Bull Moon Rising

Aspeth is a high noble low on cash. To save her hold (and fulfill her lifelong dream), she secretly enrolls in the Royal Artifactual Guild to find relics to power her hold’s defenses. She’s unprepared when the guild shuts her out until she can get a man guardian’s permission. Hawk is a minotaur used to being ignored, even though the strength of his people is the only reason the guild survives the ruins. He just needs one more student to keep teaching, and he’d like someone to spend the upcoming month-long lunar rut with. Getting married seems a convenient option to solve both their problems—that is, until Aspeth’s past comes calling and threatens to destroy everything they’re building together. Dixon follows up her “Ice Planet Barbarians” novels with this first in a new searing romance series set in a well-crafted fantasy world. Problems layer the personal with economics and politics; tensions build up and are resolved in a naturalistically messy way; side characters are complex and memorable.