Whumpy Book Rec

“Wren Southerland’s reckless use of magic has cost her everything: she’s been dismissed from the Queen’s Guard and separated from her best friend—the girl she loves. So when a letter arrives from a reclusive lord, asking Wren to come to his estate, Colwick Hall, to cure his servant from a mysterious illness, she seizes her chance to redeem herself.

The mansion is crumbling, icy winds haunt the caved-in halls, and her eccentric host forbids her from leaving her room after dark. Worse, Wren’s patient isn’t a servant at all but Hal Cavendish, the infamous Reaper of Vesria and her kingdom’s sworn enemy. Hal also came to Colwick Hall for redemption, but the secrets in the estate may lead to both of their deaths.”

Have some snippets:

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“Wait.” His chest heaved with every miserable breath. With her eyes locked onto his chin, she could see the blood dribbling from the corners of his mouth. Slowly, he drew his sleeve across his face. It was too intimate to see him so abject, so … ashamed. “Please.”
“ Please? ” she snarled. “Are we using our manners now?”
“I acted too rashly. I’m more use to you alive.”
Alive? No wonder he’d been so jumpy. He assumed she’d come to assassinate him. It was so ludicrous, she almost burst into laughter. Wren had devoted her life to her work. No matter how much she hated Hal, she was honor bound as a soldier and a healer to cure him. Hal wanted to live, and there were few things people wouldn’t trade for their lives. If it meant forcing the Reaper of Vesria into her debt, she would bluff.
She would make him beg for her help.
“You think I’m here to kill you?” she asked incredulously. “I’m a doctor, not an assassin. Don’t you know healers take an oath of nonviolence in Danu?”
Confusion pulled at the corners of his lips. “Then you were…?”
“Examining you.”
“Why are you here?”
“I might ask you the same thing.”
He did not respond. They glared at each other across the room, but Wren’s resolve slipped as she watched him tremble with fever. Heat flushed his skin and clouded his eyes, and blood spattered his sheets. Yet he still carried himself like he might strike at any moment, watchful and intense.”

It takes a good few chapters for her to heal him, and even then he goes through a few more whumpy situations like being sedated, getting hypothermia, being captured and more.

Coming at you with another book rec

“You sold me out, you sonofabitch.” I’m slurring my S’s and the dizziness has kicked up a couple notches. That spell took a lot out of me.
Alex frowns. He takes on a tone like he’s talking a crazy man off a ledge. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Come on, Eric, you look like hell. I’ve been trying to find you since your call cut out. Let me get you some help.”
“Fuck you,” I say, loud enough to make him flinch. “You sicced that sonofabitch and his fucking band of thugs on me.” Alex blurs a little, the floor tilts enough to make me stumble but I hold on to the gun.
“I’m not doing anything, Eric. You’re bleeding. Your nose is broken. Your face is nothing but one big bruise. We need to get you some help.”
“You’re not fucking touching me. Griffin told me about you. Told me about your deal. Right before he tried to have me killed.”
“Griffin? Ben Griffin? The hell does he have to do with anything?”
“See, you know him. You knew he was around. You knew he was looking for me. You gave me to him to clear the half million you owe him, get your club back.”

“The fuck are you going on about? No. I mean, yeah, I know him. Everybody knows him. And yeah, I owe him money. But he sure as fuck doesn’t own any of this club. We’ve got a revolving account with him. He’s one of my suppliers.”
“What?”
“He sells me beer, Eric.”
Did I get the name wrong? I don’t think so. I can’t remember. There’s something else to say, but I can’t think of it.
“You didn’t fuck me over,” I say, somewhere between relieved and feeling like an asshole. I blink away the double image of Alex. My thoughts slide off each other. The room takes another tilt and I stumble, suddenly too woozy to stand up straight.
He catches me as I go to my knees, grabs the gun with one smooth motion. “No, man. I didn’t do anything like that. I wouldn’t do that.”
“He was with Boudreau.” My voice sounds very far away. “Changed his name from Duncan.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, man. Let’s get you patched up and you can tell me all about it, okay?”
Alex thinks he’s just his beer guy. I laugh. “Boy does he have you fooled,” I say, and slip into unconsciousness.