Reading: The Second Mango

I heard of this book because the author, Shira Glassman, is one of the regular posters on the This Is What A Feminist Knits Like group on Ravelry. It's a fantasy romance, set in a Fantasy Hot Country which differs from the usual run of Fantasy Hot Countries by having a culture that is rooted in Judaism rather than Christianity or Islam-through-Western-eyes; in it, the young Queen Shulamit, elevated to the throne much earlier than anticipated after her beloved father's sudden death, embarks on a quest to find herself a girlfriend, accompanied by her woman bodyguard and a horse which can turn into a dragon.

It's a short book, which spends as much time, if not more, on developing the characters' back stories as it does on plot, and there isn't a lot of tension or even mild peril. Nevertheless, it's a very sweet book, about friendship and love and it being OK to be who you are and not have to change to fit in with other people's expectations. It's not a deep or serious book, but I found it very charming and will probably read the sequels as well.