip. You can also read a book from an entirely different genre.
• BIPOC MC: read a story that has a main character who is black, indigenous, or is otherwise a person of colour.
• Retelling of Non-Western Mythology or Folklore: read a book that features the retelling of a myth or folktale from a non-western European tradition. This can include indigenous or Eastern European folklore and myths.
• Rec From Another Book Subreddit: read a book that comes highly recommended on another book subreddit. You can check out the sub’s top book list, or filter posts to ‘top of all time’ to find recommendations.
• MC From a Different Culture: read a book with a main character that comes from a very different culture or has a different cultural background than yours.
• Queer-Normative Setting: read a book that is set in a queer normative world.
• Non-Romantic Relationship Arc: read a speculative fiction book that features a major non-romantic relationship arc. This can be (found) family, friendship, allies, mentees, etc.
• Debut With Fewer Than 5,000 Goodreads Ratings: read a debut book that has fewer than 5,000 ratings on Goodreads. You can decide yourself how recent you want the debut to be published, and if the author has published new books since.
• Rec From Your Local Library or Book Store: read a book that is recommended by your local library or book story. This can be a book on display or otherwise highlighted, or one that was personally recommended by the librarian or book store worker.
• Immigrant or Refugee Author: read a book that was written by an author that was an immigrant or refugee.
• Fits Two or More Squares: read a book that fits two or more squares of this challenge.

##Recommendations

Like with Book Bingo, we'll run a separate recommendation thread for books that fit the different categories, so please look out for that post in the next few days! We’ll link it in a pinned comment below once it’s up.

Happy reading everyone, and we hope you discover many new amazing books!

I wanted to post this in a different sub and talk about how the issues I have with those characters are very similar to this one. I havent read the empyrean series, so im looking to reach out and ask if this is accurate (wanna check my sources y'know? 😉). Thank you and have a good day.

Here's the link too:

https://www.tiktok.com/@hardcover.hooligans.pod/video/7631011037352873230?is\_from\_webapp=1&sender\_device=pc