If you were drawn to how Xylara and Keir’s treaty marriage blossoms into trust and tenderness, you’ll love how Brishen and Ildiko—two outsiders wed for politics—navigate alien manners, food, and beauty standards until affection turns to devotion. Like the tents and rituals of the Firelanders, the Kai customs are richly observed, and the relationship grows through small, intimate acts—shared meals, private jokes, and careful negotiation of boundaries—rather than instant passion.

If you enjoyed learning the Firelander ways alongside Xylara—decoding titles like "warprize," observing camp protocols, and watching language barriers fall—you’ll appreciate how Harry is swept into Damar’s desert traditions, training, and ceremonies. Much like Xylara mastering the expectations of Keir’s people, Harry learns swordcraft, oaths, and names that carry power, with the setting’s customs shaping identity and loyalty.

If the price-of-peace exchange that makes Xylara the warprize—and the delicate negotiations around her status—hooked you, Kushiel’s Dart offers an even denser web of treaties, oaths, and double-crosses. Phèdre, like Xylara, is bound by a role others choose for her, and she turns it into power through keen observation and political savvy, navigating rival factions, coded courtesies, and dangerous alliances that determine the fate of nations.

If Xylara’s first-person narration—balancing healer’s duty with the risks of being Keir’s prize—kept you close to every choice and heartbeat, Yelena’s voice will do the same as she becomes the Commander’s new food taster. Like Xylara learning camp protocols and languages to survive, Yelena masters poisons and court rules, building slow, careful trust with people who might kill her if she slips.

If you liked watching Xylara grow—holding firm to her healer’s ethics while adapting to Keir’s people in close quarters—you’ll appreciate Fitz’s deeply personal journey. Like Xylara tending triage in the war camps and negotiating her place beside a warlord, Fitz learns hard lessons in the shadows of Buckkeep’s corridors, where small choices, quiet loyalties, and private sacrifices reshape who he is.