A Song for Arbonne is fantasy that takes influence from the troubadour culture that flourished in medieval France and expands upon it with an immersive world that shows its historical influences on its sleeve but isn't defined by them and even incorporates a bit of magic. In this world, Kay pits the matriarchal, refined culture of Arbonne against the austere, cold and proud land of Gorhaut, which was just looking for a reason to invade its southern neighbor. When a noblewoman from Gorhaut seeks refuge in Arbonne for herself and her child, it's all the pretense that Gorhaut needs to sweep in from the north. Arbonne is plagued by feuding among some of its most powerful lords and they will need to unite to stand a chance of holding off Gorhaut and preserving the troubadour culture that defines so much of who they are.

It is so difficult to write a reasonable review of this story that isn't just me gushing about how beautiful it is and how very much I love it. But I'm going to give my best shot at articulating why this completely stole my heart.

I had always avoided GGK's books prior to this because I am frequently not a fan of overly lyrical writing and tend to avoid historical fiction as being too depressing even though I love history and historical fantasy. This isn't historical fiction (though it almost feels like it, in a good way) and honestly you don't even need to know the history of the Albigensian Crusade it's influenced by or even the medieval era in general.

Kay does such a masterful job of immersing you in the atmosphere and setting with the characters that I felt completely transported in a way that I haven't had many authors accomplish. There is a lot of political intrigue as well which again, should have been an anti-buzzword for me but somehow I just had to know how the various alliances were going to work out.

There's also a pretty wide range of characters and a number of different POVs. One of the primary ones is from Blaise, a mercenary working in Arbonne for one of the feuding lords but originally from Gorhaut and with secrets of his own. You also get perspectives from the older queen of Arbonne, the noblewoman who seeks sanctuary in that country and a troubadour who makes her name by her experience with the leading figures of this troubled time. I was surprised by how well all of these different perspectives worked together to give me a full view of this society and how many of them I truly cared about.

Lastly before this review runs away from me, I'll mention Kay's writing which is certainly lyrical and beautiful but in my opinion this style does not distract from the storytelling but adds to it. This may also be a case of a style that just fit perfectly for me because I'll admit that the very first chapter had me so enthralled by GGK's writing that I immediately went and purchased all of his other books. So, not exactly unbiased here.

This turned into a gush review anyway so hopefully it provides at least some use to anyone curious about the book. It is a very immersive atmosphere and setting and I would consider it fairly fast paced but it's not for everyone. I read it with a group and I know some struggled with the more distant/formal style of storytelling which is like a more lyrical and less nature obsessed Tolkien and the large numbers of POVs, some of whom have less than ideal viewpoints on sexuality and women. And the villain is a little too generically evil. So there's my attempt at being even-handed with the book that will forever be on my list of favorites and honestly I'll be shocked if it's not in my top three for the year.