Fierce Heart by Tara Grayce, 2019

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Essie would do anything for her kingdom…even marry an elf prince she just met that morning.
When a diplomatic meeting goes horribly wrong, Essie, a human princess, finds herself married to the elf prince and warrior Laesornysh. Fitting in to the serene, quiet elf culture might be a little difficult for this talkative princess, but she’s determined to make it work.
With impending war and tenuous alliances, it will be up to Essie to unite her two peoples. And maybe get her hands on elven conditioner while she’s at it.

(219 pages)

I won't beat around the bush here. This book is good. Really good. Probably my favourite book discovery of 2020. The entire series is such a gem, and I have revisited all three of the published books many times since I first read them in September. Sometimes I reread the entire books; other times, I redownload them just to skim through a couple favourite scenes.

The first reason I fell in love with this book (and series!) was because of Essie. She feels like a genuinely real person from the very beginning, someone I could meet in real life and with whom I definitely would have become great friends. She honestly reminds me of myself in many ways, from her large family to her red hair and talkative nature to her sometimes clumsy desire to do the right thing in any given situation. I love that she is given layers and agency. She isn't forced into this marriage by some archaic patriarchal ruling; she offers herself up for a royal alliance in order to save lives by staving off war, and while she's often nervous about her new situation she never stops fighting to carve out a place for herself in her new home. Much of this involves reaching out to her emotionally distant new husband.

And that brings me to my second favourite thing about this series: Farrendel! I've read (and DNF'ed) way too many fantasy novels with elves in them, where the main elven lead is a charismatic, confident warrior with incredible combat skills and lots of attitude. I can't put into words how refreshing it was to be introduced to Farrendel and to learn more about him alongside Essie throughout the book. He is a fierce warrior, yes, but he is also painfully shy and suffers from severe PTSD. He struggles to open up with Essie and is basically clueless about what he's supposed to do with this human suddenly constantly in his space. Watching him get to know Essie, and watching her come to understand him and his past, is a truly lovely experience and my one main complaint about this book is that we don't get more of those scenes (there's an unfortunate time jump of about two months which I'd have loved to explore in more detail!).

I also love the worldbuilding Grayce has done. The culture of the elves is fairly classical, with long-lived and pointy-eared elves living in cities built in massive trees. The details she adds are a lot of fun, though, like the obsession with propriety. Elven couples don't even clasp palms in public: they intertwine their first two fingers so that the backs of their hands are touching. They portray their emotions with subtle twitches of their faces, so humans struggle to pick up on what they're feeling - and the elves are slightly appalled at the amount of emotion humans are constantly displaying. The way elven aging works, they mature very slowly so that their childhoods last around a hundred years. This is a neat way of keeping the difference in elven and human lifespans without making Farrendel's and Essie's marriage kind of gross.

Basically, this book is amazing and the entire series is awesome. This is the perfect clean, enthralling romantic story to read in lockdown, and I highly recommend it. I read it with my Kindle Unlimited subscription, and it's just a couple pounds on Amazon (not affiliated, just eager to share!). If you do read it, I want to know! Tell me what you think, and what your favorite part is.