🧡🌾Tusk Love 🌾🧡

• Thea Guanzon @theagwrites

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I was a massive fan of the Hurricane Wars so of course, as soon as I saw that Thea Guanzon’s new book, Tusk Love, was available to request on NetGalley, I ran! I am not a video game girlie, so forgive me if I say something blunderingly stupid, but this is an adaptation of the video game Critical Role. I have never played it and have absolutely no knowledge of this, so I went into this book very blindly and a bit apprehensively that it would mention a ton of world building I don’t know about because I haven’t played the game!

However, let me set your minds to rest. I loved this, and never once did I feel lost or as though I was on the outside of an inside joke. Instead, it read as a wonderful standalone. We follow Guinevere, a wealthy merchant’s daughter. When her carriage is looted by bandits on her way to marry a man she’s never met, she finds herself with no other choice but to ally herself with Oskar, who rescued her from the bandits (he also happens to be half-orc). This had a strangely vintage feel to it; it was a good old-fashioned quest fantasy, while also having a banging romance plot. It was low stakes, bordering on cosy fantasy which I don’t normally like but, what can I say? This one hit the spot.

The romance is sweet and tender and I loved both Oskar and Guinevere so very much. The world building isn’t extensive, with the romance taking centre-stage but I didn’t mind this one bit. We got enough to carry the story and that was enough for me.

If you’re looking for a delightful, low-stakes, quest-vibes romantasy this summer, let me just gently push this into your open hands.

Tusk Love releases July 1st. Thanks to @penguinukbooks for the digital ARC!