Benjamin Medrano‘s Beesong Chronicles series is quite a bit different from their others. For one the protagonist isn’t particularly gifted, having the exact same abilities as any other member of her species, and she’s exceptionally cheerful/carefree. For another, the setting has a few gameworld aspects to it (e.g. levels, class abilities) while the only romance aspects in here are some brief mentions of two side characters getting together. It’s remarkably solid all-around and there’s very little I can complain about.
Another series by the same author, the Mantles of Power trilogy is their weakest. The main issue is that pretty much everything about the central Heaven-based conspiracy strains credulity at the best of times (and goes past the breaking point on several occasions). Not helping matters is that it takes a sudden swerve in the second book much like the one that occurs at the end of the third Through the Fire novel, only worse because it also decides to switch over to a completely different protagonist who acts almost nothing like she did in the first novel.