The Light in Front of Me by Aria Howell

Rating: 4/5, good

Full disclosure: This is my partner’s book and I edited it.

The Light in Front of Me by Aria Howell is an LGBT high fantasy book. It’s about Valerie, the princess of a kingdom called Rayleth, who is engaged to marry Eliot, the prince of Va’cerio. Valerie and Eliot have been good friends since childhood, but Valerie’s not attracted to Eliot romantically. She’s not against the marriage, but her heart is elsewhere, with her female knight Luce (full name Lucia).

Eliot and his family, the other two Va’cerio princes, the brooding Leone and childlike Dante, visit for a festival celebration, but after the celebration Eliot gets spirited away by a sorceress. Since Valerie was the only one with Eliot when he got kidnapped the Va’cerio family suspects her of killing Eliot. Valerie and Luce flee the castle and embark on a mission to rescue Eliot from his captors.

On the way they meet Lyn, a nonbinary kitsune healer. Lyn can be blunt and funny but they have a more thoughtful side too. They struggled with figuring out their gender identity and sharing it with their family and village. They explain their experience of being nonbinary: “I don’t… feel male or female. I’ve finally felt a sense of ease, that everything is right, if I don’t hold myself to either. So, I changed my name a bit to reflect that.” I think nonbinary readers could probably relate to them, and for people who haven’t seen they/them pronouns used often, Lyn’s treatment is a good example of how to use they/them pronouns correctly (not “they is” but “they are” – the verb is still conjugated).

So there’s a lesbian princess and knight, a nonbinary fox person, and a trans character (actually two…) but I won’t spoil it. 😉

There’s definitely a lot of LGBT representation and it’s a lighthearted fantasy story without any pushback or bigotry from the surrounding characters or society. The LGBT characters are pretty much accepted without any issue, which might feel unrealistic to some people, but to others it will be a welcome break from other stories that tend to focus on gay struggle instead of gay joy.

The plot has a journey-and-battles type of structure that’s common in fantasy literature, video games, and anime, but it’s woven together with coming out stories and romance. There’s a lot of attention paid to martial arts and combat strategies (spears vs swords, the difficulty of aerial combat). There are some good fight scenes and interesting meditations on the gravity of violence vs the fantasy of being a hero.

If I have one critique, it is that while there’s a good balance of dark and light in this book it’s not mixed very well. The darkest moments don’t seem to fit in the same book with the silly moments. Because of the extremity of the dark scenes, the silly scenes can come off as insensitive and because of the extremity of the silly/happy scenes, the dark scenes can come off as gratuitous.

The book does bely the author’s anime inspirations, which can be a pro or a con depending on your preference. If you don’t like anime tropes like plot-relevant eye or hair colors in your fantasy, you might not be into this, but if you’re open to it I think you’ll find yourself enjoying the characters, humor, and romance. Valerie and Luce’s dedication to each other is heartwarming and the plot has some interesting twists and turns that will keep you on your toes.

I’d recommend this for people who like fantasy or want to read a happy LGBT book for pride month. 😊