Just devoured the Nine Realms series by Sarah Kozloff.
Once I started these I couldn’t put them down. I’m pretty sure I read all four over the span of about two weeks. I read a lot, but that’s pretty fast for me. I first saw someone linked to a ridiculed New York Times piece about these books, and ended up picking them up.
The basic story is a fantasy world divided into nine countries. Each country has a patron Spirit/God, and the Spirit takes a more or less active role in the country depending on their whims. The main character, Cérulia, is a princess of about 8 when one of her country’s councilors tries to assassinate her mother the Queen. Each Queen gets a magical gift of varying utiltiy. The Queen’s is Enchantment - she can make someone forget things. Cérulia’s is the ability to speak to animals.
Forced into hiding to escape the traitorous councillor, she grows up on a farm in a much less pampered lifestyle, while her mother tries to win her throne back (by fighting pirates!). As the series progresses, one of the nations, Oromondo, invades another and makes war. Cérulia leaves the farm and, taking a series of more on-the-nose bird-based pseudonyms, joins the fight. She meets up with a band of raiders who are attempting to cause trouble in Oromondo, and uses her magical gifts to help in various ways. (Turns out birds are excellent scouts, but not so good at counting men or caring how far a horse can ride in a day.)
THe animals add a lot of levity to the series, and Kozloff does a good job balancing them being useful with being animals. (Camels just want scritches. So many scritches.)
I have a few plot quibbles, but nothing major. Cérulia’s mother, Cressa, runs away very quickly to kick off the plot. A few magical items show up at the point most opportune. Once Cérulia becomes Queen, she uproots the years-long conspiracy very quickly.
Overall, this series was great, moved fast, and was well plotted. All the books were finished before publishing started, so they were published over the course of six months or so.