Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana – Review

Published: February 27, 2024

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Series: Lore of the Wilds #1

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Pages: 349 (Kindle)

My Rating: 3 Stars

A copy of this book was provided by  the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
A stunning Romantasy debut about an enchanted library, two handsome Fae, and one human who brings them all together.

A library with a deadly enchantment.

A Fae lord who wants in.

A human woman willing to risk it all for a taste of power.

In a land ruled by ruthless Fae, twenty-one-year-old Lore Alemeyu’s village is trapped in a forested prison. Lore knows that any escape attempt is futile—her scars are a testament to her past failures. But when her village is threatened, Lore makes a desperate deal with a Fae lord. She will leave her home to catalog/organize an enchanted library that hasn’t been touched in a thousand years. No Fae may enter the library, but there is a chance a human might be able to breach the cursed doors.

She convinces him that she will risk her life for wealth, but really she’s after the one thing the Fae covet above all: magic of her own.

As Lore navigates the hostile world outside, she’s forced to rely on two Fae males to survive. Two very different, very dangerous, very attractive Fae males. When undeniable chemistry ignites, she’s not just in danger of losing her life, but her heart to the very creatures she can never trust.

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Lore of the Wilds has one of the prettiest covers and that, plus the synopsis had me smashing the request button on NetGalley. Cursed library, two handsome fae, magic… you know, all the stuff I can’t say no to. It started off great!

Lore Alemeyu lives in an isolated human village that’s essentially a cage. The Dark Fae keep the humans in Duskmere, ban them from trading their goods freely, and tax them heavily to ensure they can’t get too much wealth or power. After an earthquake ravages the village, Lore is offered the chance to have Duskmere rebuilt if she will simply enter a cursed library, catalogue the texts, and retrieve anything regarding magic or astronomy for the Chief Steward. While most of the fae actively avoid Lore or look at her with disgust, her guard, Asher, is kind, handsome, and treats her like a person and not a pariah. When Lore finds a grimoire and soon after finds out her village isn’t being rebuilt after all, she escapes, inadvertently catching Asher up in the madness. 

The two travel to the lands of the Light Fae, where they take shelter with Isla and Finn, two fae that Asher has known for years. Here Lore begins experimenting with the grimoire to learn how it works and grows closer to Finn, as he helps her translate the ancient fae language. Aside from the parts where Lore is wandering around this massive, wonderful library in the beginning, the part where she’s studying with Finn is my favorite. I thought Lore clicked with Finn much more naturally than she did with Asher and he’s definitely the stoic, grumpy type.

I am of the opinion that the relationships in this book feel forced. Lore and Asher hit it off reasonably well and the banter was cute… unfortunately, this quickly turned into them having the mad hots for one another unreasonably fast. This is a problem that so many fantasy romances have, but I expected Lore to be more of a distrustful skeptic, considering that she’s only had negative interactions with the fae her entire life. Her father was killed by them, she was almost killed by one in the forest, and even Asher was rude to her when they first met. And don’t even get me started on the plot twist at the end. I rolled my eyes into the back of my head so far my husband nearly summoned an exorcist. Not to mention, Lore decides to immediately trust Isla, a fae she’s never met before, get drunk, reveal she’s a human, and that she also has a priceless magical grimoire. 

I wanted to love this book and it started off well, but it started to feel like every other fae romance I’ve read recently and didn’t even have the benefit of some good spice. It had a couple steamy scenes, but I had so little investment in the characters and their relationships that I found myself skimming them. Aside from this aspect, it felt very much like a young adult novel that was aged up a bit to try to grab the adult audience. I was so annoyed by the character reveal at the end that I may not be able to forgive that particular betrayal. It was so cheaply done and did not fit that character’s previous actions AT ALL. Overall, I didn’t hate this but I was left feeling negatively enough about the latter portions of the book that I’m not sure I’ll continue with the series.