You did it! We figured this one out! It is a truth universally acknowledged (by me for certain) that the Bitchery pretty much knows everything, and really, it's true. Scroll down to see the solution for this HaBO - and many thanks!
New reader Ally wrote in with a fantasy request – that’s a request for a fantasy novel, y’all. Don’t get all excited.
Rugged, somewhat unkempt night errant finds himself inside a walled city in the guardianship of a pair of nubile young princesses. The scene I remember most vividly (for some stupid reason) is when he gives them swimming lessons—they don’t know how, being Sheltered Princesses—and he is rather aroused by the sight of them in wet clothes. Ahem. At the end, something attacks the walled city, and a whole bunch of gods swoop in to save the city and talk to our hero about—something. I can’t remember. I think he gets to marry one of the princesses, despite being, like, 40. At least that’s what I sort of remember.
Hot swimming lessons with rugged older man? Yowza!
This sounds very vaguely Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion. There was a princess (and her lady-in-waiting) who received swimming lessons from an older knight who is recovering from illness. Caz is older (35) than the princess and the l-i-w, and does get a HEA (though the romance is a VERY small thread). I don’t recall a walled city, but there were gods and some fighting.
*sigh*
Sounds vaguely like…
And I changed verb tenses in there too. Write much, me? Obviously not.
Rather a fractured summary, but close enough to the fantasy novel Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold who just incidentally is one of my favorite authors.
Hot damn! How do you bitches DO IT? I check the title on Amazon, and sure enough, that’s the cover I remember. Even my vague, not-very-well-remembered summary somehow managed to pull a positive in the first book. Seriously, I think you gals read more in-depthly and for more comprehension than most of my English professors.
Aw, you make Caz sound like such a skeez in your description and he totally isn’t. The swimming lessons are among my favorite bits of the book.
Sorry about that. You’ll have to forgive me—I read it during a nasty summer what I had to go to summer school, and one of the summer school teachers was rather skeevy himself. I guess that kind of bled over.
The other book I read during that unpleasant detainment was a Cliver Barker. Lord knows how I’d remember my teacher if I’d forgotten THAT book…
Been ages since I read CoC makes me want to read it again. 🙂
OMG! I’ve been dreaming of the day when someone will describe a book that I’ve actually read.
And I was totally no help at all. “Sheesh, where do these people come up with these books???” I wondered.
BTW, I love Lois McMaster Bujold, and Caz is a wonderful character. Well worth a re-read!
I repeat the comment up-thread—how do you bitches do it? Simply amazing.
(I’ll go back to lurking now. Maybe the next one I’ll recognize.)
Everytime I see this book mentioned I feel compelled to push the audio book of The Curse of Chalion read by Lloyd James. It’s a great listening experience.