I'm looking for fantasy books about parents and their kids.
Books that scratched the itch and why:
The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis. From the POV of the mom. Dad wasn't an idiot. They had their relationship struggles but were on the path to working it out. I liked the drama of the PTA. The anxiety of the mom spoke to me. This ranks highest because it's the parents navigating the fantastical with their child and because of their child. The child isn't sent off to go stay with other people (or remains with one of the parents) while the parent(s) go off and adventure.
Memoirs of Lady Trent (Marie Brennan), Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi (Shannon Chakraborty), Kings of the Wyld (Nicholas Eames) – All books/series I enjoyed but fall into the category of the child is staying with someone else while the parent is pulled into adventures so they didn't quite scratch the itch.
Things I'm looking for:
- Competent parents who make mistakes in parenting
- Parents may have conflict in their relationship but ultimately work together. Relationship can have unhealthy moments but should ultimately strive to be healthy.
- Parenting is important to the story
- Preference for female POV but not a deal breaker. No pref for first or third POV. I do love a good dual POV that flips between chapters.
- Queer relationships or representation among secondary characters is great
- No preference for what type of fantasy world it is (urban, standard fantasy world, etc)
- Plus if it has a good audiobook narrator
Things I'd like to avoid:
- Tropes where one or both parents are complete idiots
- Miscommunication or lack of communication has little purpose other than to move the plot to a particular end.
- Child is left behind while parents adventure
- Children are grown and out of the nest
by IndividualUnlucky