Review: The Forest King’s Daughter by Elly Blake

I received this book via the publisher . This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of this review.

The Forest King's Daughter by Elly Blake
Series: Thirstwood #1
on 2025-02-11
Age Range: 14+
Length: 382 pages
Reviewing Hardcover from the publisher
Rating:
Reading Challenges: 2025 New Release Challenge

For fans of Sarah J. Maas and Holly Black, The Forest King's Daughter is an enemies-to-forbidden-lovers romance from the New York Times bestselling author of Frostblood.

Once upon a time, among the bloodred trees of Thirstwood, a young forest princess became friends with a lonely boy from underground. 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 queen of the underground and the 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 enemies 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 and underground folk 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.

Fantastic read! The Forest King’s Daughter by Elly Blake is YA fantasy filled with romance, political intrigue, and fraught with tension. The book opens with a short prologue that sets the stage for the entire story. A young Dracu waits for his Sylvan friend in the woods with a special gift. This gift will be the third he’s given her sealing their friendship with an unbreakable bond. However, things go wrong when he slips the ugly ring onto her finger, and she promises to never remove it. The ring is a powerful relic from the ancients, hunted by both Dracu and Sylvan. When the ruling factions arrive to retrieve the ring, the two friends are split, and war begins.

Cassia is a princess of the forest, the Sylvan king’s daughter, and the fabled Deathringer. The cursed ring draws from her life force to emit a light that disables the Dracu army allowing her father’s forces. According to the histories, she should be able to kill the Dracu with her light, but she isn’t strong enough yet. Her father pushes her to her limits, seeing her more as a weapon than a daughter. I like Cassia. She is strong, a little stubborn, a lot naive, and loyal to her people. During a skirmish outside the walls, Cassia is captured by a Dracu, the same one who she befriended all those years ago.

I love Zeru! He is a battle-hardened Dracu who has spent the years since he gave Cassia the ring trying to earn his family’s honor back. Now he has a chance when he captures her on the battlefield to remove the ring and set things back to right. What he doesn’t count on is that the ring has bonded to Cassia, meaning that if it is removed, it could kill her and destroy itself in the process. At the urging of a seer, Zeru and Cassia travel to the fabled Welkincaster, an island in the sky and rumored home of the ring. Together, they search the history left behind in Welkincaster to find out more about the ring, its purpose, and who made it.

The plot of this one is slower, however the story itself is beautifully written. Two star-crossed lovers from two warring factions, they were brought up to hate each other, but neither can truly do that. Cassia remembers her friend, the sweet boy who would meet her in the woods while hunting for her tree. And Zeru knows Cassia’s true heart. If she were a killer like the one of legend, she would already be doing that. Instead her power lies in her heart, in healing the land and people she loves. Their romance, even friendship, is forbidden adding tension to the story.

Overall, I loved The Forest King’s Daughter. While the romance is a prominent feature of the story, the world-building is a close second. The world is reminiscent of the fae. The Sylvan reminds me of the Seelie fae and the Dracu of the Unseelie. The attention to detail and the history the author creates for this story is woven throughout the book. And all of the characters are fully fleshed out. This is listed as a first book in the series, and while it is left open for more, it can also be read as a standalone. Personally, though, I cannot wait to read more set in this world. If you are a fan of fantasy, romance, and the fae, I highly recommend it.

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