Slow, deliberate, deeply character-driven, and definitively queer, Lady Hotspur is a follow-up to The Queens of Innis Lear, with events occurring a few generations later

When I first read The Queens of Innis Lear, I was absolutely enchanted. So when I found out that Tessa Gratton was going to write another book set in the same world, I couldn’t wait to pick it up. Unfortunately, I just wasn’t able to sink into Lady Hotspur the same way I was able to with The Queens of Innis Lear. While I loved the characters and the politics were fascinating, this one just felt incredibly long. I found myself putting it down for months at a time, only to pick it back up and make it through a few more chapters. However, I was generally struggling to focus on longer, more dense novels during the pandemic so I think this is likely a case of it’s me, not the book, I definitely plan on picking this one up again in a few years, but for now, I think I’ll finally put this one aside.

Love a good gender-bending fantasy tale. I couldn't get enough of the characters and plot lines. Tessa Gratton remains one of my favorite authors

I have elected not to read and review this book due to time constraints. Thank you for the opportunity.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and it definitely should not have taken me as long to read this book as it did (but such is life). I loved the relationship dynamics we see in this book and the diversity of relationships. And there is enough plot happening as well if you aren’t as into romance or relationships. This book does not immediately follow the events of the first book, so while reading the first book would help understand who these people are that keep getting mentioned, I don’t think that it is necessarily a requirement if you believe this plot is more appealing.

I tried reading this several times, because I was so, so excited about this novel! However, I never made it farther than about 80 pages, because it was so slow paced. I felt like someone was telling me what I should think of Lady Hotspur, and it didn't fit with what little I learnt about her.

It took me a very long time to read The Queens of Innis Lear by Gratton and once I realized I utterly adored her writing I then took forever to get around to the second part of the Innis Lear duology, Lady Hotspur, because I did not want it to end. I so utterly adore this world that Gratton has created that I either blaze through it in one furious reading spurt or have to keep my distance in fear of getting enchanted. So I once again blazed through and now I'm both enthralled and sad it's over. Thanks to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In Aremoria, rebellion has broken out. Celedra is the new Queen, which means her daughter Hal replaces Banna Mora as Prince. With Hotspur at her side, Hal thinks she can see a bright future, even if losing Banna Mora as a friend hits her hard. But then a prophecy comes between the three and destiny, fate, and magic create a crossroads at which the three must meet and decide to future of both Aremora and Innis Lear. I was utterly engaged by this book and actively spaced it out over days so I could get as much enjoyment out of it as possible. Lady Hotspur builds further on the worldbuilding Gratton already did in The Queens of Innis Lear and I continue to be entranced by her world. Taking in High Fantasy and Shakespeare, Gratton spins a tale of friendship, love, and rebellion, full of magic and the threat of war. Now let me rave about our knights and princes for a second!

Banna Mora loses her position as Heir and Prince to Hal and her whole life changes. Who she thought she was, what she thought was hers, where she thought she was going, it's all different now. Or is it? Perhaps more is waiting for her on Innis Lear, sometimes more mysterious. Out of the three I feel she keeps more aloof, even from the reader. There is something unknowable to her, something awe-inspiring that makes you utterly believe that queendom is her right. Hal, my beloved Prince of Riot, drunk, miserable and in love with storytelling, is a highlight for me in this novel. She is utterly torn between the different duties she feels, to her heart, to her mother, to her friends, to the land of Aremoria. Plagued by morbid visions of death and betrayal, her highs are high and her lows are low. Gratton doesn't shy away at any point from portraying Hal's mental struggles, but never lets it undermine her ability to love and inspire, to fight and believe. Hotspur is a raging fire, in every way. She is nurturing, she gives warmth, she is a bright light others look to, she can destroy, maim, and kill. Torn between Banna Mora and Hal, Hotspur knows she has to make a choice, yet everything in her life has felt destined or pre-ordained so far. Being a twist on Shakespeare's Henry IV - Part 1 and Part 2, I really enjoyed the central three women and their relationship.

What else can I say about Tessa Gratton's writing that I haven't already said before? She excels at descriptions which means her lands come alive and form a perfect background for her plot. Her characters are fully real to me, full of fears and hopes, clearly flawed but not beyond redemption. Her characters have to do the work to find themselves, to decide whether the destiny laid out for them is truly for them. It is an utter pleasure to join them for the ride. I also liked that while the Lady Knights are accepted within Aremoria, that does not equate to blanket acceptance. There are consequences to their position, there are still things that are not accepted there. Lady Hotspur goes further in representation than The Queens of Innis Lear did, but it feels natural, like a broadening of the horizon by incorporating multiple points of view. Lady Hotspur is a brick of a book at almost 600 pages, which means that Gratton takes her time with setting up different characters and different storylines. She also takes her time for details, for descriptions, for being in a moment. I absolutely adored that, but it could be that the slower pace and attention to detail may not be for everyone.

I absolutely adored Lady Hotspur and I am distraught that there will be no more Innis Lear books. Full of beautiful moments and fascinating characters, I would heartily recommend Lady Hotspur to anyone looking for a feminist and LGBTQIA+ twist on Fantasy.

Archived before I could read this book unfortunately. I was not able to read this book. Sorry about any inconvenience.

Lady Hotspur is beautifully written and has fantastic representation for the queer community. Unfortunately, the plot just doesn't live up to expectations. It's very heavy which would normally be great for me, but the pace just seemed off and it made the book feel very very long.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles.
I do appreciate it and continue to review books that I get the chance to read.
Thanks again!

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2021 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2021/02/2021-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

This was painfully overwritten in all the wrong ways. I do not need every extraneous detail of every characters life.
It’s possible that I enjoyed this less than someone who has actually read Shakespeare would, but I’m unsure what anyone would love about this book. It’s supposed to be feminist but I cannot fathom how. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone as it’s unnecessarily long, boring, and has no redeeming characters to make it bearable.

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Prince Hal has loved Hotspur since the moment she saw her--on a battlefield, rebelling together against an unjust king. Hal is a terrible prince, afraid of ruling, and hides herself in alcohol and wild parties, while Hotspur is consumed with duty to the land, her family, and her queen. But both women long to make their country better, and that mutual passion for Aremoria and each other ties them together with fire. Though their courtship is fraught with true Shakespearean romance, tragedy, war, redemption, and star-crossed destiny, Hal and Hotspur keep managing to come back to each other.

Lady Hotspur doesn’t cook. She eats what’s put in front of her, whether it be charred meat from an army fire, or fine cream and candied apples at the queen’s table. Hal, on the other hand, loves distraction, and if she had the chance, would concoct a delightful plan to whisk Hotspur away for a date. She’d have to make something simple, that didn’t require many ingredients or delicate timing, and if there was a chance for a dirty joke, that would be icing on the cake. That’s why I think Hal would cook Hotspur cherry dumplings.

Judging by Goodreads, this book has, somewhat to my surprise, been ill-received by those who have read it. Perhaps it’s because of the book’s literary basis, or perhaps it’s the particular type of prose that Gratton uses–which, to be sure, is at times a bit baroque, or maybe it’s just that the author is a woman and the world of fantasy can be a bit unforgiving of female voices.
Allow me to be one of the dissenting voices. I found Lady Hotspur to be by turns moving, beautiful, haunting, and terrifying. It captures what is best about the fantasy genre and, what is just as important, it manages to do all of this in one volume rather than several. While there is pleasure to be had in a sprawling, multi-volume fantasy saga, sometimes you just want to read an epic story in one go.
As she did with her earlier book, here Gratton has reimagined the plays that Shakespeare wrote about Henry IV and Henry V (primarily Henry IV Parts One and Two, as well as Henry V). In the novel, Prince Hal is the daughter of Celedrix, a rebel who has taken the throne of Aremoria for herself. Hal’s best friend and lover is the warrior Lady Hotspur, while her opposite number of Banna Mora, the one-time heir to the throne who ultimately conspires with the folk of the nearby island of Innis Lear, particularly Prince Rowan, to both seize the crown for herself and reunite the sundered realms both politically and magically.
Like Shakespeare’s play, the book is primarily about the fraught relationship between Hal and Hotspur, though though here the gender dynamics are flipped and there is no question that their relationship is intensely physical, indeed sexual. Their love for one another is one of the guiding lights of the story, and I truly enjoyed seeing same-sex love celebrated and for these two women to be given a happy ending.
Indeed, one of the things that I enjoyed most about this book was the fact that not only did it focus on women to an extraordinary degree–still a very rare thing in epic fantasy–it repeatedly emphasized that it is the relationships among and between women that are the most important in this world. Again and again, we are shown how the bonds between women are the glue that hold the various realms together. In addition to her complicated relationship with Hotspur, Hal also has a vexed relationship with her mother Celeda and with the knight Ianta (the novel’s equivalent of Falstaff), while Hotspur has to contend with her own divided nature and her torn loyalties. And, for her part, Banna Mora has to decide whether she wants revenge or justice in her pursuit of the throne of Aremoria.
History hangs heavy on this tale, as the events and characters from The Queens of Innis Lear loom in the background, a reminder of the sacrifices and terrors that have taken place in this world. Some characters that occupied that narrative come back to literally haunt those living in the present, though the novel leaves their identities something of an enigma throughout most of the narrative. However, there’s a unique pleasure to be had in trying to figure out exactly what influence the past is having (some reviewers clearly found this to be a frustrating aspect of the book, but I quite liked it).
The third major strand in the novel is the power of prophecy to determine the actions of those in the present. Do any of us have actual agency, or are our actions always predetermined by the faults in our stars? The novel seems to come down somewhere in the middle. While there are paths that we are fated to tread, and while some of those can have world-shattering consequences, we are also presented with numerous times when the characters forge their own path, when they do what they wish rather than what they are fated to do.
Now, it is true that Lady Hotspur, like The Queens of Innis Lear, can be a difficult read at times. However, I don’t think that this is primarily due to the fact that they reimagine Shakespeare for a modern audience, and there are times when the fit is an odd one. The novel also makes Hal’s shift from reprobate prince to warrior prince a bit abruptly, but that’s also one of the aspects of the original plays. It is also true that there is something slightly strange about Gratton’s prose, a slight stilted-ness that might not be everyone’s cup of tea. However, it is also true that she has astonishing powers of description, and the novel is a deeply sensual one.
If I have one major complaint to make about this book, it’s that it didn’t include a map. It’s not just that I love looking at maps–both real and fantastical–but because it’s very difficult to orient yourself in space while reading a book without a map to give you guidance. For the life of me, I still don’t have a firm idea of where the various countries in this book are located, and while this might be acceptable in a regular piece of fiction, for a fantasy novel that is relying on a totally made-up geography it is incredibly disorienting and frustrating.
All told, however, I really enjoyed Lady Hotspur. It is a testament to Gratton’s abilities as an author that she manages to make Shakespeare new and fascinating for a new generation. The fact that her own mother passed away during the course of her writing the book gives Hal’s confronting of her own mother’s impending mortality an extra emotional charge. While Lady Hotspur might be everyone’s cup of tea, I definitely recommend it to those who want an epic fantasy that focuses on women and that gives us characters that we can cheer for, weep with, and celebrate. This book provides all of that and more.

I had to mark this one as a DNF. I tried to get farther into this story a few times but I just couldn't get into it. It feels like there were other books before it which I did not realize when I requested it . I really wish I could have gotten into it but its not for me

I had such high hopes for this book. I loved Strange Grace, I liked Queens of Innis Lear (for the most part). But this was so convoluted and hard to follow that after spending almost 2 hours reading, I was literally 11% of the way through. It has taken me almost 7 months of picking it up and putting it down to get to almost half way...

So, I think that the three main POVs are supposed to be friends but most of the time, it felt like there was zero love between them. Also Hal seems like a complete twit.

While I so badly wanted to finish this, I just can't. My husband has been telling me for months to just DNF it but I was determined to try. I would usually make sure to blog about anything I have received from the publisher but it would just be 1000 words of me saying this book is extremely confusing and at times very frustrating to comprehend.

Im sure there is an audience out there for this one. Alas I am simply not it

I felt much the same about this as I did about The Queens of Innis Lear - beautifully written, but somehow lacking in substance. I was actually enjoying this one at the beginning, with the flirtations between Prince Hal and Lady Hotspur; it actually seemed like it was going somewhere. But then we returned to Innis Lear and star prophecies and sadly I just lost interest and ended up DNFing it. Still, the prose was really special, and it's a shame that it just seemed to lack in every other respect.

Let’s start by just naming the obvious thing here – how I took 7 months to finish this book. Now, it is huge, there’s no denying that, but then again, so was The Queens of Innis Lear, and I felt like I read that in no time at all.

I spent a lot of time after I finished it wondering why exactly it took me so long. The thing I keep coming back to, is that this feels like a book you should try and read in one go, like on holiday or if you can read for a significant amount of time every day. As it was, I could only read for a short while a day, and every time I left the world for a while, it took me such mental effort to immerse myself back into this complicated world. Ask me to give a synopsis and I’ll struggle – there’s personal and political struggles, betrayal and war, mysticism, expectations versus what ambitions our characters had for their lives, you name it, but it’s difficult to summarize it nicely.

This book is not listed as a sequel to The Queens of Innis Lear, but it’s set in the same world, about 100 years after the events from that book, and features characters that are related to the ones we got to know before. If you haven’t read The Queens of Innis Lear though, I think you will struggle a lot. There is less explanation as to the world, its history, how the magic works, why there are certain customs and rituals, and why certain characters are revered the way they are. I mean, I read and loved The Queens of Innis Lear and I struggled so much to keep track of our new characters, cities and places, and their relationships. Add to that the fact that most people have not just one name, but also titles, nicknames, whatever, and I had to make a chart to keep track!

It’s inspired by of one of Shakespeare’s historical plays, Henry IVth, but I’m not familiar enough with that one to be able to judge the adapting of its themes. It uses some gender-swaps but with the old titles (such as Prince for Hal) which didn’t help my confusion. There are diverse characters in appearance, heritage and sexual inclination, and history to match new parts of the world – I am so intrigued by Charm’s world, I wish we could have a book set there! Though it also confuses me, haha. The writing is rich and flowery, same as for the first book – I know it’s not a sequel but I can’t help but seeing it as such! – but while it drew me in there, in Hotspur it often times veered into so flowery that I had a hard time imaging what exactly was going on.

At the end of the day, I can say that I enjoyed Hotspur, but definitely not as much as I did The Queens of Innis Lear, and I can’t say that I always enjoy the writing style. I spent just a little too much time confused while reading this to rate it higher. I am keen to see more stories from world of Innis Lear and Aremoria, as there is such rich history – but perhaps set in the Third Kingdom?

Tessa Gratton has written another wonderful story, I am suggesting this to all of my friends! Her craftmanship with words is so perfect. She is now an autobuy author for me.

This book was a confusion of names and places and setting from the get go. I barely got a handle on what was going on with one character before we bounced over to a new one. Most of the younger characters, while it seemed like they were nominally adults, came across as very childish. I might go back and read previous books by this author and see if I can get a better feel for her writing, but coming into this book cold, it didn't appeal.