Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. I enjoyed the first two books (Cordelia prequels) in the author's Vorkosigan Saga enough to want to try something else by her (since I've failed twice to get into the first Miles book). I think this is her only other big series? Anyway, it's been sitting on my TBR pile for a long time now, and I finally picked it up to read for bingo.

I don't mind a slow start, but IMO this had a very looooong slow start (~30%), to the point I put it down to read something else. Of course, it turns out I paused right before things started to pick up, so now I'm chugging along with it just fine.