Luck In the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling

In the Nightrunner series, Lynn Flewelling shows herself to be a writer of high caliber, though perhaps just a step short of being one of "the greats." However, her great courage in choice of subject matter, and the compassion & non-judgement with which she deals with it outweighs her minor writing flaws.

The main character, Seregil, is a somewhat elven exile doomed to live amongst humans his whole life, who furthermore is gay. His character development is truly excellent, and his growing love for Alec is quite poignant and beautiful. The way that Flewelling deals with the issues of their sexual orientation, and the way she immerses the audience in their emotions are truly fantastic. However, characterization of other characters does in some measure fall by the wayside, especially the Plenimaran enemy.

My main problem with the Nightrunner trilogy is that its pacing is highly irregular. At some points, it feels like the story drags terribly (most notably in the last book, Traitor's Moon), while at other times things fly by far too fast for sufficiently thorough exposition or characterization (most notably at the rushed climax of Nightrunner). This leads to holes in the story, both in development of some of the characters, and in the plot itself. Additionally, the excessively long & complex Aurenfaie names and labyrinthine family structures make the last book, Traitor's Moon, a bit harder to follow than necessary.

All that said, this trilogy is extremely enjoyable in spite of its minor flaws, and if you like a good cloak-and-dagger story about honorable assassin-thieves, and/or crave a beautiful gay love story, I would most certainly recommend it.