ooh i feel like Juls would be pretty reserved and serious at work too, so ppl would be like ahh Stoic Creative, but then when Val rocks up Juls gets all soft and all her colleagues are like WHO is this soft bean. is orange tree good btw?

I agree with that.

Juls with everyone else:

Juls with Val:

But really, she does warm up a lot to people she knows and I bet she’s beloved at work, but the way she is with Val is next level, you can’t even compare it to Lupe. Val just opens up something in her and allows to be in a way that nobody else does.

I actually have been enjoying Priory of the Orange Tree a lot! It’s very traditional epic fantasy, you got your dragons, you got your magic, you got your magic swords, you got your detailed worldbuilding, and it’s well-written enough that I’d have enjoyed it just on the basis of that but I cannot deny that the f/f really elevates it. A legit slow burn between the two most interesting and important characters, who happen to be women? I loved them and I loved the romance. And it was a slow burn, I’ve heard people say the romance doesn’t start till halfway through (which, it’s an 850 page standalone) but the dynamic starts noticeably changing much earlier than that, in such a delicious oh-you-two-have-no-idea kind of way.