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chaoskirin · 4 years

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Book Review -- The Heartstrikers Series

This is a book review about the first three books in the Heartstrikers Series, which starts with Nice Dragons Finish Last.

I liked these books, but I didn’t love them. It's definitely a solid three stars, and I'll read the last two books to see where it goes. Overall, if you like fantasy with YA elements, you will probably enjoy this series.

This review will contain some minor spoilers in order to justify my rating, with some MAJOR spoilers at the end.

First, the good. The plot is absolutely solid and it's clear the the author had a good idea of what she was going to do before she wrote it. It has a very mobster-type feel which I would expect with the way the dragons are characterized. The writing is occasionally clever and the main character is likable, relatable, and I'm able to empathize with his situation. The author may be projecting a bit as Julius' situation can get a little heavy-handed, but the theme of a found family is definitely present and well-executed.

I love the world that's been created. I'm originally from Detroit, so it was a pleasant surprise to find that the entire first book takes place in a sort of ghost-town version of it. I can picture the descriptions of the houses (I used to work in an old mansion converted in to an office, in fact!) and it's pretty clear that the author is from Detroit, or at least spent a lot of time there. Sometimes it got a little name-droppy as far as locations were concerned, but I kept hoping the author would namedrop the place where I'm from, so it's a fair trade. XD (She did not, sadly, but it was still fun to read about.)

The spirits and how they exist is also very interesting. Algonquin is an amazing villain in the second ant third books, and I can't wait to read more about her and the other spirits in the last two books.

There's also a great amount of action interspersed with the narrative, so that kept things interesting! Some books tend to either get lost in endless exposition or endless action sequences, but this book balances them very well.

Now for the not-so-good.

I picked up the first book expecting dragons. The title is "Nice Dragons Finish Last," after all, and while it's very clear from the description that the main character, Julius, is "sealed," I had hoped that there would be at least some mythological creature action. This is kept to an absolute minimum, though, in favor of dragons in their human shape. It's even a rather contrived "rule" in Detroit that dragons aren't allowed to be there. This trope has become outright cliche... I've been reading books for years and this was a common theme way back in the days of Dragonlance--take an incredibly powerful being and shove them into human shape, but add a coolness factor by calling them a dragon. (I wrote this part after the first book: there's much more ACTUAL dragon action in books 2 and 3. I still wish there was more.)

But they aren't really dragons. They think like humans, they act like humans, they seem to have the same emotions as humans... Except for another fantasy trope, which is taking every member of a species and shoving them into a single alignment (lawful evil in this case). Julius is the one exception, so it's a very Drizzt Do'urden situation and it's always been odd to me that every member of a species could be evil/good just because of what they are. (this is especially a problem with goblins and rampant antisemitism, but that's another discussion entirely.)

It's a problem that allows justified racism. If the entirety of one species is mean, it's really easy to make everyone hate them, and you lose the nuance of what real racism is. I would suggest that people not write about racism unless they've either experienced it or they've consulted with members of their community who have been the target of it. This becomes more of a problem in the second and third books when Julius is trying to prove that Not All Dragons Are Bad. And it becomes clear that both humans and spirits are very racist against dragons, but it completely lacks the reality of what racism really is. As one poster on tumblr said, "racism isn't just one species being mean to another."

Essentially, it puts all dragons on an uphill battle against everyone else, fails to become a proper allegory, and discards depth and warmth.

A small problem that I should mention is that sometimes plot points sort of fade? There was a situation where Julius' mom visits and he was very mean to Marci, and she was very upset about that, but it's never actually addressed. It sort of fizzles and ends and then everything moves on. It should have at least been mentioned and tied up.

Another problem is repetitiveness or filler text. When I'm going through beta reading for my books, I ask my readers to tell me ANY TIME they skim over text. When your readers are skimming, what you've written isn't interesting, and it has to be changed. I found myself doing this a lot in this book. I forced myself to read back and see what I've skimmed over, and it was usually information I'd already read being presented in a slightly different way. My advice would be to allow the readers to infer information without explaining it into the ground. One thing I would avoid is the discussion of plans before executing said plans--even if they ultimately go wrong. It's enough to say that your protagonist HAS a plan, then let the text speak for itself. These planning phases were what I tended to skip the most.

I can supply one sample of repetitiveness without spoiling the story too badly: One of the main characters is talking with a dragon character about a plan at the beginning-ish of book 3. And breaking the text down to its basics, it goes like this:

Amelia: You have to. Marci: I don't know... Amelia: But you have to. Marci: I don't know... Amelia: You really should do this. Marci: I don't know... Amelia: It's a good idea. Marci: Okay I'll do it. Amelia: Are you sure? Marci: Yes I'll do it. Amelia: Are you sure???

And the argument became VERY spread out over the whole chapter, interspersed with the same explanation of why Marci Should Do The thing, most of which I ended up skimming to the part where Marci ultimately accepted Amelia's idea.

Another chapter I skipped was in book 3 where two human characters had lunch with Marci. And as soon as it became clear they were discussing stuff Marci basically already knew, I just skipped the whole chapter. It was an unnecessary bit of writing that could have been summarized in one or two paragraphs instead. I went back and actually read it later. I didn't miss anything.

(my examples are from the third book because I just finished it and it's the freshest in my mind, but this is an issue in the first two books as well.)

I think there's a certain amount of realism in conversations like this. The problem is that your readers have already figured out where something is going, and they want to get there. If the author reads this, my suggestion would be this: Sometimes it's okay to cut events out when they're uninteresting. If you hate writing it, and your beta readers hate reading it, it can go. I wouldn't follow the advice that you should cut out EVERYTHING irrelevant to the plot, because sometimes it's fun to have fun, but the extra boring tedium can be safely summarized.

Next, Marci.

I first want to state here that my PREFERENCE is writing female characters. Most of my characters are women. And I understand there are a lot of readers who outright dislike all female characters, but I'm not one of them. I feel like that's an important thing to state before going into more detail about my issues with Marci.

I wanted to read more of the series before posting this review, because I felt Marci was a shallow character after book one. She felt like a female character who was STRONG, but NOT a strong female character.

And through the first book, she felt like a prop to the other main character, Julius, instead of a character all her own. (And to be fair, her ENTIRE story from the first book is sort of... hand-waved in books 2 and 3.)

In the first book, Marci isn't really written with a story arc. She's a sort of deus ex machina for Julius; she appears into his life mysteriously as he's looking for a mage, first of all. And while it SEEMS that she does have her own arc, it becomes clear by the end of the story that she's only a catalyst for the dragons' stories. The thing she's protecting eventually ends up in the hands of the dragons; she's essentially just a walking suitcase for them. She's a roadblock for the villains. And there's not even a true explanation of Why She Has The Thing They Want except that it's really cool and she wants it.

This alone may have prevented me from reading the rest of the series, but I'm VERY glad I did--While Marci has a slow start, her story does pick up in the second and third books and she becomes much more likeable. She still feels like a prop at times (other characters refer to her as a "weapon" even) but within that description, she's fighting her own battles and has become much less shallow.

I do wish she had more agency. I wish her decisions truly felt like hers, instead of the manipulations/machinations of those with higher power. But she's not the worst-written female character I've ever read, and the author makes it clear in the second and third books that she knows how to write good female characters (cough chelsie cough) so I can forgive Marci's shortcomings.

There's one Bad thing that I want to address, too, which mostly came up at the end of book 2 and throughout book 3. And this is a fairly major spoiler, I'm sorry.

You don't give a tyrannical dictator power after you defeat her. You just don't. Julius could have banished his mother if he refused to kill her. He could have let someone else kill her. He could have done any number of things. But the first thing he does is give her a seat on the new council and is just like "yes you still get to make decisions." And as you can imagine, this goes very wrong.

And book 3 is FULL of Julius refusing to let his brothers and sisters kill anyone, even when it's justified. This has always been a trope that rankled... You can't write about a coup and then have nobody die. It suggests that genocidal dictators Can Change If You Give Them The Right Opportunities, and we all know from real life that that doesn't happen. Tyrannical people in power will fight to keep that power. They don't learn. And props to the author for showing that these people don't learn, but... seriously, you don't keep people around who actively want to kill you.

I was so annoyed with Julius by the end of book 3, and the hoops the writing had to jump through to show his decision was good and right. He felt naive and almost stupid. And (VERY major spoiler here, just stop reading if you don't want the end of book 3 spoiled!)

...

Julius' mother had enslaved his sister for hundreds of years. When the sister was released, she immediately tried to kill her mother.

This would have justified ALL of Julius' actions up until that point if he'd just LET HER. Bethesda hurt Chelsie the most out of ANY Of her children. It would have been a PERFECT way to allow Chelsie to get her well-deserved revenge AND end the problem of Bethesda (who REALLY deserves to die.) And Julius made her stop, because That's Not How We're Doing Things Anymore.

I don't like that Bethesda is effectively not paying for the thousands of atrocities she committed over the last thousand years because the main character is a pacifist. It just doesn't sit right. And IDK if the author is building to Bethesda's death in the last couple books or not, but letting Chelsie kill her would have been the PERFECT end, and I'm really disappointed. No end for Bethesda would have been better than that.

Anyway.

As I said at the beginning of this review, I still recommend reading the series. It's a really interesting urban fantasy-type book, and while it crosses into YA territory, the fantasy aspect is interesting enough to keep me reading.

#book review #heartstrikers series #nice dragons finish last #fantasy #young adult fiction #not bestiary

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aegonbeingfakeisracist · 4 years

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i was tagged by @dornishwaterbender...a while ago...and then I forgot it was in my drafts...I’m great at this, huh.

Rules: Tag people who you want to know better/catch up with and then answer these questions.

3 ships: Arianne/Daemon (ASOIAF), Chelsie/Xian (Heartstrikers), Scott/Jean (X-Men)

Last song: Which Side Are You On

Last movie: Um...I don’t remember. Damn. Guess I just haven’t had much patience for movies lately.

Currently reading: I recently finished Sorcerer to the Crown. It was kind of weird, but I liked it.

Currently watching: I’ve been on episode 31 of The Untamed for about the past two months? And have not managed to finish it because roadblock right in the middle.

Currently craving: Fries with rosemary and garlic.

tagging: Tumblr is being a pain and not letting me tag the people I’m trying to? Though this one might not actually be Tumblr’s fault, might be search index settings. Either way, everyone should do this, I like seeing all your answers.

#personal

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howlsmovinglibrary · 6 years

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The Heartstriker series by Rachel Aaron

This series may be the most Hufflepuff thing to ever exist.

Julius Heartstriker (my pure, cinnamon roll son) is one of the youngest dragons in the Heartstriker clan, the largest and perhaps most ruthless dragon clan on earth. The problem is that Julius...is not ruthless. He’s way too nice, and soon someone (probably his mother) is going to kill him for it.

But Julius is part of a larger plan - a piece set up and protected by his seer brother Brohomir - and it might just be his niceness that makes him an excellent tool in determining the outcome of Earth’s future, and perhaps give him the power to change the dragon world.

Perfect if you like urban fantasy, dragons, atypical protagonists, and a balance between character focused and epic fantasy (complete with prophecies, seer plots, and apocalyptic threats).

I picked up this book because twitter termed it “the least toxic example of masculinity in fiction” and honestly...that’s all you need to know. Julius is such an amazing, lovely character who is just...nice? And while every other character tries to code that niceness as weakness, he manages to be just as badass as every jerkass male protagonist you’ve ever read, without ever descending into jerkassery. No matter how awesome and powerful he becomes, he never lets it compromise his moral compass. It’s a breath of fresh air to have a powerful and competent male protagonist without him having to be an asshole.

And then there’s the female characters. Julius might be the protagonist, but nearly every other major character is a woman. There’s Marci, his human mage partner-in-crime who literally levels up at twice the rate he does. There’s Chelsie, his awesome assassin elder sister who is (IMO) the most complex character in the series and basically gets an entire book to herself, and Amelie, his awesome plane-traversing (queer) mage elder sister. And that’s not anywhere near reaching the end of the list.

Equal! Partnership! between! male! and! female! leads!! No sidekicks to be found here!!!!!

Just a completely dismantling of “court intrigue”. Julius calls out any and all nonsensical, counter-productive, and abusive behaviours that everyone else sees as the only way to succeed. Basically the true source of strength in this series is diplomacy.

The writing style is also just...really funny? I laughed aloud on multiple occasions.

And guys! GUYS! I haven’t even TOUCHED ON THE STORY OR THE WORLDBUILDING. Do you enjoy prophecies, and like the idea of all-powerful seers warring against each other to try and make their futures a reality? Worlds in which magic has only just returned and humans, dragons, and spirits are all vying for dominance? Dragon hunters, a UN magical task force, and interdimensional threats? Loads of cool dragon clans with cool awesome dragon powers? This book has so much going on, it’s freaking insane.

#why you should read #heartstrikers #rachel aaron #nice dragons finish last #julius heartstriker #urban fantasy #book recs #fantasy book recs #books with dragons #favourite books #bookish #booklr

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pers-books · 7 years

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The Heartstrikers Series – Rachel Aaron (Spoilers)

Julius Heartstriker, youngest son of Bethesda Heartstriker, is a Nice Dragon. Which is a bit of a problem when ‘nice’ is seen as weak, and the rest of your family considers you a disgrace to dragonkind. Instead of going out into the world and carving a place for himself, as any proper dragon would, Julius prefers to keep his head down and hang out in his room, playing online games with humans (whom most dragons consider as either playthings or pets), or taking online classes in every subject imaginable.

Finally tiring of her wayward son and his lack of draconic traits, Bethesda storms into Julius’ room, seals his magic (meaning he cannot transform into a dragon but is forced to remain in his human form) and dumps him in the DFZ: the Detroit Free Zone, a notoriously lawless city (think Chicago during the Capone years) which is run by the dragon-hating Water Spirit, Algonquin aka, The Lady of the Lakes. He stays one night on the couch in his sister Jessica’s apartment (Jessica is a doctor and is fully expected to be running her own hospital within a few short years) then his mother gives him a task – prove himself to be a proper dragon (which generally means ripping people off for one’s own gain, rather than ripping people’s heads-off in this near-future setting), or she’ll eat him. Oh, and he’s only got a month to do this – and because his dragon is sealed, he cannot access his fire or magic – so he’ll have to find ways around the limits Bethesda’s imposed on him.

He is tasked with helping his older brother Ian’s girlfriend Svena to retrieve her wayward sister, Katya. Like Julius, Katya is the youngest of the Three Sisters Clan of dragons, and also something of a disappointment to her family. Rather than hiding in her room, however, Katya runs away a lot. Svena wants to bring her back home and via Ian, tasks Julius with the job, giving him a silver chain with a spell on it to placate Katya. Julius has to put the chain on Katya and then Svena will be able to collect her sister and take her home. Unsurprisingly, Julius is reluctant, but agrees to the task because he wants to be allowed to return to his own home, and to have his dragon form unsealed again.

To the surprise of almost everyone (certainly to Bethesda’s, and even to Julius’), the ‘Nice Dragon’ not only survives the quest he’s given, but he manages to broker a relationship between his clan and that of the Three Sisters, the oldest clan of dragons (all of whom are female), rather than getting eaten as nearly everyone, including Julius, was expecting.

From here, Julius goes on to overthrow his mother (a move that definitely surprises Julius as well as the rest of the Heartstrikers) – but instead of doing the obviously draconic thing of killing his mother and putting her head on a spike somewhere to terrify the rest of the Heartstrikers into obedience, he has her dragon form sealed (a tiny bit of poetic justice!), and instead proposes forming a three dragon Council to run their clan so that it can be run in a manner that encourages dragons to concentrate on what they’re good at, instead of encouraging them to destroy each other. This is also considered very un-draconic, of course, but Julius got the idea from humans and he introduces his clan (who are all very powerful, properly draconic dragons) to the concept of elections and doing things democratically so that they can become even more successful in their various enterprises instead of being subject to the whims of their mother Bethesda, who punishes any dragon against whom she takes by sending her daughter Chelsie – the clan enforcer – to punish or kill them.

Julius is aided and abetted by the human Mage, Marci – who is extremely talented and capable – and by his oldest brother, Bob, formally Brohomir, the Heartstrikers’ Seer who has made Julius the lynchpin of a fantastically convoluted plot to improve the lot of all dragons, not just the Heartstrikers. Bob, in turn, is aided by the eldest of the Heartstriker dragons, Amelia who, like Bob, is the only surviving member of her particular clutch – Bethesda, unusually, produced large clutches of eggs at regular intervals, leading to much snide commentary from other dragons who often referred to her as ‘the Broodmare’. Amelia is also known as the Planeswalker as she spends very little time in ‘our’ reality, since she fears Bethesda will pre-emptively kill her, rather than let Amelia challenge Bethesda for the leadership of their clan (which Amelia doesn’t want!). Bob is also, somewhat more reluctantly, aided by Chelsie, the clan enforcer, who is one of the only two remaining members of C-clutch (Bethesda gave her children alphabetical names running from A-clutch through to J-clutch).

Aaron’s Heartstrikers series successfully inverts the toxic masculinity trope by allowing Julius to succeed at whatever he turns his attention to without using violence or treating other beings (humans, dragons, Spirits) as disposable to be used and then dropped. Of course, Julius does not have it easy – during the course of the series both Marci and Amelia die. And while their deaths aren’t permanent (this is a world with magic, after all), they nevertheless have a significant impact on Julius. He and Marci have fallen in love – though, being a Nice Dragon, Julius has largely kept his feelings to himself – and his grief at Marci’s loss is palpable throughout the chapters that follow (he literally takes to his bed and won’t stir until, eventually, he is forced to do so by his older siblings).

Julius is a self-sacrificing noble Nice Dragon – he literally dies to save Algonquin, despite the fact that she hates dragons. He insists on going to talk to her in the hopes of saving her from the Leviathan, a Nameless End – an extra-planar being from outside of ‘our’ reality which is quite literally destroying our reality. The Leviathan has infested all of Algonquin’s waters, meaning she will soon die as the Leviathan is sucking up all of her water which, being a Water Spirit, she needs in order to survive. However, Julius knows that she can make use of dragon blood at a pinch, so after talking to her, and establishing that she would not use the Leviathan again if given a second chance, he swallows the last of her Leviathan-infested water, then as the Leviathan destroys him from the inside, Algonquin flows out of Julius into the pool of blood that’s forming on the ground in front of him from the Leviathan ripping his body apart, and she takes Marci to safety, at Julius’ request, and Julius is killed by the Leviathan.

But while a dragon’s body can be destroyed quite easily, it’s harder to destroy a dragon’s fire – which is the core, essential part of a dragon in the same way that the soul is supposed to be the core, essential part of a human. Bob is able to capture Julius’ fire before it goes out, and he, with the help of many more dragons (not all of them Heartstrikers, and one of them his mother Bethesda, whom Julius – and pretty much everyone else! – had thought still despised him for being a Nice Dragon instead of a blood-thirsty predator) is able to restore Julius back to life by the dragons giving him the magic of their fire.

In the end, all’s well that ends well – Julius and Marci get married, and Dragonkind across the world agrees to work together instead of working against each other, with Julius taking over running the DFZ so that it’s no longer a lawless city, and Marci becoming the Archmage (but without the usual long white beard!).

Note: Last Dragon Standing is not out until March 1 – I was fortunate to read an ARC of it.

The Heartstrikers Series - Rachel Aaron (Spoilers) Julius Heartstriker, youngest son of Bethesda Heartstriker, is a Nice Dragon.

#Author: Rachel Aaron #Books #Fiction: Urban Fantasy #Reviews #Series: Heartstrikers #The Monday Review

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words-writ-in-starlight · 4 years

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*wakes up hazily from pain-nap*

Sometimes Xian delays meetings so that he can sit with Chelsie while she sleeps because his luck works better at close quarters and she only sleeps well when his luck is good, because it makes him happy to know she's sleeping without nightmares.

#heartstriker #heartstriker series #dfz #dfz series #chelsie heartstriker #qilin xian #like...he's tender with her is what I'm saying here #chelsie is kept scrupulously unaware of the fact that the golden empire ticks over on her sleep schedule #chelsie tries to work up anxiety about xian's luck affecting her that way (her first alarmed thought is that it's mind control) but....#she never does anything she doesnt want anymore #and xian shrugs helplessly and says he can't NOT be happy to keep her nightmares away #and she decides that she can live with this #anyway if i could draw i would draw chelsie heartstriker in empress' robes #the song 'battle cry' by imagine dragons kneecapped me so hard about chelsie that im still coughing up bits of patella #I'm going back to sleep now everything hurts and i have to get up so early for bloodwork tomorrow

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lyreofsheliak · 7 years

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About the Heartstriker council...

We know that one seat is elected from the Fangs, one from the rest of the clan, and one belongs to Bethesda in perpetuity.

What happens if she dies? Is there a contingency for that? (The constitution is both absolutely gigantic and written by a seer, so I kind of assume the answer is “if it’s going to be an issue, yes.” And plotwise I have no idea if I think she’s going to survive the series or not. Or if she’s going to regain her dragon form, for that matter.)

So, who is her heir in that situation?

The wielder of her own Fang? There’s a certain logic to that, but I have a hard time imagining any introduced character taking it—maybe David, or even Ian, but I have a tough time imagining it.

Her killer, if they’re a Heartstriker? Julius is unlikely to let that happen; he loathes her, but if he didn’t let his favorite sister, the one who’s suffered the most at her hands, kill her, he’s certainly not letting anyone else do it.

The dragon who would have been her heir, if the council hadn’t happened? Well, that’s complicated...

Amelia’s technically a possibility, but only technically. She’s not dead anymore, but she is a Mortal Spirit, and there’s probably a conflict of interest in making the goddess of all dragons a leader of a single clan. And besides, it’s pretty well established that she really doesn’t want the job.

If not Amelia, though, who is Bethesda’s heir?

The established upper-alphabet dragons, other than Amelia, are Bob, Chelsie, Conrad, and David.

Bob and Conrad have both already refused to be on the council; I can’t see those answers changing. David wants the job; Chelsie... might also want it, actually. She heartily dislikes the clan other than Julius, the Fs, and possibly Amelia; but since Fredrick picked up her old Fang, the rest of F-clutch is probably going to stay in Heartstriker to support him. And I can see her wanting power; even when the matter of the Fang’s seat first came up, she said that if not for Bethesda’s control over her she’d like being on the council.

Julius confirms, during the latest book, that most dragon clans are ruled by their “matriarchs”; it’s not clear if this is a hard-and-fast rule, but male clan heads are rare enough to make the Golden Emperor an oddity. Chelsie is both the oldest “surviving” daughter and possibly the only one with children of her own; since her children actually like her, she’s got a built-in power base now that they’re free. She also has a terrifying personal reputation of her own, which could only be an asset to a clan head. (Not to mention the clout of being the Golden Emperor’s beloved.)

And if Chelsie and David are the two contenders, I really can’t see David getting the job. So... if Bethesda does die, I’m betting that Chelsie gets the “permanent” seat on the clan council.

#heartstrikers #bethesda the heartstriker #amelia the planeswalker #chelsie heartstriker #bob heartstriker #sheliak speculates

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words-writ-in-starlight · 4 years

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Y'all I'm almost done with A Dragon of a Different Color and I want to scream about Chelsie/Xian until I fucking die

Also, the DFZ started throwing skyscrapers and I lost my shit like a fan at a sportball game, THAT'S MY BABY AND I'M VERY PROUD OF HER. GET ALGONQUIN'S ASS.

#dfz #dfz series #heartstriker #heartstriker series #chelsie heartstriker #THINGS I WAS RIGHT ABOUT: ALGONQUIN'S PLAN FOR THE DFZ #CHELSIE #F CLUTCH (we fucking STAN fredrick heartstriker in this house gents)#AMELIA #i love these BOOKS holy shit #if i lived in this universe the qilin himself could not stop me from moving to the DFZ immediately and without hesitation #i dont give two shits if my city moves my apartment every third day! I'll live in rentfree motherfuckers! I'll be a cleaner!#catch me rolling up to the dfz and Figuring It Out from there!!!!!!

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words-writ-in-starlight · 4 years

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I have come up with two COMPLETELY distinct Librarians AUs of the DFZ in the past hour, so hear me out:

ONE

Head Librarian Opal Yong-ae, Guardian Nikola Kos, immortal knight Chelsie, Librarianettes Julius, Fredrick, and Marci, also guest starring Qilin Xian as His Own Damn Self, Chelsie’s long-lost love interest. Did I come up with Librarian!Opal/Guardian!Nik purely because I like the idea of Nik trying to ride herd on the Chaos Crew? Yes. Also because I love their canonical Genius Glass Canon/Determinator Bodyguard dynamic.

This one runs a little more like Parent Trap than anything else. The gang finds out about Xian during the Apple of Discord episode and Chelsie spends a significant amount of time trying to put them off while they ferret out who she is (she’s hiding in the Library because her geas doesn’t quite work, although it doesn’t quite not work, under its aegis), with very minimal success. The second they have evidence of Chelsie/Xian (Fredrick is even a descendant!), the entire gang immediately makes it top priority and contrives a lot of reasons to request the presence of the Golden Emperor’s emissary in hopes of finding another excuse to get Xian in a room with Chelsie again.

TWO

Cut the middle man and go straight for Head Librarian Xian, Guardian Chelsie, immortal weirdo Bob, and Librarianettes Julius, Opal, and Marci. In which Chelsie was Xian’s Guardian some time ago, but after Certain Events (ft the Empress Mother as caretaker Charlene but shitty), she left, and the Library couldn’t call a new Guardian when there was already one knocking around the world resisting the pull. But when things started to go wrong, and Xian’s safety starts to degrade, Bob picked up on it and arranged to help the Library get around the caretaker in order to get Chelsie back, by any means necessary.

The real issue is, Algonquin is murdering her way through Librarian candidates, and they end up with the three surviving top candidates. Julius, who ran away from the Heartstriker family and barely remembers Chelsie except as his fearsome much-older sister, has been hiding his Librarian-level intellect under fake names and a self-effacing smile. Opal, whose dazzling array of knowledge is complicated by a brain tumor that causes extensive synesthesia and headaches (hello, backlash equivalent!). And Marci, who is extremely brilliant and also an outstandingly good thief.

This is still kind of a parent trap, as Xian comes back now and then and the Librarianettes try to strong-arm him and Chelsie into working together, but there’s also more focus on Algonquin--and also Algonquin’s pet magically bound warrior, Nikola Kos. Opal and Marci’s magical talents are dramatically different, but it’s Opal who manages to smash through the geas on Nik and badger Chelsie into letting her bring him into the Library crew.

#librarians #dfz #dfz series #heartstriker #heartstriker series #librarians au #chelsie heartstriker #qilin xian #chelxian? NO WAIT #XIANSIE #also starring opal/nik #spot my favorite ships and characters ha #chelsie and xian are my whole heart and passion in the heartstriker books #me and one gf are showing the other gf and the bf the librarians and we're having a great time #and i obviously went 'you know what would work great???? IF I USED THIS TO TALK ABOUT CHELSIE/XIAN'#also because i think julius and opal would actually be TIGHT if she wasn't. you know. petrified of him.#now see i'm torn because ON THE ONE HAND immortal knight!chelsie is absolutely *chef kiss* outstanding #and it would allow me to have xian as Literally Just His Own Self which is kind of fun #but ON THE OTHER HAND like...the TENSION...the LONGING...the MUTUAL PAIN AND HURT...of them having to work together #long term #to protect these three young geniuses that they can't leave to die #in which marci once asked why chelsie didn't just kiss xian full on the face when he came back #and chelsie made her do pushups until she couldn't stand up and julius had to half-carry her into the kitchen for water #A L S O both the opal/nik dynamics here are so choice. i can't decide which i like better.

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