The cover of Chai and Charmcraft by Lynn Strong, which has the line, "A Magical Middle Eastern Cozy Fantasy" on it, as well as a fat brown man with threads of grey in his beard and hair, wearing saffron-dyed and gold-embroidered clothing. In the window he stands in front of, a pale grey cat is perched on the window sill, and domed and turreted building show behind them in outline. The man holds a glass of chai and a saucer.
I gotta. I gotta tell people about this. My fat posi friends, particularly those who like romantasy, this is for you.
How often do we see romance with fat protagonists? And moreover, how often do we see queer romance with fat protagonists? How often do we get a romance-adjacent queerplatonic meet-cute relationship story with a fat protagonist???
Not fucking often at all.
I knew about these, because Lynn Strong is an acquaintance through Discord, but hadn't gotten to them yet. But I read Chai and Charmcraft and Haroun and the Study of Mischief over the last few nights, and they are completely delightful, as well as being queer and fat.
Haroun was actually published first, but I missed that and read them the other way around. Since the time frame in which they happen overlaps in the same space but C&C begins first, though, it worked well for me.
So. Setting. A medieval city known as Tel-Bastet, the city of the cat goddess Bast. Tel-Bastet is part of the empire of the God-Emperor, and every three years, it hosts the Greater Convocation, where priests of different gods come from all over the Empire come to meet and discuss matters of import. The cat-people of Tel-Bastet are clever and mischievous, and not any too fond of the dog-people, cobra-people, bird-people, and some of the other animal-people who are coming. Humans might be ok, as long as they give good petting and brushing.
Haroun and the Study of Mischief covers the day before and the first few days of the Greater Convocation. Shai Madhur, disabled young priest of the god of generosity, who spends his days tending cauldrons, handing out food to all and sundry, and folding leaf-bowls. He and his fellows have taken oath not to handle coin, and they own only simple wrap clothing and braided reed slippers. Madhur is known throughout the city as the kindest and purest of priests. He's also round as the moon, and blushes very nicely.
Into the human Madhur's life comes Venerable Haroun, a saluqui-person (a kind of sight-hound) who is blind, and a also priest. Haroun has to ask someone to hold his leash, and Shai Madhur agrees, without either of them knowing who the other are, or Shai Madhur having any grasp of the cultural meaning of this. Some people have been plotting, and their plotting is about to go either very sideways or very right, depending.
When Shai Madhur and Venerable Haroun, both very good boys, decide to go looking for a new friend and disguise what's happening by saying they're going carousing in the Den of Iniquity... well... truly hilarious things happen. Seriously, I was awake for hours reading and trying to keep my laughter quiet enough to not wake my wife.
I don't know if you can call it a romance, but it's definitely for fans of romantasy. You can definitely call it a queerplatonic partnership, though. It's amazing. (What do you call the queerplatonic equivalent of a romance, anyway? I'm calling it a nomance. Nomantasy. But I don't know if that's right.)
As for Chai and Charmcraft, meet the also moon-round, very sweet and very nibbleable prince Faraj al-Nadhir, third brother and prophet of the God-Emperor, who spends his days in the royal fortress in Tel-Bastet, reading books, going over tax records, and foreseeing trouble. He's never thought anyone could find him attractive in his life, and while he knows his worth at what he's good at, he is very mislead about that. Because! Meet Master Asharan of the House of Jasmines, a bathhouse in the notorious Catsprowl District. Asharan is a very handsome man, and a very skilled courtesan. He doesn't have Faraj's foresight, but he knows enough to know he can't be told that name, so when the oh-so-nibbleable one shows up on his doorstep, Asharan gives him the nickname Rahat (after a kind of rose-flavored sweet likely known to my audience as Turkish Delight), and a night the prince cannot forget and doesn't want to. And also a cat-spirit familiar who is going to throw the entire royal fortress into chaos. And a bunch of kittens who want to pat the fat prince's belly to get sweets. And.... Yeah.
Warning, this is the start of a series, they haven't run away together (or whatever) as of the end of this book. Yet.
There's also a trio of novellas in the same setting, called Chai and Cat-tales, which I've only gotten a couple of pages into.
Anyway. I don't have the energy to go give links across four platforms, but all three -- Chai and Charmcraft, Haround and the Study of Mischief, and Chai and Cat-tales -- are widely available. Go take a look at an indie author's work today!
