2.5 Stars

I love Kerrelyn Sparks and I did love this series.
But this one was a MASSIVE disappointment.

Every thing about it was Young Adult.
The dialogue, the writing, the LACK of any true sex scene. No real steam.
The main characters.

It took me forever to read it.
It was actually boring.
It came super close to being a 'Clean' book. And I despise Clean books.

I almost dnf'd numerous times.
Let me put it this way. I started reading this in September of 2020.
I didn't manage to finish it till February 2021.

What the Hell happened to this series? ( )

I don't have a review for this book. Re: my cozy rating... This series has battles, but they are written like you're watching from a distance, somehow. Not sure if that's a good thing in general, but it wasn't graphic so I've included the books on my cozy fantasy romance shelf.

How to Love Your Elf is both fourth in a series and first in a series, which is a little confusing if you don't know that she switched publishers in the middle and while this book is about the fourth of five sisters-by-choice, it stands alone very well. Series readers will recognize the first three couples, but I am new to the series (this is actually my first by Sparks) and I was able to enjoy it. The hero is something of a Robin Hood character with the ability to speak to trees and control wooden objects and the heroine is a princess with control of fire. It's enemies-to-lovers but quickly turns into allies-to-lovers and while I think HTLYE is stronger as a fantasy than as a romance, I enjoyed it a lot. Enough that I plan to circle back and read the first three.

If you're looking for a fantasy romance series with world-building that's both familiar and fresh enough to not be boring, these books are worth checking out.

Content Warnings: violence, kidnapping, past imprisonment, anti-elf racism, mentions of pregnancy ( )

Little annoys me as much as a character interchanging "you" and "ye" (along with its various iterations) with no given explanation. It just needlessly draws away from the plot, so I can't enjoy the story as much as I might have. ( )

2.75 of 5 stars

Listened to audio narrated by Jill Tanner. I enjoyed most of the narration but they way she pronounced some words like grimace drove me a little crazy.

Sorcha is embraced, raised in seclusion with her fellow embraced sisters, she has a few control problems. She's afraid of losing anyone she cares about and stresses about everything. I struggled to like Sorcha as she seemed like a smart woman but kept doing too stupid to live actions and came across as very immature.

The Woodsman is a Robin Hood with his merry band including the requisite monk. He has a plan to save the kingdom, but there's someone else vying for the throne and she will stop at nothing to get it.

Even though Sorcha is attracted to the Woodsman she fights it because he doesn't match the stones which predicted her elven match. Once the Woodsman realizes and accepts that he wants Sorcha, he wants her to want him for himself and not based on a prediction. Their relationship is convoluted and they spend way too much time in their respective heads. I never really felt their connection, except for a brief glimpse towards the end.

I do not understand the author letting her characters have a long dialogue when the Woodsman went to free Sorcha from the elves. The fact they spent so much time arguing and talking during the escape and no one heard them is an example of the stupid and unbelievable moments in the book.

This was only an okay book for me. It was overly dramatic, with over the top caricatures rather than feeling like real people.

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