Vermont Spring plantings

Picked up a couple of blueberry bushes at Claussen's in a light drizzle this morning, and a couple hours later Vermont Spring was wondering if we missed Winter.  It all melted, and I got the new bushes in the ground in the evening.

Winter's Orbit, Everina Maxwell, 2021

The opening sentences are great:

"Well, someone has to marry the man," the Emperor said.

She sat, severe and forbidding is a high-collared tunic, in her reception room at the heart of the warren-like sprawl of the Imperial Palace.

I see why they wanted a quote from Ann Leckie, though this is not quite Imperial Radch, and more of a romance than the kind of deep intrigue in Leckie or Arkady Martine.

Captain Vorpatril's Alliance might be the best comparison among works I'm familiar with, promising a similar kind of romantic hijinks set against a broader, darker, background.  The challenge here is that the universe is entirely new, and so it's a lot to take in at once.  If you're ready to take that on, it's worth a read.