Since it's surprisingly difficult to peruse the ratings and reviews on a given title here, a comment as well:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
An all-around fun read! (Well, aside from the abused urchin episodes, but we need sufficient cause to root for the protagonist, do we not?)
Saitta's prose successfully incorporates the main protagonist's interiority, bodily harms and pleasures, and sensory details and material culture into what is nonetheless a breezily paced novella. The major characters are sympathetic, the setting feels lived-in, and something shaped like a from-rags-to-riches story is better realized as a from-abuse-to-dignity sort of story (as I observed in an interview with the author: https://sadbutbuildingworlds.blog/2026/06/22/bodies-arent-just-for-fighting-you-... ). While the sword & sorcery stories I read are usually lighter on sex and romance, there's a good case to be made that these elements belong in this "literature of the body" (Eric Williams, New Edge Sword & Sorcery issue #6) just about as much as fighting does. I'm glad I trusted the author and ventured outside the sorts of reading I tend to prefer; the gamble ultimately paid off.