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A Cast of Corbies was always my favorite of the Mercedes Lackey bard books as a kid. Why? Because FAKE SHAKESPEARE is why.

Our cast looks like this:

RAVEN: a ~sexy one-eyed mysterious gypsy musician~ with ~wanderlust~
MAGPIE: a feisty but also sensible but also naive musician who just wants to settle down and have some peace and stability
DUKE ARDEN: a good duke! who is also a good man! Just in case you were wondering!
REGINA SHEVRON: the duke's brilliant actress mistress but they are REALLY IN LOVE!
SOME FREE-SPIRITED MUSICIANS: some free-spirited musicians
SOME WACKY THEATER PEOPLE: some wacky theater people
SOME EVIL PREJUDICED RELIGIOUS PEOPLE: some evil prejudiced religious people

Raven and Magpie are our designated protagonists and therefore designated to have bickery sexual tension, although unless without Mercedes Lackey pointing out that it's sexual tension it pretty much just looks like bickering from people who don't like each other very much.

Anyway, our designated protagonists and some free-spirited musicians meet up with some wacky theater people and promptly get recruited to play music for the local Duke's production of Fake Shakespeare, which is titled something along the lines of As Cymbeline Likes His Twelfth Night.

There they meet Regina! They are initially wary of her until

REGINA: Hey Raven, I guess you probably think I'm pretty high and mighty, what with being a duke's mistress and all.
RAVEN: I mean, I don't know, you seem pretty nice?
REGINA: Well, guess what! I had a rough childhood on the streets!
RAVEN: omg congratulations on surviving your rough childhood let's be besties!
REGINA: :D

This is extra hilarious because this is what Regina does in every first conversation. Witness:

REGINA: Hey Magpie, my empathy sense are tingling. Did you, by any chance, have a rough childhood?
MAGPIE: omg I did I was raised by an alcoholic
REGINA: Guess what! I had a rough childhood too! I was a street urchin!
MAGPIE: omg we have so much in common let's be besties!
REGINA: :D
MAGPIE: You know, I've never had a female friend before
REGINA: Man, you should have told them about your rough childhood! Trust me, it works every time.

(Magpie and Regina don't actually talk onscreen about much besides dudes for the rest of the novel, but hey, that's a Bechdel pass!)

And then everyone spends the next two hundred pages wandering around the theater going "Gosh, wouldn't it suck if this place caught ON FIRE?" and "man, I wonder if the evil prejudiced religious people have the power to set things on FIRE!" with occasional breaks for "Regina looks super hot in breeches, guys. And by that I mean, hot like FIRE."

I'm not going to directly spoil what happens at the end, but . . . three guesses, and the first two don't count.

I will leave you with this piece of excellent relationship advice, direct from Mercedes Lackey!

MERCEDES LACKEY: Incompatible life goals, class differences, solemn vows that you'll never ever get married -- as long as you've been set ON FIRE together, none of these things matter. Recommended for everyone! It's better than couples therapy!

(BECCA: Mercedes Lackey, do you just really, really enjoy ending your books with dramatic cities on fire?
MERCEDES LACKEY: Look, I couldn't get the one thousand elephants, okay?)