Title: How to Love Your Elf
Author: Kerrelyn Sparks
Series: Embraced #4 (Embraced by Magic #1 *eye roll*)
Could have ended better but overall a joyous return to Aerthlan
I would like to thank Kerrelyn Sparks, Kensington Books, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Yaaayyy! They’re back! The Embraced series was my introduction to Sparks, and I’ve become a big fan. I grew concerned when, after the release of book three, Eight Simple Rules for Dating a Dragon, no information about the fourth book was forthcoming. Eventually I messaged Sparks via her website and asked if everything was all right. Just kinda tossed the message out into cyberspace, figuring even if she couldn’t respond to every fan mail, at least she would know a fan was thinking of her and wishing her well.
But about this time last year I was happily surprised to find an email from her in my inbox! She said St. Martins dropped the Embraced series without much notice—must not have performed well enough in their minds—leaving her to scramble to find another publisher willing to help her finish the series. Kensington picked her up, and here we are!
How to Love Your Elf is on par with the other Embraced books, corny title and all. I listened to the audiobooks of the first three to reacquaint myself with the characters and world, and fell in love with them all over again. I even liked book three more than I did when I reviewed it two years ago. The books have their flaws, but they also have charming characters and a fascinating world to explore.
So how did I feel about this one. In general, I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was lovely to see everyone again, and I even caught a callback here and there, like Brody stealing Sorcha’s bread as he did Nevis’s in book one. “Hey, that’s mine!” “And it’s delicious.” Also, the humor was to my taste. If you’ve read Sparks before, you know her characters can behave rather cartoonishly at times, but I’ve always had fun with it. That’s part of their charm.
It was nice to finally get to know Sorcha. I never got a good sense of her personality in the other books, mostly because she was hardly present, but my curiosity has been satisfied. It’s unfortunate how little her gift was utilized, though. It was a really cool power—she could conjure a flame in her hand—and made sense considering her background, but to my memory she only put it to use twice, in pretty minor ways. Sorcha was underutilized in general, now that I think on it. What did she do that actually moved the plot forward? … Hmm. Mostly she was just herded around like cattle. So Sparks probably should have crafted the plot to better utilize her—I think I made a similar complaint about book three—but ah well. Sorcha was endearing regardless.
The Woodsman, despite having a recycled plotline and motivation, was magnetic. Like Sorcha, I couldn’t get enough of his humor and charisma.
But I did have three issues with the book.
One: The plot was recycled from book two, which was disappointing to discover. A lost prince whom everyone thought was dead had actually grown up under a false identity, complete with disguise, and become an outlaw, though really he was something of a Robin Hood. Over the years he quietly amassed loyal followers, created a secret home base that was difficult to find, and plotted to take back the throne, all while undermining the buttwipes in charge. He even sent out notices to gather people to his cause when he marched on the palace. There were probably more parallels, but that’s all I could immediately think of.
Two: Sorcha’s underutilization, which I mentioned above.
Three: The end of the book bothered me in a few ways. Don’t get me wrong, I was ultimately satisfied with it, but it could have been better. Mostly it felt rushed, which factored into other problems: Sorcha and the Woodsman deciding they’re in love rather suddenly, and the very anticlimactic ends of Jenetta and Griffin. It felt like it got to a point where Sparks realized she was too close to her word count limit with too much story left to tell—or too much she hadn’t yet figured out how to conclude.
Sparks could write a long, epic fantasy adventure if she wanted to. The books in this series are, to me, like epic fantasy lite. Their tone isn’t dark and gritty enough, their plotlines not complicated enough, and they’re too focused on cheesy romance to truly be sprawling epics like the Throne of Glass series or Game of Thrones or Outlander. But you know what? I would be okay with that. I love the idea of epic fantasy that’s not depressing or uber political or super intense. I just need endearing characters, an exciting adventure in a fascinating land, a realm of magic and wonder, and guaranteed happy endings.
Epic fantasy lite. You heard it here first. 😉
Overall, I loved returning to Aerthlan and meeting new Sparks characters. I’m SO looking forward to the fifth and final book, The Siren and the Deep Blue Sea; I’ve been dying to know what happens with Maeve and Brody. They break the mold—ostensibly; I have a feeling they’ll wind up in the same situations as the other sisters, but at the moment both characters are delicious enigmas.
Oh, and last I knew, Sparks plans to return to her vampire series after Maeve’s book. She told me in her email that she planned to write about the children of the original group of MCs. I never did finish those books—though I intend to, eventually—but I’m curious to see what she plans to do with those characters. Maeve’s book should release late this summer, so perhaps we can expect the first of that new spin-off series by this time next year.
