Synopsis

A Deal with the Elf King meets a Hallmark Christmas Movie in this cozy romantic fantasy featuring a handsome brooding Elf King, a quirky human baker, and delightful baking magic.

They said the Elf King had lived a thousand years. They said he was the most beautiful creature anyone had ever beheld. They said he took whatever he wanted. And Noelle was no exception.

For six hundred years, the elves have taken human masters of craft and maidens back to the Undying Lands of Ravensong as part of an uneasy treaty between human and elf. To be chosen is seen as a gift, as the families are richly rewarded. But to Noelle Baker, it is a curse. She wants only to bake all of her Christmas favorites with her family, until the Elf King comes for her.

Forced to leave her family behind and bake for the cold yet frustratingly handsome king, Noelle is thrust into a world of strange elven magic where she learns of a curse on the land. Infected by this shade curse, Noelle must hone her new baking magic to cure the dying land before it takes her life and the life of the king her heart is beginning to thaw toward.

(via Amazon)

Review

Wow-ee! As the first 5-star rated book of the year, I thoroughly enjoyed this standalone, and plan on reading more from this talented author.

This story follows the sole POV of Noelle Baker as she is claimed by the elf king as one of the masters of craft chosen to leave her life as she knows it, to live forever in the elf kingdom.

The world in this book consists of the human world and the elf world, which is separated by a sort of magical barrier behind a waterfall. The author provided a map, which is an amazing addition to any fantasy book. The story is mainly spent within the elf kingdom of Ravensong where elves and the humans who were chosen previously, live and work side by side. Throughout the book, we see more and more of Ravensong, as the plot thickens when Noelle becomes aware and infected with the same curse as Elden, the elf king. They must travel days north, to the mainly uninhabited castle of his grandfather where there are hints of the cure behind the curse that is continuously spreading throughout both the elf and human lands. On their solo journey, they pass through a couple of quaint and welcoming towns that share that cozy quality of small country cottage villages. Experiencing the beautiful elven landscape dotted with areas of frost-bitten blight, through Noelle’s eyes was a journey in of itself.

The magic in this book was done quite creatively in my opinion. The true nature of the magic is a bit of a spoiler so I will not divulge too much information but there are certain humans and elves who do have magical abilities. On the human side, it does appear to be attached to whatever work they are doing so you can maybe imagine what that may entail for Noelle’s baking.

Noelle begins the story fearful that she would be one of the chosen ones handpicked by the elf king. Her mother shared this fear as she has made Noelle dress as a boy every year the elves come for the picking. Inevitably, she is in fact picked, and she stews within her apparent hatred of the elf king and the whole elven race in general. As the group travels into the elven kingdom for the first time, she immediately begins to appreciate the beauty of this land, and those that call it home. Being ever wary of her elven companions, it takes her a bit, but she does begin to warm up to her position of baking for the royal family. She takes pride in her baking as it is her biggest passion. One night, she ends up injured by this shadow creature who ends up cursing her. This is what spurs the whole journey she takes with Elden up north, to find a cure. As the book goes on, she ends up opening up more and more to Elden and her true feelings as her true purpose become ever clearer. She begins to realize how wrong she had been to have such animosity towards the entire elven population, catapulting her to have some strong character development by the end.

Elden is the king of the elves who is responsible for picking the humans who will spend their remaining days within his kingdom. In the beginning, he comes off as quite dismissive of the feelings of said humans, but as the story goes on, you begin to understand why he was so stone cold. You can feel his sort of attachment to Noelle in particular of which, again becomes clear by the time they go on their own adventure in his kingdom. He is haunted by not only the past, but also his current predicament of being cursed by the same blight that is slowly killing his kingdom. As the journey goes on and he becomes more attached to Noelle, he begins to open himself up for something more with her, but first, they have to get rid of the curse that began with his grandfather. He goes from a bit of a silent brooder, to being the open and inviting kingly figure he was meant to be by the end. I will say, Elden probably had about the same level of development as Noelle which was perfect as it just cemented how positively I thought about their romantic journey throughout. It felt like they were giving the same amount of focus and willingness to get over some of those more negative mind sets and attitudes.

The romance between Noelle and Elden was super sweet and slow burn. They each develop these feelings for each other at about the same pace, so it felt very natural and even more swoon-worthy. There were some sweet kisses and terrible longing between them that kept me reading more and more. The finale of their romance in the book was pretty obvious but sweet none the less.

The baking aspect in this book I loved. As mentioned in a previous review in which baking was brought up, I myself love this same hobby so I could very much appreciate Noelle’s passion and enjoyment for the work. I could smell the kitchens as she was baking those cinnamon rolls and gingerbread men. The details with the baking/cooking scenes were enough to get the picture, but they did not dawdle too long.

While I am rating this book a solid 5 out 5, I did notice multiple times in which the same things were repeated. For example, Noelle and Elden would be talking about the same topics about their past multiple times, acting as though they had not discussed it yet. This got more prevalent the closer to the end, so I assume maybe it was an editing issue. This repetition did not ruin the overall enjoyment for me though, but I will mention it anyways since I could not find anything noteworthy to be critical about besides that.

All in all, this was a FANTASTIC book to read in Winter and after Christmas. If you love a deliciously sweet romance, set within a breathtaking elven landscape where the future of both the elves and humans are on the line, I highly recommend this book. As mentioned, I do plan on reading more of Lenore Stutznegger as she does have several other books included with Kindle Unlimited.