Full disclosure: I am married to Nicholas Todd. However, I read Desert Witch three times before it was published, and genuinely loved it all three times. It's set up like a standard fantasy-quest novel, but you very quickly realize that you're reading something a little different, more of a character study exploring how one young woman with a very narrow and traumatic life reacts when her world suddenly opens up.

The worldbuilding is also really interesting, I especially love the goblins and Hathaway and hope that further entries in the series explore the strange elements further, and I love how casual the queerness and diversity is. It's very welcoming, not just gay/lesbian/bi characters (labels are never brought up) but trans and nonbinary characters as well, and the Fantastic Racism in so many fantasy worlds is really brought out for what it is. ( )