BOOKS | Review: A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova

 Name: A Deal with the Elf King

Author: Elise Kova 

Publisher: Silver Wing Press

Date published: November 2020

Genre: Fiction, young adult, fantasy, romance, retellings

Pages: 388

Rating: 5/5

 The elves come for two things: war and wives. In both cases, they come for death.
Three-thousand years ago, humans were hunted by powerful races with wild magic until the treaty was formed. Now, for centuries, the elves have taken a young woman from Luella's village to be their Human Queen.
To be chosen is seen as a mark of death by the townsfolk. A mark nineteen-year-old Luella is grateful to have escaped as a girl. Instead, she's dedicated her life to studying herbology and becoming the town's only healer.
That is, until the Elf King unexpectedly arrives... for her.
Everything Luella had thought she'd known about her life, and herself, was a lie. Taken to a land filled with wild magic, Luella is forced to be the new queen to a cold yet blisteringly handsome Elf King. Once there, she learns about a dying world that only she can save.
The magical land of Midscape pulls on one corner of her heart, her home and people tug on another... but what will truly break her is a passion she never wanted.

- From Goodreads.

The characters in A Deal with the Elf King were very loveable. I quickly became attached to Luella and Eldas, and the minor characters were well written too. Willow, Rinni and Harrow were really enjoyable to read and I would love to read more about all of them, especially Harrow who I thought had a very engaging character arc throughout the story.

The descriptions were beautiful, the world seemed very vivid and immersive, and the ideas behind the world building were so unique. It was a retelling, clearly inspired by stories like Beauty and the Beast and Hades and Persephone, but the author put so many inventive and new ideas and twists into it that it really felt like an individual story and world on its own. I am looking forward to reading more of this world and seeing what more ideas Elise Kova has for it.

The romance was written in a very addictive way. I had to keep reading to know what would happen between Luella and Eldas and I thought the tension and romantic moments were written very well. The ending was very satisfying and I was very happy with where the characters ended up after the journeys they had been on.

Overall this book was a really enjoyable one to escape into and I had so much fun reading it. There was not a moment that I did not like what I was reading and it just had everything I was looking for from a fairy tale romance.