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Book: “The Forest King’s Daughter” by Elly Blare
Publishing Info: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, February 2025
Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!
Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound
Book Description: Once upon a time, among the bloodred trees of Thirstwood, a young forest princess became friends with a lonely demon boy. He gifted her an amber ring, a worthless trinket…or so he thought…because no sooner did he slide it onto her finger than the demon queen and forest king declared war.
Years later, Cassia is a crucial force in her father’s army, wielding her ring of light that can blind and disorient hundreds of demons at a time. Then battle-hardened Zeru abducts her, planning to steal the ring back to fix his costly childhood mistake. Exhausted, terrified, and more than a little mistrusting, Cassia is forced to travel with Zeru to a place they both believed only existed in storybooks, one where their childhood friendship slowly rekindles into something much more. But it’s only a matter of time before the war they’ve escaped comes for them, and a hidden threat to forest folk and demons alike grows in the shadows.
From the author of the Frostblood Saga comes the first book in an enchanting, adventure-filled fantasy series about the daughters of the powerful forest king, sure to leave readers breathless and desperate for more.
Review: This was an obvious book request for me! Everything about the summary above sounds like it has been tailored for me. Further, I’ve had a lot of good luck with Little Brown Books and their selection of YA fantasy. They seem to curate an author list that often produces some of my favorites in this genre and reading age. So how did this one turn out? Let’s dive in!
Overall, I enjoyed this one. I did have complaints here and there, but for the most part, this was a fun ride. Right from the start, I enjoyed the writing style, which had the sort of lyrical, fairytale quality that I prefer in fantasy stories like this. The two main characters were also introduced in an interesting way, with the reader first meeting them as children when they are unlikely friends. And then later, after things go terribly wrong, when they are older teens/adults on opposite sides of a war. It was a nice twist on the typical enemies-to-lovers romance plot, with the additional factor of initial friendship and trust from when they were children complicating their perspectives as adults.
I will say, in what would be a bit of a recurring problem throughout, there were some frustrating moments when both Cassia and Zeru made some truly wild leaps of logic and interpretation with regards to their shared history. In fact, one of my primary complaints about the book as a whole was the discordant feeling of these two main characters. For the majority of the book, each are written as highly competent, mature individuals. But then, on a fairly regular basis, they would each come up with the most ridiculous interpretation of the events surrounding them or the other’s motivations of intentions. It was the kind of writing where you could see the authors fingers all up in the narrative. The characters NEEDED to think a certain way to justify the arc of the story and romance. But in any reality, it made no sense to do so. Cassia, in particular, was incredibly naïve, especially about her father, way past the point of believability.
That said, I did actually enjoy the romance itself. When I started the book, I thought I had a pretty good grasp on how things would play out. Instead, the author swooped in with a major jump shift halfway through the book, re-positioning the stakes and, essentially, the world-building of this entire story. And through these changes, the romance itself veered into new and interesting territory. There was a bit of a “cake and eat it too” plot point with regards to Zeru and Cassia’s process of moving through their trust issues, but as the entire concept was so creative, I’ll give it a pass.
There were also some decent twists and turns in the larger conflict between the elves and demons. While some of the villains were plainly obvious from the start, there were a few twists with regards to other characters’ motivations that were revealed closer to the end. The pacing and plotting, overall, was steady throughout, and any moment where I began to become frustrated with some of the character inconsistency was quickly glossed over by another exciting story beat.
This is a solid YA fantasy story, and I think it’s well worth checking out if you’re looking for an original entry in the genre!
Rating 8: A few frustrations with character inconsistency aside, this was a lovely fairytale-like romance story with a surprisingly unique take on several classic fantasy tropes.
Reader’s Advisory:
“The Forest King’s Daughter” can be found on this Goodreads list: Romantasy TBR 2025
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