I have finished reading Treasured by Poppy Woods, my second book for this year's Sapphic Book Bingo. I suspect this will go into my Enemies-to-Lovers square.
This post is my spoiler-free review, ideal for anyone considering reading the book for themselves. As always, keep in mind that I am not well-read when considering my assessment.
tl;dr, this story has SAPPHIC DRAGONS
Story Premise
Taryn, princess of the Vanir kingdom, is partaking in the annual jubilee celebrating the peace among the human kingdoms of Lazoreat. She's enjoying her time with her best friends, Lady Mira and Tabistak's Prince Dary. However, there is a kerfluffle among the proceedings as an unexpected entourage arrives from Izvora. Up until now, the kingdom of Izvora has kept to itself, but it has now arrived to sign the peace accords for the first time.
Everyone is still trying to figure out what is going on with this sudden arrival of this unknown kingdom with its strange culture, when suddenly the proceedings are interrupted more violently. A dragon, Niressa, has dropped in from the nearby mountain, declaring that the knights of Vanir have taken her most valued treasure from her. The treasure in question is the crown of Vanir's past queen. Since King Godfrey refuses to return the treasure to her, Niressa instead chooses to capture Princess Taryn and hold her hostage until she gets what she originally came for.
Taryn's understandably upset about this development, but as she spends more time with her captor, she starts to realize that dragons aren't all she's been led to believe they are...
The Characters
I found this book to be a breath of fresh air after the one I last read, and I attribute most of that to the personality of the cast. All of the characters are lively and fun, even the minor ones, and it was a joy to read about them.
When Taryn is among her friends, their familiarity with each other is obvious with how open and comfortable they are with each other. The adults in the crowd are a bit more serious, but it's evident that most of them just care about the well-being of everyone else and sometimes it's not easy for them to ensure that well-being, especially considering that there's a certain bit of political intrigue going on.
And then there's the dragons. The dragons have a certain bestial nature, and they are as self-serving as you might expect such powerful beings to be, but they also have their own moral code defined by their own culture, and they seem to respect anyone who happens to follow it (though not everyone does).
All in all, there's a decent bit of variety here, and I would consider each individual primary character to be "strong" in the sense that they have their own personal motivations and keep to them, even when it leads to conflict with others (be they ally or enemy). It all leads to the world feeling alive to me.
The Romance
This was also a breath of fresh air compared to the last book I read. Taryn and Niressa are both fiercely independent and largely unapologetic for who they are as people. As such, they are honest with both themselves and each other about what they're feeling, and that includes their feelings for each other. This means their relationship progresses quickly, perhaps, but the relationship also starts off in a negative place, so it still takes most of the book to form fully.
Which brings up my issue with the previous book, pacing. Treasured doesn't have an issue with pacing. It's always reasonable for Taryn and Niressa to be feeling what they're feeling. Occasionally new developments will happen that change those feelings a little. When their feelings change, they don't bottle it up, they act accordingly (with one understandable exception). In other words, the relationship is always progressing; it never stalls out or locks up.
As for the tone of the relationship, it's interesting to see the chemistry that builds between two confident women. I can't say it's something I remember seeing before. And although I can't picture myself in a relationship like that since I'm not a wholly confident woman myself, the relationship felt very smooth and right, because it was always obviously something both of them wanted, and they were experiencing it in the ways they wanted.
The Mystery
As a reminder, this is a recurring segment to talk about the "what happens next!?" factor of the book. As it turns out, though it's not a mystery book, Treasured actually has a solid amount of this factor!
Like I said, Treasured doesn't have an issue with pacing. There is always something new happening. I attribute this to the fact that there are multiple kingdoms involved in the plot, and multiple individuals within those kingdoms each operating according to their own interests, and our protagonists aren't always aware of what those interests are. No one agrees on what the ideal end point is, so everyone keeps pushing things in different directions--and then some of those individual actors start changing their minds on what the ideal end point is.
It keeps everything compelling enough to want to see where it's going, but it's also spaced out enough that it never feels too complicated to keep track of, at least to me. (Then again, I was keeping notes.)
The Downside, such as it is
Treasured was a fun read, but perhaps as a consequence of that fact, it was not a deep read. It's refreshing to see characters who know what they want, but this meant that people didn't often do torn introspection on what's important to them, or what it meant for them to be feeling certain things. Most of my personal engagement with the book had less to do with emotional complexity and more to do with action, intrigue, and of course sex.
I enjoyed Treasured more than Remember Me, but even so, I couldn't help but notice that Remember Me offered me opportunities for reflecting on my own thoughts on morality and emotion that Treasured didn't do as much. Not that Treasured didn't do it at all, but it's making me wonder what it is I'm really hoping to get out of the books I read.
...I'm also not sure how much of the reason I liked the book was just because one of the protagonists was a dragon.
Summary
Again, it was a fun read, not a deep read. But it still did a good job of being a fun read from beginning to end. It kept things moving, and it was nice to see these two particular women get together in the ways they did. If "eventful" is enough for you and you don't mind that the book isn't necessarily standout special, then sure, give it a shot.
Or if you like sapphic dragons, give it a shot. I get the impression that these kinds of romances are in short supply.