OK so a minute ago I said that romcoms aren't my thing... THIS is my thing. If meta-humor about fantasy kingdoms isn't your thing, you probably won't like this, but if they are.... oh man, this book NAILS it.

SO SO funny. I kept tweeting lines from it as I read--they aren't as funny out of context but I didn't care.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"
"Ngggththtthh? The name of our kingdom."
"Gark said the kingdom didn't have a name."
"It doesn't. But there are times where, grammatically, it makes sense to speak the name of the kingdom aloud. And since it does not have a name, it is traditional just to mumble unintelligibly for the length of the average kingdom name."

It reminds me of [b:The Magicians|6101718|The Magicians (The Magicians, #1)|Lev Grossman|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1313772941s/6101718.jpg|6278977] but funnier and less scary. Like not scary at all really. But it has that same kind of vibe, of someone who's consumed a lot of fantasy novels finally getting to write their own and using every trope to its best advantage. And then... without spoilers... even the parts that at first I was "meh" about evolved into awesomeness.

I'M 20 GHOSTS ABOUT THIS BOOK

PS the best part is how it's a fantasy book that did not force me to look at a map of a madeup country. good job Crap Kingdom!