A Deal with the Elf King (Married to Magic Novels)

Product Information

In the blurb, the book is compared to Uprooted and A Court of Thorns and Roses, both of which I’ve read, and I understand the comparison, but it also diverges from those books in a lot of ways, so if you didn’t like those I would still suggest reading this one. Uprooted doesn’t really feature many characters other than the protagonist and the dragon, which is one of the ways this book is so different from it because the characters interacting with the rest of the world is such a monumental part of the foundation of this book. A court of thorns and roses features antagonists in a fundamentally different way than this book, the problems and the adversities this book features are very unique and require very different attitudes from the characters. The basic similarity would be that a human girl is taken to a magical world, but besides that, it’s safe to say this book is a whole new avenue in its own right. Veo vida. Él ve muerte. Dos lados de la misma moneda. Dos mitades que se necesitan mutuamente para existir." 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. Y cuando por fin lo tuve en mis manos, en ese preciso momento, la tentación se hizo libro! Vamos, es que tiene todo lo que me encanta: magia salvaje, un enemies to lovers de esos que desarman, un rey elfo frío pero muy y una heroína increíble!

I enjoy getting to know Luella. I love all her remarks and retorts. She knows what she wants and is a wonderful herbalist. Luella is a compelling character who is internally conflicted but wants to see the good in everyone. I like other characters as well, I just had schism with the elf character only. The romance: didn't care. Plot: didn't care. Characters: didn't care. It's not that they were unlikeable or I hated them, I just wasn't invested at all in Eldas (btw his name sounds like it belongs to a grandpa) and Luella, or their relationship. For all the people I see who loathe love triangles, ohmygosh I'd take one over a bland romance aNY DAY. One of them could've died at the end and I still wouldn't find it in me to care. You know what, that would've caught me off guard a little though because this book was also predictable as hell. I'm a simple girl, even a book being predictable isn't repulsive to me. As long as I enjoy it. But the combination of dull + predictable (very much present in this book) was just too much for me to handle lol. Then, we have the elf king himself. This was supposed to be some faerie/elf book but I never found one so humanoid. The couple had routines like a normal couple out there and the magic elements were not so evident. You were supposed to be the elf king, why so mundane (´д｀) I'm expecting him to act like the elf king he should be, somewhere more mysterious and complex. I wish he was a tad more mature and had all this brooding and poised composure but what was offered was quite disappointing.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. This is less of a Hades & Persephone retelling and more of an "inspired by" with Beauty & the Beast elements as well. I liked the contrast in magics we had between the two characters, with hers being nature magic and his being implied that it is tied to death (though not quite death magic). She had the spunk that I like to see with Persephone characters, with a mix of stubbornness but also very powerful magic and a desire to rule alongside him. I would say he leans much more into a Beast character than Hades, as he tends to be a little colder than I like my Hades characters, but overall I enjoyed their slow burn dynamic. El argumento, así como el sistema de magia y el desarrollo del mundo me ha parecido bastante interesante, pero al ponerlo en práctica le ha quedado muy simple. La autora podría haberlo desarrollado muchísimo más y le hubiera quedado una novela más completa. In the end, if I had to choose a character that I actually liked, it'd be Harrow and that is hilarious considering how in this status update, the someone I was referring to was him. But at least he was actually pretty interesting, although he obviously didn't appear as much. 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.

Si quieren un libro para leer en una tarde y para vivir una linda historia de amor se los recomiendo un montón. ☺️ Fue una lectura súper grata.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. I didn’t feel anything, I couldn’t feel the glittering magic of the Elf/Fae realm. I couldn’t feel the danger of it. I couldn’t feel the mystery of it. I didn’t feel the magic! I can't say I did not enjoy it at all. Regardless of its flaws it is a fun read, and I am genuinely looking forward to reading the following books in the series. Yet there is no denying that the book is entirely mediocre. The plot is interesting enough, but the pace is all over the place, going from slow to fast in the span of only a few chapters. The dialogue is often cringy, although I found that funny rather than annoying. I don't mind it too much since it makes me laugh. I JUST COULDN'T CONNECT with Luella as much as I wanted to. It's hard to explain... even though the book was written in the first person, to me, it almost felt like I was reading it in the third person. Idk.

THE ONLY THING I LIKED about Luella was her drive. I loved how she wasn't willing to just accept a shitty situation like so many other fantasy heroines. Instead, she took matters into her own hands and actually tried to fix the problem This book was just pure fun. It has all of the tropes I love, with Hades & Persephone vibes, and even a hint of Beauty and the Beast. MC is talking with her new "elf friend" or reading journals. Again some talking about plants, short argument with the elf king, again reading journal (sounds exiting right?) The romance was slow burn. But there was no angst to it, by the time the two kissed it felt like a meh scene. Had there been more angst, I would've considered bumping it to 4 stars. The chemistry was okay-ish. THE WORLD BUILDING and the concept of "Human Queens" was really cool. The world of Midscape was a big mystery at first, but throughout the novel, we slowly learned more about the world and unravelled the mystery behind the seasonsI didn't feel attached to any of the characters. Luella was kinda alright in the beginning and had me laughing once, but in the end, I didn't care much about her. She was pretty boring honestly. I mean, I expected an angsty, swoon worthy romance. I thought there's gonna be a lot of will they-won't they moment. I also expected a grumpy hero with a mysterious past (Yeah I'm that typical. Judge me) And I did say it was boring as hell in the quarter half of the book but as you go in the 10s chapter, it does get better. I think it starts when Luella met Hook! Love how the author accentuates Hook as a character even as a Fade wolf. The author made his presence promising, I love the interactions he had with other characters too. So yes, the sit of few chapters was insufferable but it worths it till the end as the climax and falling action looks favourable.

Obviously, Luella and Eldas’ relationship is chaotic and loud at first (because they scream at each other), but it does evolve into desire and love. While I appreciate the slow-burn, because I love the arranged marriage trope as long as it’s not insta-love, the evolution of the relationship felt weak at times. Not much of significance happened between Luella and Edlas besides researching and reading, and then Eldas went from being cold to openly carng about her. Sure we get hints that he’s interested and that he’s attracted to her, and I think the author was trying to go for a conflicted character because he likes her but he does not want to get attached to her, but to me, it felt more like a quite-sudden change of character. There was also a lot of drama near the end, and while I LOVE angst, this time it was just a big deal because of miscommunication between them so that annoyed me a little. El reino de los elfos elige a una reina humana en cada generación para que se encargue de mantener la primavera y mantener el acuerdo entre ambos reinos. Esta reina es la única humana capaz de hacer magia y apenas es detectada debe casarse con el rey de los elfos y vivir en su tierra.

The main characters- Eldas (MMC) and Luella (FMC) were okay, they did not have much depth to them, which is why they are quite forgettable. Eldas although has his sweet and sexy moments, he also comes across as rigid, and overpowered Luella. Luella, although is a selfless character but has nothing else to her personality. She is a healer and a queen but somehow she doesn't have anything to offer. Mantendré las piedras angulares. Utilizaré los poderes conferidos a mi sangre por el destino para el mejoramiento de todos nosotros. Para la paz. Respetaré el orden que es tanto natural como creado”. NO SÉ TÚ, pero yo soy de tentaciones; paqué negarlo, y menos a estas alturas en las que caer en la tentación se ha convertido en mi deporte favorito de riesgo🪂 Vamos, que esta disciplina debería de tener su medalla olímpica. Es más, me veo compitiendo y llevándome unos batacazos en plan plancha que ni te digo🤭. The way I don't know how to write this review... I haven't written a 2-star review in sO long (not since Shatter Me, which btw I read two years ago). Also, I was going to rate this 3-stars but I realized how unfair that would be to the books I've read and rated 3 stars out of 5. So, what was this book's crime? Pasando a los personajes. Aquí siento un poco de amor-odio. Por un lado, me han gustado en gran medida sin embargo por otro lado me han parecido muy planos y no entendía algunos de sus comportamientos a lo largo de la historia. También estaba el hecho que las interacciones pasaban de “conocidos” a “amigos” en medio de un capitulo y yo sinceramente no lo veía factible. La historia de amor tres cuartos de lo mismo, creo que necesitaba mucho más desarrollo.