The Princess Blog

Ties of Bargains   by Tara Grayce  was one of three books I had left to read in the Tethered Hearts multi-author series . Though it wasn't my favorite of the series , it fits well with the theme of falling in love after a forced binding ritual. I enjoy that even though this series follows such a specific premise, every book I've read so far has the two protagonists bound together for vastly different reasons. In this one, the female lead is a fae mercenary tasked with delivering the male lead to his captor to fulfill a bargain. The book follows a traditional "road trip" formula and gets a bit repetitive before the satisfying reveal at the end. It takes place in the same world as her Court of Midsummer Mayhem series . Harm, the son of a powerful duke, would do anything to protect his family. When his older brother, the heir to the duchy, is poisoned by fae magic, his father trades him to the fae to save his older son. Harm goes willingly and meets Val, a mercenary who ...

As a member of the street team for the Sacrificed Hearts series , I have been eager to read these books about unexpected romance from many of my favorite authors. The series plays on the trope of sacrificial maidens  who learn that their "captors" are not what they appear to be and grow to love them. In other words, they can be interpreted as loose retellings of "Beauty and the Beast,"  one of the most beloved love stories. The first book in the series, Mountain of Dragons and Sacrifice  by Tara Grayce , is a quintessential starting point for this series. I recently reviewed Netflix's Damsel , which had a similar premise but was marred by modern agendas and stereotypes of what it means to be a princess today . In many ways, this story is the opposite of Damsel , taking a damsel who believes her life will be threatened by a fearsome dragon before learning she doesn't need physical strength to defeat it and that what is inside her heart is already enough. I wa...

Fierce Heart  by Tara Grayce  is the first book in the Elven Alliance series , a love story between a human princess and an elf. Unlike her  Princess by Night series, which only has one book, Elven Alliance has a healthy amount of both primary and tie-in novels. It contains a fully fleshed-out fantasy world with Tolkien-style elves that live hundreds of years. One of the many things I liked about it is that it demonstrates how true love  can be a choice if both parties are willing and isn't something a person needs to sit around waiting for, hoping that the perfect partner will just show up one day. This is the second book I've read by this author in which the main couple falls in love after the wedding. The first is Stolen Midsummer Bride , which focuses on the fae court instead of the elven one and does an equally good job of showing how arranged marriages don't always result in misery for either party. The main character in Fierce Heart  is a princess n...

Lost in Averell  by Tara Grayce  is a portal fantasy  where no one dies or takes over anyone else's body for a change. The book was recommended to me, and I figured out why when I realized that Tara Grayce was one of the authors who participated in the Villain's Ever After series . Lost in Averell is the first book in a new series called Princess by Night about a girl who travels between the real world and a fantasy land where she's a princess. I've read similar series in the past such as Avalon: Web of Magic  and The Tail of Emily Windsnap , and this one has the same level of magic and charm. I love these books because they encourage us to imagine that the magical worlds we love to fantasize about may be just within our reach. Half the time, Amy is an ordinary girl from Michigan. The other half, she's a princess of a fairy tale kingdom called Averell. Amy's story differs from many other portal fantasies about regular teenagers traveling to enchanted worlds be...