'There are scenes here that make Rivals look like The Good Life'...check out the best in Romantasy: The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden, Kissed by the Gods by Caty Rogan, Ravenous by Kresley Cole

A MAGICALLY deft blending of historical fact and mythic fantasy.

Beautiful, small and saucy, Anne of Brittany needs to marry the Austrian king to secure her realm; problem is that France fancies her lands as well – all true. What follows really isn’t, but should be.

By arranging a diversionary unicorn hunt in an enchanted forest, Anne unwittingly brings faery-land into play. In the ensuing confusion her sister pledges herself unwisely to the faery king, and many other complications, bearing varying degrees of peril and confusion, occur.

It’s a glorious pageant of courtly intrigue and romantic sparring, while every page brims with delight, humanity and pin-sharp observation.

‘It smells like aggression, hostility, and bad decisions...’ Anyone who sums up a situation in this way, and ploughs on anyway, gets my vote – but Leina has even more going for her.

While fighting off soldiers who have come to enslave her brother, her extraordinary powers are unleashed – so, naturally, she’s recruited to fight in defence of the very kingdom that is harrowing her people.

It’s never going to go well. As well as being supremely gifted in the art of killing with her scythe, she’s magnificently, heroically stroppy. Not only that, she falls for her instructor and he for her, so henceforth, action does not just refer to fighting. Grim humour, gripping action, a great read.

I DON’T know what would have made Jilly Cooper blush, but there are scenes here that make Rivals look like The Good Life, all done with relentless gusto and a delicious absence of taste.

It’s all kicking off in the Skein, a sort of nether parts-focused nether world where witch queens collide with werewolf kings, vampires get hitched to ursine berserkers and valkyries are led astray by prodigiously endowed incubi.

Yes, the Accession – a time of chaos and change – is upon us and the various races are flexing their muscles, swishing their tales and priming their cleavages as they jostle for power.

With fighting, betrayal and trysts a-plenty, this novel is massive, steamy, passionate fun.