4/5

For fans of: Folk of the air, Elfhame, enemies-to-lovers, political intrigue, angst galore

The Big Questions:

• What genre is this in? YA Fantasy

• Are there any swoon-worthy characters? Oak is the pure essence of charming, but the goat legs might be a turn off.

• Is it spicy? Fade to black

• Is it violent or gory? Fights are described, but not bloody

• Should I buy, borrow, or pass on this book? If you’re a fan of Elfhame, buy it!

Synopsis: Eight years have passed since the Battle of the Serpent. But in the icy north, Lady Nore of the Court of Teeth has reclaimed the Ice Needle Citadel. There, she is using an ancient relic to create monsters of stick and snow who will do her bidding and exact her revenge.

Suren, child queen of the Court of Teeth, and the one person with power over her mother, fled to the human world. There, she lives feral in the woods. Lonely, and still haunted by the merciless torments she endured in the Court of Teeth, she bides her time by releasing mortals from foolish bargains. She believes herself forgotten until the storm hag, Bogdana chases her through the night streets. Suren is saved by none other than Prince Oak, heir to Elfhame, to whom she was once promised in marriage and who she has resented for years.

Now seventeen, Oak is charming, beautiful, and manipulative. He’s on a mission that will lead him into the north, and he wants Suren’s help. But if she agrees, it will mean guarding her heart against the boy she once knew and a prince she cannot trust, as well as confronting all the horrors she thought she left behind.

Review: It has been far too long since I’ve journeyed through Elfhame and I am so glad to be back with new characters and new stories. Well, new-ish. Oak, the baby boy with adorable horns and cute goat legs is now a man with devastating charm, the entitlement of a prince, and the self-preservation of a hero, which is to say none. His betrothed, the lost queen of the Court of Teeth, is in hiding and hopes to never be found, until of course he finds her. These two, I’m not sure of. While the tension is definitely there, unbeknownst to these two loveably dummies, the banter is not. I have to keep reminding myself that they are not Jude and Cardan. There’s something there, but the chemistry that pulled those two into orbit just isn’t here and I have to let that go.

Now what is there is secrets and savagery. Oak is definitely hiding secrets, but has the charm and wit of the Folk to speak manipulatively without lying. Wren doesn’t, which leaves her at a disadvantage. She has always been a pawn, always moved around by Folk trying to use her for political gain. All this poor girl wants is to be loved, but she is probably worse than Jude in trusting literally anyone. To be fair, she has been proven time and again to be right not to trust. Now, with this story only being told from her perspective, I have no idea how truthful Oak is being to her or his motivations. He comes off so genuine to her but his history gives her pause to trust. He clearly knows the machinations of court politics and intrigue enough to get what he wants using wit and charm, but what he wants isn’t clear. His father freed, power of his own, or a partner in Wren. Those two together as leaders in Elfhame would be formidable if they could just trust each other. Him with his charm and wit, her with her teeth and courage. But neither can’t help but get in each other’s way of trusting.

The book ends with one whopper of an ending and I can’t wait to see how this story goes with the next book from Oak’s perspective.