Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana

Welcome Back, Booklovers! Lore of the Wilds has been a much buzzed about fantasy from the time the cover dropped last year. There's so few books in traditional publishing with Black Fae so that alone made me want to pick this up. I received a finished copy from Harper Voyager in exchange for an honest review. If you want to know my full thoughts on this book keep reading.

When tragedy strikes her village Lore, a human living in a world of fae surrenders herself and is taken to Wyndlin Castle, where she is instructed to organize books by dark fae Lord Syrelle in his library. Soon after Lore makes her escape with Asher, one of the fae guards in tow. A long the way they get help from his companions and she later bonds with another fae named Finn.

Lore of the Wilds starts off with promise although the very fast pacing at the onset is a challenge along with very choppy sentences and cliche ridden dialogue. The book then comes to a standstill with glacial pacing to incorporate cozy elements such as the library and many many market outings. I found myself confused about the direction the book was going in. Lore doesn't get much development as a character and what we're told about her backstory contradicts how she is presented. She also reads more like a young teen venturing on her own for the first time rather than a woman in her 20s who has been on her own surviving for quite some time. This was not helped by her acting like a giddy school girl experiencing her first crush around love interest Asher.

This is a book that would have benefited from more developmental edits as it's unclear what type of fantasy it's trying to be. There were modern elements better suited for urban fantasy that took me as a reader out of the enchanted forest setting multiple times. This included Lore's obsession with coffee, leggings, romantasy books, and curly hair creams. Despite describing itself as cozy Lore mentions humans are often captured to be concubines and forcibly breed hybrids by the fae but despite being capture this is never a real threat for Lore, herself. At one point well past the halfway mark of the book Lore realizes she knows absolutely nothing about her fae companion's magic and has yet to see a glimpse of it. The same can be said by readers who are told nothing about the magic of this world at this point. I was confused multiple times while reading as it breezed through some sections and languished in others.

Some of Lore of the Wild's sins could've been forgiven if the romance was better developed. Despite marketing itself as a romantasy and having two potential love interests neither relationship was particularly developed. She's also unable to incorporate them into the book at the same time. There's one spicy scene in the story but it feels unearned.