Steven Brust: Teckla

I have high respect for male authors who manage to portray the inner workings of a male mind (and heart) at the same time making it sound honest and true to a female reader.
As a woman, I really have no idea what goes on in guys' minds but reading Vlad Taltos' books certainly makes me get a good glimpse.

It is so strange reading about an assassin (out of necessity but an excellent one) who also is something like a mob boss but who also suffers through relationship problems and tries to deal with them. That is what i got out of this book, the complications that led to it and keep the problems alive are from my perspective only the backdrop of that story.

At one point near the end, I started thinking that I might have misunderstood the whole character of Vlad Taltos but then my fear turned out to be unwarranted. :)
The best part of each and every book - even though Vlad struggles each time through a difficult situation where he can easily get killed and then he successfully tackles it, there is always a surprising additional bonus to come out of them. Both for Vlad and the reader. :)

Pic by: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/