Likely Stories - This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews

Maggie has been transported through a portal to her favorite series, an unfinished series, she has revisited over and over again. But you know meme of “would you like to live in your favorite book?”, like most fantasy readers Maggie's answer would have been “no, to the 9th degree of NO.” Because being in the middle of a kingdom about to live through a civil war and then an outside invasion is fun reading, living through it is a different monster altogether - if you are even able to live through it. Starving, wearing only a blanket, unable to get clothing or shelter, Maggie’s desperation reaches fever pitch and she decides to mug a throw-away villain in the series who she knows exactly where he will be on a certain day without his normal protections and with a pocket full of precious coin. The mugging ends with the purse in her hands, a dagger in her belly, and a fall into an icy river. That is when things start getting really complicated.

Living in the world of Kair Toren, through Maggie's experience, is engrossing. Her college education, her modern sensibilities, her moral compass make her a phenomenal main point-of-view character. I love watching her deal with a world she knows so well, so minutely, and yet, it continues to surprise her. I love her pulling in fan theories to navigate this well-known unknown world. Watching her tap into her understanding of psychology, as well as her personal guesses about the plot and characters.

The worldbuilding is layered with both the books she has read and what she experiences in reality. It's complicated and wonderful. The allies and enemies who gather around her are nuanced both literally (from the books) and figuratively (in real life) - romantic interests, mercenaries, found family, a thieves guild, ...the list goes on. The city is a character in and of itself.

Maggie knows the future of this world, the horrors her new circle of friends will face, and will fight the future every step of the way. But the future is fighting back, and it never plays fair.

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