Their Heart A Hive by Fox N. Locke

 

THEIR HEART A HIVE was a purely impulsive read because I saw that Cat Hellisen had given it a high rating and I really respect their writing (and their taste). And they weren't wrong! This is a vastly underrated queer fantasy with Celtic and cottagecore undertones that at times almost feels like a sweeping gothic with a fantasy backdrop.

One of the critiques of fantasy is that they often include homophobia as part of the default world-building but in this book queerness is completely accepted. The hero, Lowen, is gay. When he kills a magical bee that belongs to the local lord, he is summoned to the lord's domain where he finds out that the "lord" is actually genderqueer and is also sometimes "the lady" or even "themself" or "lord and lady."

The Lord and Lady of Honeymoore has a mysterious relationship to bees and their household staff, one of whom, Brem, Lowen ends up in a sexual relationship with. The plot is very slow and this is mostly just a book of vibes. I liked the vibes but the drop-off in pacing did make this a little harder to finish in the second act, although the ending was fantastic and left me a little misty-eyed.

Highly recommend this to people who wanted something like ACOTAR, but gay, or something that has an almost Miyazaki feel to it. I'm honestly shocked more people haven't read this.

3 to 3.5 out of 5 stars