2023 book 119

 Naomi Kritzer's Freedom's Gate

I have really enjoyed Kritzer's recent works, so decided to try one of her older series—this book came out almost twenty years ago. So as expected, great writing, I was drawn in immediately, and I loved the focus on adopted sisterhood. But it was not always a pleasant read. So this takes place in a fantasy version of a country colonized by the Greeks, and the protagonist is a half-Greek daughter of a former slave (but she’s free) who works for the local important Greek guy. And she’s assigned a job to go undercover as a slave in a harem so she can pose as an escaped slave and run away and join/spy on some bandits. But of course she’s raped, and her friend there is a fourteen year old who’s been a sex slave since she was ten. So like, major content warnings for all of that and I had a hard time with it. I was also a bit annoyed at how the protagonist stays loyal for so long when her boss is clearly nefarious (to the reader) but that made sense in context. And I loved how this ended and am looking forward to book two! But yeah, content warnings galore, B+.