Completed buddy fantasy adventure series about heroine and hero who stay just friends?

My mom just read and was really enjoying a buddy fantasy adventure trilogy about a heroine and hero who working together and solving problems around their kingdom... until the last half of the last volume, when the author abruptly had them sleep together and declare their love for each other despite their relationship being (according to her) perfectly platonic up until that point.

(If you want to avoid, it's a recently completed series, Juliet Marillier's Blackthorn and Grim series that starts with Dreamer's Pool . Evidently the author is known for romantic fantasy, so this may not have been a surprise to people familiar with her previous work.)

Can you recommend me a fantasy story for her that meets the following criteria?

- Adult fantasy novel (she won't read YA and prefers older protagonists, think at the very least mid to late twenties)
- Fantasy world (definitely not Earth, eg no time travel, alternate history, urban fantasy)
- Buddy adventure, eg working together to settle disputes between nobles, not on the scale of a quest to save the entire world
- Specifically buddy adventure focused on a man and a woman as friends having adventures, not a larger main ensemble cast, and they do not fall in love with each other
- The series is completed or the book is a standalone, and it ends with them not together so no new book will come out and abruptly pair them off

When I say "buddy fantasy," I'm thinking something similar to these:

- Moira J. Moore's Lee and Taro
- Jennifer Roberson's Tiger and Del
- Violette Malan's Dhulyn and Parno
- Barbara Hambly's Sun Wolf and Starhawk
- Mercedes Lackey's Tarma and Kethry (I know she enjoyed these, so buddy novels about two women would probably be good too, but she prefers female protagonists so please no buddy novels about two guys)

I know this is a really long shot! As a last resort, I would also take suggestions for a series where the romance is settled in the first book and their relationship stays relatively angst-free for the remainder of the series.

Wydrin and Sebastian from Jen Williams' "Copper Cat" trilogy (starts with The Copper Promise) are friends doing stuff/going on quests, and remain friends until the end :)

I remember there is a series (but each book can be read separately) about a male and female cop in some city inhabited by Gods and what not. No romance that I can remember. But what is it called again? Let me browse through my library... Wait, one of them was called Fisher? Ah! Googled it. It's the Hawk & Fisher series by Simon R. Green. I've only read a few, it is not really my thing, but it does meet all your requirements.

Oh, and why no earth? All the other stuff makes sense to me, having to do with the characters and how they relate to each other. But why does the setting make so much difference? Not that I have an immediate recommendation on earth, by the way... I immediately thought of Child of a rainless year, but then I remembered that there is a romance in that, even though it is angst-free.

edit: Oh, and I'm not sure about this one, but maybe Michelle Sagara's chronicles of Elantra? I never finished the series, so I'm not sure about the romance bits.

>2 ScarletBea: Great, I'll check it out! :D

>3 zjakkelien: "Not on Earth" is just a personal preference of my mom's- when she reads fantasy, she wants it to be set in a fantasy world, darn it, not on Earth! (She is willing to read portal fantasies sometimes but not all the time.) :D

I think I read the first Hawk and Fisher ages ago as a follow up to Blue Moon Rising but I had thought they were a married couple? I'll check out Cast in Shadow though, thanks!

>4 sandstone78: she wants it to be set in a fantasy world, darn it, not on Earth!
Woehahahaha! I like it.

I think I read the first Hawk and Fisher ages ago as a follow up to Blue Moon Rising but I had thought they were a married couple?
Really? Are you sure? I don't remember that at all. Googling...
Well, I'll be... You are right, just read it in a review. Well, that series is out then...

>5 zjakkelien: Yes, she is also opposed to fantasy with guns in it too, so no flintlock or steampunk for her either :) She likes Swords! Honor! Adventures! and such!

Well, she's read some Barbara Hambly, has she read the Winterlands books? Jenny Waynest and John Aversin are married, but there isn't a romance per se. They are a settled married couple and their love has a completely different tone to it. They are both very fully realized characters. Jenny even struggles with menopause as it affects her magical powers in one of the later books.

Say, it doesn't meet the requirements because it's about two men, but then she might like the Riyria books by Michael Sullivan.

One of my current reads, A Murder of Mages, is a fantasy-mystery in which the two leads are male and female police partners. Their respect and appreciation for one another is growing, but there is no hint of romance between them, the woman being married already and with two daughters.

I'm rather distressed to hear that about Blackthorn and Grim, though as you say I shouldn't be surprised.

megan lindholm has a 4 book series starting with harpy's flight called the windsinger quartet iirc does not have the protags end up together, in fact robin hobb would be good for this in general.

I would second the recommendation of Michelle Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra, but I am not sure that it clearly meets the "pair of buddies" test. I think that with Sagara you are safe from unexpected romances. The protagonist, Kaylin Neya, is a mortal, junior, police officer at the start of the series. She frequently finds herself paired with male colleagues.

In The Mountain of Kept Memory by Rachel Neumeier, the two protagonists are sister and brother. They are young adults trying to save their (fantasy) kingdom. Nobody sleeps with anybody. It is a standalone.

Also, it's a great read!

The Shadow Campaigns by Django Wexler has a male and female protagonist who are each other's trusted colleagues and not romantically involved in any way. The male protagonist, Marcus, also befriends other women starting with Book 2.