Title: The Forest King’s Daughter
Author: Elly Blake
Series: Thistlewood #1
Page Length: 384
Pub. Date: Feb. 11, 2025
Synopsis: Once upon a time, among the bloodred trees of Thirstwood, a young forest princess became friends with a lonely demon boy. 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 demon queen and 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 demons 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 folk and demons 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 readers breathless and desperate for more.
I’m happy to be on the blog tour today for The Forest King’s Daughter, the first book in the Thistlewood YA romantasy series by Elly Blake. The story started off really exciting, and I enjoyed the author’s writing style. It flowed well, and it was easy to immerse myself in the world.
The story is told solely from Cassia’s point of view, which I liked and didn’t like. Her character is layered and dynamically developed, and she’s definitely a character you want to root for. Cassia has not had the best life, and the way her father treats her is horrendous. I think she was treated so poorly and neglected that she latched on to any little kindness shown to her, but there wasn’t much kindness to be found. Something I really loved was the strong relationships she had with her sisters. These were the only positive relationships in her life, and they contrasted the other complicated and broken relationships well.
Since the story is told from Cassia’s perspective, you never get the thoughts and feelings of the other characters, and I felt like the book would have benefitted from having Zeru’s perspective too. He was such an interesting character, and I wanted to know more about him – what he went through, his family and military experience, and his overall feelings throughout the story.
There is an ex-forbidden friends-to enemies- to potential love interest, and it’s a complicated and slow-building relationship and romance. I loved it. There’s so much sexual tension between Zeru and Cassia, and I was really hoping they’d find their way back to each other, especially after all of the awful things that happened to both of them because of an innocent act when they were younger. I also really liked the messages and themes, especially the ones about forgiveness, learning to love oneself and own one’s actions, and how some use misinformation and manipulation to control.
As much as I was invested in the story, it did fall off a bit toward the end, which felt rushed and left me questioning some of the characters’ actions and the easy way many things fell into place. I have a lot of questions and am definitely interested to see how the story unfolds, and I’m hoping the characters and world will be explored more in the next book.
Special thanks to TBR & Beyond Tours for having me on the tour. You can check out all of the tour stops HERE!
The sharpest weapon is truth.
It’s easy to call things destined if you want them badly enough.
You burn through the days like they are wood, but you gather none of their heat.
Elly Blake is the NYT bestselling author of FROSTBLOOD. After earning a BA in English literature, she held a series of seemingly random jobs including project manager, customs clerk, graphic designer, reporter for a local business magazine, and library assistant. She lives in Southwestern Ontario with her husband, kids and a Siberian Husky mix who definitely shows Frostblood tendencies.
Her work is represented by Suzie Townsend of New Leaf Literary & Media.
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I enjoyed this one!
This sounds lovely!