I’m logging C. M. Waggoner’s Unnatural Magic for two reasons:
First, it’s absolutely charming;
Second, everything you need to know is in Becca’s blog post, so I don’t really have to write anything myself!
Unnatural Magic is composed of two extremely different storylines that only intersect about 80% of the way through the book. […] This half the plotline has very much a Regencyish fantasy-of-manners vibe, along the lines of Stevermer’s College of Magics, and is fun in much the same way. […]
Meanwhile, in the other half of the plotline, Tsira, a gruff half-troll with a chip on her soldier, rescues Jeckran, a depressed, queer, overeducated soldier in distress, and carries him back to her cave to convalesce. […] She’s the muscle … and the brains … and the boss …. and he’s got good looks and a fancy accent, which occasionally also come in useful!
(Well, except that it’s more queer than the impression I got from Becca’s post; troll gender is self-declared, and same-sex relationships are unexceptional at least a couple of the societies.)
If you like the idea of those characters and their interactions, don’t mind weird pacing, and find the rather 90s’ vibe [*] of the whole thing (as accurately identified in comments) a plus, or at least not a negative, metaphorically run to your nearest book vendor. Bonus: as I write this, it’s only $3 in ebook. I have already preordered Waggoner’s next book, which is set in the same world and due out in January.
[*] There’s a particularly thing that feels highly 90s fantasy, especially in the way it happens ninety percent of the way in, is shown from the viewpoint of a third party, and then hardly comes up at all after!