Especially if you enjoyed Running Close to the Wind or Apparently Sir Cameron Needs to Die, I urge you to check out the latest pathetic wet little gremlin gay book, The Traitor and the Wretch, available here: https://www.bonedustpress.com/shop
It's about taking two unlikable character tropes and creating a slow burn enemies to lovers dark fantasy road trip. In this book we meet Percy, right hand to the Chosen One turned traitor, on the run after losing his hand when he tried to kill the Prophesied Hero during the Climactic Battle. Percy's life is saved by Knell, one of the cultist followers of the chaos god that the Chosen One was prophesied to defeat, on a whim to basically do one good thing before he died.
Percy is scarred, grumpy, and says what's on his mind. He doesn't have time for bullshit. He's loyal to whomever earns his loyalty. He's brash and bold and makes snap judgements. He's an ultra-competent ranger and fighter. And he does. Not. Trust. Knell.
Knell is soaking wet, pathetic, rat of an ex-cultist. A thief and career criminal who can't remember much beyond the murmurings of a chaos god wrecking havoc in his mind. He's adapted to live underground in the dark with graying skin, glowing eyes, and a penchant for eating poison unaffected. He's decided to do one bit of good with his life, and that's saving Percy, even if Percy turns around and kills him for it. Because the heavily scarred warrior looked kind as he was lying in a hole in the ground dying from his wounds.
For survival, the two set out to escape the reach of the Kingdom, for which Percy has become the Most Wanted due to his betrayal and Knell faces an automatic death sentence for being the god's cultist, something impossible to hide due to how it's permanently morphed his looks. The two must figure out how to work together if they stand any chance of making it out.
Now, it's not exactly a comedy like the other recs, but the characters are so endearingly dense about themselves that I found it full of quiet humor.
Despite being the unlikable tropes, I dare you not to fall in love with these characters, who will grow and discover themselves throughout the course of the book. How can you not enjoy a killing machine death god cultist being a babygirl who's just genuinely pleased that the big, strong, handsome, kind man he saved is actually trusting him to march ahead with a knife prodded at his back because 'that's just reasonable'? All while the big, strong, handsome, kind man is stomping behind flinching every two seconds at the thought of a giant bug falling on him (again) and trying not to let that make him seem weak or vulnerable to the cultist he's absolutely terrified of because he can seeming kill men on a whim? Featuring such excitement as "we must share the bed" trope even though they're in a cave with no bed, utter protectiveness, attacking cave spiders, good food as a way to show care and affection, characters not realizing how damn powerful they actually are, characters being absolutely unable to see how desired they are, lots of casual thieving, so many forehead kisses, and purposefully ingesting poison to save someone else.
There is also an aspec character, adding yet another intriguing layer to the development of this relationship. I truly think tumblr would love this book if they gave it a chance.
tangentwithtanner
