I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

You would like this book if you wished Uprooted by Naomi Novik was more of a romance novel. I enjoyed reading it, but probably would have enjoyed it more if that comparison wasn't always in the forefront of my mind. It was impossible not to compare them: they are so similar. In this book, the stakes felt lower and the characters, except for Imara, felt less three-dimensional.

The strongest part of this book is definitely the world building. It was an interesting fantasy world, a fun take on elf-like creatures and how their magic works. I also thought Imara was a strongly-realized character with a satisfying arc. I wish her male counterpart, Lajos, had had a similar arc, but he pretty much fell in insta-love with her and didn't deviate, which was a little boring. I like romance novels that are about both protagonists growing separately and together (especially when you get dual POVs).

Another main concern was that the title should really be "The Dragon Master's Bride" because

Spoiler

the current title and cover are basically huge spoilers for what seemed like what was intended to be a dramatic reveal

.