Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana
Fantasy Romance
Published February 27, 2024- Harper Voyager

Reviewed by Kate

I so wanted Lore of the Wilds to be a slam dunk, and while there are certainly parts of the book that I loved, I don’t think that as a cohesive whole it was as good as it could have been.

The first 40% or so of Lore of the Wilds was the best part of the book. Lore was exploring the library, figuring out the fae and trying to make sense of the world around her. This part was also where I best understood Lore’s motivation, as she wanted to help her village and her family, which made sense for what we know of her character thus far. There was a lot of world-building in this section that was interesting, and though I didn’t feel it got fully fleshed out, the concepts were interesting and original. 

However, as the story developed, there were some major issues. The pacing is totally off for a lot of the second half of the book. It felt kind of jumpy, not giving some scenes the time to develop before moving on to the next exciting moment. Additionally, there’s a love triangle, and I’ll be honest – at the end of the book, I still didn’t really understand why either of the men liked Lore. 

I think the main issue I had with Lore of the Wilds is that it really felt like it was written for a young adult audience, and then shoehorned into the “romantasy” genre by adding an explicit oral sex scene. The rest of the action, even including the violence, definitely would have felt at home in any YA fantasy novel, and Lore herself acted like a teenager in some major parts of the book. She kept doing really dumb things in the second half of the book, when she was supposed to be hiding from the fae authorities, which felt contradictory to the characterization of an organized, methodical and hard-working young woman that had been built up in the first third of the book.  

Lore of the Wilds ends in a cliffhanger with a twist that I felt was fairly obvious, but I will still likely pick up the second book, just to see how it’s resolved. There were so many open questions at the end of the book that I am curious about how they all get answered. If you’re a romantasy reader looking for new material, you might enjoy Lore of the Wilds, but don’t go in expecting a ton of romance – the main plotline is definitely Lore’s attempt to save her village. For a book advertised as romantasy, I can only hope for more romance in the second book. 

Grade: C

Content notes: Violence, implied rape (brief mention, not of the main character)