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Rec: Hearthkeeper
Jul. 12th, 2015 01:40 pmCordelia Kingsbridge is an author who gets better with every story she posts. I discovered her work while she was posting Control, which I'd also rec, but her recently completed new story is my favorite so far.
Hearthkeeper by cordelia_kingsbridge
Original Work, 103k, explicit
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Antiheroic Protagonist, Arranged Marriage, BDSM dynamics, Contemporary Fantasy, Cultural Non-Monogamy, elitism, Humiliation, Impact Play, Promiscuity, Substance Abuse/Dependence, Unhealthy Relationships
Summary: Bored and frustrated by the role society has trapped him in, Julian Sharpe searches for any way to break the tedium. But when he’s blackmailed by the Gallevan Intelligence Service into spying on his wealthy husband, Jules’ life gets a little too interesting.
Why I loved it: Worldbuilding: It's a concept I haven't seen in this form before, and I was impressed by the casual but convincing way this world was introduced. Cordelia built a dominance hierarchy that is based by birth order, which is fascinating. This allowed her to write about more and less privileged parts of society without using gender, biology, or sexual preference. For example several elements that appear in this story I've also seen in D/s AUs, which always strained my suspension of disbelief how they would actually work. (I think that's probably part of the reason why they lost popularity compared to biology-based dominance hierarchy AUs like a/b/o.) Then on top of that the world also has nobles and common folk, and other countries have different customs – yay intersectionality.
Characters: I didn't really like any of the characters at first, not even Jules, the main protagonist. Nevertheless I quickly started to care about what happened to him. The characters are all very three-dimensional and the relationships between them are complicated, and they all develop in various ways.
Plot: Hearthkeeper has a spy plot, but the main storyline is Jules' character development, and they work together very well. Admittedly I did not see that ending coming, but it's much better than what I thought would happen.
Sex: Gallevans don't care about monogamy, which is refreshing (and tbh I'm surprised I don't see that AU more often.) Jules has a lot of sex with different people, and he likes it rough, both of which are relevant to the plot. Hearthkeeper deals with sex as a completely natural element of life and includes sex scenes important to the story in a way I only see in fanfic, and that's a compliment.
Warnings: At the beginning of the story Jules is sort of in self-destruct mode. He's an addict, he doesn't look out for his own well-being, he uses sex as an unhealthy coping mechanism, he manipulates people. In addition to the things tagged the story also includes rape threats and torture, and of course blackmail. It's certainly not a story for everyone. I enjoyed it a lot, and if you like stories that deal with complicated subject matters and in shades of grey and with imperfect protagonists you might like this one too.
Hearthkeeper by cordelia_kingsbridge
Original Work, 103k, explicit
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Antiheroic Protagonist, Arranged Marriage, BDSM dynamics, Contemporary Fantasy, Cultural Non-Monogamy, elitism, Humiliation, Impact Play, Promiscuity, Substance Abuse/Dependence, Unhealthy Relationships
Summary: Bored and frustrated by the role society has trapped him in, Julian Sharpe searches for any way to break the tedium. But when he’s blackmailed by the Gallevan Intelligence Service into spying on his wealthy husband, Jules’ life gets a little too interesting.
Why I loved it: Worldbuilding: It's a concept I haven't seen in this form before, and I was impressed by the casual but convincing way this world was introduced. Cordelia built a dominance hierarchy that is based by birth order, which is fascinating. This allowed her to write about more and less privileged parts of society without using gender, biology, or sexual preference. For example several elements that appear in this story I've also seen in D/s AUs, which always strained my suspension of disbelief how they would actually work. (I think that's probably part of the reason why they lost popularity compared to biology-based dominance hierarchy AUs like a/b/o.) Then on top of that the world also has nobles and common folk, and other countries have different customs – yay intersectionality.
Characters: I didn't really like any of the characters at first, not even Jules, the main protagonist. Nevertheless I quickly started to care about what happened to him. The characters are all very three-dimensional and the relationships between them are complicated, and they all develop in various ways.
Plot: Hearthkeeper has a spy plot, but the main storyline is Jules' character development, and they work together very well. Admittedly I did not see that ending coming, but it's much better than what I thought would happen.
Sex: Gallevans don't care about monogamy, which is refreshing (and tbh I'm surprised I don't see that AU more often.) Jules has a lot of sex with different people, and he likes it rough, both of which are relevant to the plot. Hearthkeeper deals with sex as a completely natural element of life and includes sex scenes important to the story in a way I only see in fanfic, and that's a compliment.
Warnings: At the beginning of the story Jules is sort of in self-destruct mode. He's an addict, he doesn't look out for his own well-being, he uses sex as an unhealthy coping mechanism, he manipulates people. In addition to the things tagged the story also includes rape threats and torture, and of course blackmail. It's certainly not a story for everyone. I enjoyed it a lot, and if you like stories that deal with complicated subject matters and in shades of grey and with imperfect protagonists you might like this one too.
