This is the final book available for the Embraced series. The title sounds slightly less hokey, though my guess is it’s supposed to be a play on How to Love Yourself. I might be wrong, but I don’t much care.
Quick story time: Officially this book is Embraced by Magic Book 1 because, in case you didn’t notice, Kerrelyn Sparks has a new publisher. After Eight Simple Rules for Dating a Dragon, St. Martin’s dropped the series. As much as I fussed and sassed the books in my previous reviews, I still want to see the last two women find their true loves, as well as see what it means for the world they live in since they and their husbands are good people and their goal is to make things better for their new subjects. Luckily, Kensington picked it up, which is why the cover style is different and they gave it a (slightly) new series name.
Okay, storytime over. On to the review.
How to Love Your Elf (2020)
Written by: Kerrelyn Sparks
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Pages: 336 pages (e-book)
Series: The Embraced #4
Publisher: Kensington Books
The Premise:
Sorcha knew the mission was dangerous. Leaving the safe grounds of her brother’s kingdom and parlaying with the elves across their border…well, treachery seemed at least as likely as true peace. But to support her sister, Sorcha would brave far more than the underhanded ways of the elves. Or so she thought, before she was taken hostage.
Of course, her captors didn’t count on her particular abilities — or on the help of the Woodsman, the mysterious thief who made his home in the forest. He saw the battle from the trees, saw the soldier attacking against incredible odds to save a comrade — and then saw the valiant fighter revealed as Princess Sorcha of Norveshka. He can’t tell if he wants to kidnap her or kiss her. But despite Sorcha’s stubbornness, his inconvenient honor, and a rebellion on the cusp of full war, something burns between them that neither can let go…
A few tiny spoilers
Discussion: Sorcha’s description reminded me of Sorsha, a badass soldier from the movie Willow (who I guess is technically also a princess.) She’s supposed to be a fiery redhead that doesn’t take shit from anyone (stereotypical, but okay). However, unlike Sorsha from Willow, this Sorcha thinks herself to be weak and that her sass is all a front, and she doesn’t know how to fight. I was really disappointed with this fact because it sounded as though she were going to be doing some training. She had the temperament for it, and I thought she was going to be the one actual kick-ass woman in the series. Not that the others were pushovers, but I enjoy a woman that can destroy her enemies. It was even more promising when Sorcha’s Embraced gift is revealed — she can control fire.
All that went downhill pretty quickly. Despite her ineptitude, she’s allowed to accompany Queen Gwennore on a potentially dangerous meeting as one of her bodyguards. I’m sorry, but no. When there’s the possibility of ambushing/murdering/kidnapping, you don’t put someone on bodyguard duty just because they’re pals. Sorcha never really even fights aside from attempting to kick people in the nuts on multiple occasions, failing 90% of the time. And her fire? I thought that was going to turn into an awesome, useful moment. Maybe not akin to The Witcher’s Yennefer torching an entire forest/army, but something. It doesn’t. The only time she uses it, it’s still not good enough for the job, and a knife would have been more helpful. It was very disappointing, and out of all the books her gift turned out to be the least useful.
Initially I was worried that Sorcha’s reason for trying not to be interested in the Woodsman was because of the super-annoying, “Everyone I love gets hurt so no more loving people for me, it’s too painful” trope. I may have groaned and rolled my eyes when it first appeared on the pages. Thankfully, it didn’t really come into play as there was too much for Sorcha to worry about. Instead, she did the opposite, including getting mad several times at the seeing stones the girls have been using to predict their future because she hoped the Woodsman would be the man for her, despite not appearing to match what the stones said. That’s something I was glad for.
I liked the Woodsman because he had important work to do and seemed to do the best at trying not to get romantically involved with Sorcha despite his attraction to her. And he did have a lot to do. Overtaking a kingdom Robin Hood-style takes time and effort (oh yes, there’s a lot of Robin Hood in this, including a friar-like character, stealing from others to give to people who have none, and a woodland hideout). There’s even an actual battle in this book, which was a nice surprise. It’s only when they’re in the safety of his hideout that the Woodsman lets his guard down and does a little wooing of Sorcha. Ok, maybe a bit more than wooing. The Woodsman gets bonus points there. His Embraced power is pretty interesting, and he also can speak to the trees, which was extremely useful and I’m glad it was utilized properly throughout the book.
I’m going to deviate and talk about Aleksi for a minute. He’s with the group at the start when an ambush occurs. He gets two arrows in his back. He is unconscious for the rest of the day and all night. Normally, this is not a good sign. Arrows in the back mean possible internal bleeding and lung puncturing. It doesn’t help that after you get hit you’re jostled around, thrown into a cage, and then jostled around some more atop a horse for many miles. And yet, the next day Aleksi not only wakes up, but is walking around, helping to push the wagon he was lying in two seconds earlier, and arguing with the Woodsman and being all “You’re not gonna try and hook up with Sorcha, are you?” with him. Seriously? If you’re that injured, you’re not going to start moseying around like nothing is wrong. I considered maybe as a dragon shifter he heals faster or something, but it’s never mentioned, and he even admits that he can’t shift because the arrows hit where his wings are. I just don’t do well with inaccurate battle injuries, that’s all.
Another issue that never gets addressed properly is Gwennore’s mother. She is the cause of pretty much all the problems the characters face, but she never gets the right kind of page time that I think she deserves. It’s revealed in the previous book that one of the men from the dragon clan went to Woodwyn as an emissary and then never returned. It’s surmised that he hooked up with someone in the royal family and Gwennore is the result. But what they don’t know — and never look into — is that yes, he did, but when the king found out his daughter was pregnant, he killed the emissary, sent the baby off to an island, and imprisoned his daughter for seven years. So, when people get all bummed the king died, that asshole deserved it. Besides, the feud between Norveshka and Woodwyn is only partially explained. While Gwen’s mom is behind the current strife, why were the two countries fighting before then? The king was in charge at that time, and Norveshka had to send an emissary to try to stop the fighting, so obviously he was always an asshole.
I realized this is Sorcha’s story, but I don’t think we’re ever going to get any kind of closure for Gwen regarding her mom, which is disappointing. Her mother is on the pages as a plot device and nothing more because she’s killed off in such a random, obscure fashion (although points are given because it was a rather unique death). She never gets to see her daughter, and she’s only ever portrayed as evil, which seems pretty unfair since we’re never given a glimpse at what she was like before the man she fell in love with was executed, her baby was taken from her, and she was locked away in a tiny room. She’s the epitome of a sympathetic villain that isn’t ever fleshed out, which is a shame.
The one big reveal from the bad guys, however, is a pretty impressive one, and I do admit to being very interested in seeing how the heck that plays out.
In Conclusion: Arguably this one is my least favorite in the series. There were many things that just needed more meat on them, but instead readers are left gathering what bones they can. While I do realize romances are supposed to be fun and I suppose relatively quick reading, this had the foundations of that, but overall it doesn’t stand very well on them. The focus could have been on that development rather than zeroing in so hard on the insta-love between Sorcha and the Woodsman. Building a world as rich and wide as Sparks has done — and is still doing — needs more time to show itself. So many characters deserve to be more in-depth rather than quick, flash-in-the-pan people who fall in love immediately and get married the next day, or simply used as plot devices for that end. That also includes side characters randomly hooking up with other side characters. These are stories that have a lot of potential if they would just slow down. Plus it would allow for more quality romance and perhaps better sex on the page as well.
The next book — The Siren and the Deep Blue Sea — is due out late August this year. And yes, I’ll be reading it to cap off my Embraced reading adventure. I want to see Brody and Maeve be the heroes of their tales, I want to see how the big bad Circle of Five gets thrashed, but I swear to God if Maeve decides to call Brody “Julia” throughout the book I am going to scream. (When they first met he was a dog, she named him Julia, and then despite being told that he was a dude and his name was Brody, she insisted upon calling him Julia because he was “too pretty to be a boy,” which irritated the hell out of me because to me that’s just an extremely rude and disrespectful thing to do.)
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