Every year the dwarves under the mountain hold a competiton to find the fittest of them all. Astrid has never entered, her whole life being devoted to finding a cure to her curse; she can never leave the mountain. 

But this year, when the prize is unveiled to be the very gemstone that could help her Astrid not only finds herself entered by somebody else but ready to at least try her hardest in the trials. 

What she didn't expect was one of the biggest trials to be dealing with the mysterious shadow demon who has shown up, ruthlessly prepared and ready to take the gemstone for his own reasons. 

But Astrid isn't even lucky enough to get the time to dig into their rivalry as the gemstone is stolen and the two of them end up teaming up to get it back. 

As per the other falling for fables books this is a cozy, low stakes romance with found family, romance and fluffiness at it's core. I always enjoy that the author teases the next book in the previous ones to tie them together and that we get to see some old favourites returning. There are also dragons, unruly houseplants and a helping of chocolate loving friends and neighbours in this one that add to the vibes. 

It was really fun to see another aspect of the world the author has created as we've gone through sleepy villages and Yule festivals before but this had a real Kazad Dum (circa 2nd age) feel to it.

For me this is my least favourite of the series (take that with a grain of salt as I still love them all and I read this in one day) and that's because I didn't quite sense the same spark between our two main characters.  They both worked well and brought out the good in each other but I think we could have done with more time with them to really see them click together. 

If you like the rest of the series, Villains & Virtues or The House Witch I would highly recommend this (and the other books in Falling for Fables!)