2012 book 21

Tamora Pierce's The Will of the Empress
I think this is a standalone, not the start of a new series, but who knows! Anyway, this book finds the four mage friends at 18, on a journey to visit the empress (the cousin of one of them) and obviously are soon caught up in crazy court machinations. The end drags on a bit, but the story here is more interesting than some of the earlier ones, and it's nice to have the kids all back together. Props for a positive lesbian relationship, no props whatsover for the boy being kind of a manwhore and the empress being kind of slut-shamed. And don't even get me started on the whole kidnapping-an-unwilling-bride custom. That's rightfully treated as a terrible thing though. And the rest of this book is pretty entertaining. B+.