Hana Carolina's The Inescapable March follows two lovers through a mesmerizing, disorienting time loop as they try to overcome death and their own egos, and find connection. Arran, a cursed knight with a dreadful power, is the reader's first introduction into this world, but his world begins, of course, with Hyacinth. "Of all their meetings, this was the one Arran remembered best ..."
As the story progresses, the reader's certainty about when things are happening, the order of events, becomes less clear even as investment in the lovers and their relationship grows. Set in a familiar but undetailed fantasy world, the spotlight is on the characters. That is not to say the world is uninteresting, far from it, but that the author uses familiar fantasy settings—an inn, a woodland trail, a city under siege—to allow the reader to fill in the background details without losing focus on Arran and Hyacinth. Arran, distant and coarse and hurting, and Hyacinth, charismatic and passionate but cavalier. The closer they come to easing the dreadful, delicious tension between them, the further the story takes them. In the end, they must face the thing they fear most in a raw and revealing choice.
I will admit to some confusion about some of the time loops, but I think that's hard to avoid in any time travel story, and the brevity of the text makes it such that before I had time to be fully confused, I was grounded again. Full of rich emotions from terror to arousal, and beautiful descriptions, this is an exciting and quick read sure to please queer romantasy fans!
Information about The Inescapable March:
Author: Hana Carolina
Publisher: Space Cowboy Books
Release date: March 25, 2025
