Wooing the Witch QueenReview posted July 19, 2025.
Macmillan Audio, 2025. 8 hours, 33 minutes.
Review written June 12, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
I've long enjoyed Stephanie Burgis's books for kids - fun fantasy stories with imagination and heart. They always make me smile. So it was something of an adjustment to listen to a sexy romantasy for adults from her - but in the end, it, too, has imagination and heart and made me smile.
The set-up is that Archduke Felix from the ever-expanding Empire has been controlled and abused for most of his life by his father-in-law. He's not even allowed to study governance, but kept busy with literature and poetry. But now that his beloved wife has died, he knows that his father-in-law is laying plans to kill him. So he has nothing to lose. He's going to go to the neighboring country where the Witch Queen Saskia has overcome her evil uncle and taken control - because she is the one person who's successfully stood up to the Empire's forces so far.
He grabs a dark cloak and is surprised when no one stops him, and he's apparently welcomed to an audience with Saskia. What he doesn't know is that she recently placed an ad for a dark wizard to put her magic library in order - her uncle left it in disarray. And as Felix is waiting at the door, he hears her telling her allies how happy she would be to execute Archduke Felix - because of all his father-in-law has done in his name. So when she mistakes him for a librarian, he takes the job.
And it turns out that studying literature and poetry is perfect training for being a magical librarian. And Saskia finds him surprisingly kind and careful - unlike any other dark wizard she's ever met.
But of course he can't just settle down and stay a librarian. He's going to have to tell Saskia the truth at some point, and hopefully before the Empire finds a way to take down Saskia's magical wall and annex her kingdom.
This book starts a trilogy that includes Saskia's allies, the other two "Queens of Villainy." I'm going to want to read them all.