Week 7 Review: The Forest King's Daughter

From Goodreads:

For fans of Sarah J. Maas and Holly Black, The Forest King's Daughter is an enemies-to-forbidden-lovers romance from the New York Times bestselling author of Frostblood .

Once upon a time, among the bloodred trees of Thirstwood, a young forest princess became friends with a lonely boy from underground. He gifted her an amber ring, a worthless trinket—or so he thought—because no sooner did he slide it onto her finger than the queen of the underground and the forest king declared war.

Years later, Cassia is a crucial force in her father's army, wielding her ring of light that can blind and disorient hundreds of enemies at a time. Then battle-hardened Zeru abducts her, planning to steal the ring back to fix his costly childhood mistake. Exhausted, terrified, and more than a little mistrusting, Cassia is forced to travel with Zeru to a place they both believed only existed in storybooks, one where their childhood friendship slowly rekindles into something much more. But it's only a matter of time before the war they've escaped comes for them, and a hidden threat to forest and underground folk alike grows in the shadows.

From the author of the Frostblood Saga comes the first book in an enchanting, adventure-filled fantasy series about the daughters of the powerful forest king, sure to leave listeners breathless and desperate for more.

My Review:
Reading this book was so fantastic! I've enjoyed her other series, and I was looking forward to reading this book, so getting the audio arc was really great, and I picked it as soon as I could! And oh, I'm glad that I did, it was such a great read!

When the prologue set up the story, of these two groups who co-existed uneasily, but when these two kids form a friendship, and he gives her an seemingly insignificant gift, well, it causes a huge rupture, and l felt so bad for the pair of them, they were just children, and they didn't know what was going on. 

Then we get to the bulk of the story, years later with Cassia the bearer of the ring, and being told that's her purpose, and she's not doing it right, and that's a lot of pressure to be under, especially given that she's been under that pressure basically since she got the ring.

I loved watching her come into her own, to learn more about the ring and how it works, as well as spend time with Zeru, in their friends to enemies to lovers arc. I really adored their relationship and how it grew and changed. Watching her learn gave us the opportunity to explore the world and it's history, and I'm excited to see more in the future installments! 

Loved reading this book, and I can't wait to see where this series goes from here! 

Author: Elly Blake 
Series: Thirstwood #1
Read: February 10th, 2025 
Source: NetGalley 
Reason Why: Love her writing and it sounded really good, and it's a Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2025 Book and a WoW Book! 
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Published: February 11th 2025

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars