This is a great novel debut and I absolutely loved the characters. The wouldbuilding aspects could be better, but this is still great!

WOW! WHAT A BOOK! As someone writing their review right after I finished the book THAT ENDS ON A BIG PLOT TWIST AND CLIFFHANGER, I am dying!😭 This book was SO amazing! I was a little worried about the pacing and the world building in chapter 1 BUT right after that it becomes so fast paced and all of the action starts happening, which makes it IMPOSSIBLE to put the book down! 🤩
How could a book about magic, fae, A MAGICAL LIBRARY, a love triangle (with some enemies to lovers going on), and nicknames be bad?!?!?! I think in the beginning of Lore of the Wilds it definitely gives Mulan but with humans and fae which is SUCH a fun concept! AND for all of my fellow foodies out there: this book has the BEST food descriptions I think I've ever read! You'll be drooling over stew and dumplings in the blink of an eye!😂
I absolutely adored that this book was romantasy yet it was serious AND unserious all at the same time! And after the giant plot twist and cliffhanger, I am now going to be on the edge of my seat waiting for book 2! Thank you so much to Harper Voyager for an e-ARC of this amazing new romantasy that I cannot wait for everyone to get their hands on!💖

super fun romantasy. i loved the main chars, like, love love loved them :D it was so fun, and the fact that it's HUMANS who are caged is kinda unique. thanks for the arc, would recommend.

Still in my faerie girl era. Lore is a human, who is taken from her small oppressed town by the fae to search a library for magical books. No fae are allowed to enter this library, at the risk of death. Lore knowing that her town is oppressed and struggling, bargains for her town to receive much needed aid from one of the lords. But what will happen when she finds the magic books? Read the book to find out! I did enjoy the plot, my only wish is that we could have received more world building. There were so many types of faeries and other supernatural creatures, and I wish we could have dived more into the worlds of them. My favorite side characters were Isla and Finn! I wish we could have gotten more information on what they could do, and their back stories. This book does end on a cliffhanger, so be warned!

"A stunning Romantasy debut about an enchanted library, two handsome Fae, and one human who brings them all together.

A library with a deadly enchantment.

A Fae lord who wants in.

A human woman willing to risk it all for a taste of power.

In a land ruled by ruthless Fae, twenty-one-year-old Lore Alemeyu's village is trapped in a forested prison. Lore knows that any escape attempt is futile - her scars are a testament to her past failures. But when her village is threatened, Lore makes a desperate deal with a Fae lord. She will leave her home to catalog/organize an enchanted library that hasn't been touched in a thousand years. No Fae may enter the library, but there is a chance a human might be able to breach the cursed doors.

She convinces him that she will risk her life for wealth, but really she's after the one thing the Fae covet above all: magic of her own.

As Lore navigates the hostile world outside, she's forced to rely on two Fae males to survive. Two very different, very dangerous, very attractive Fae males. When undeniable chemistry ignites, she's not just in danger of losing her life, but her heart to the very creatures she can never trust."

Most people would be here for the Romantasy, I'm here for the library.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024, and it really disappointed me. The worldbuilding was barely there: we don't learn much about the world past Lore's town and a couple of other towns and cities. The library itself, which seemed like it was going to be a really large part of the book, given the summary, was far less relevant than I thought it would be. For a magical ancient library, it was pretty bland. Lore was a fine main character, but the love triangle really, really got on my nerves. Love triangles are never my favorite, although I do enjoy them in some books when they're done well, but this one was not done well. Everything in this book was really surface-level and honestly a chore to get through most of the time.

Lore Alemeyu’s people live in a village imprisoned by the fae, the price for attempting to escape is deadly and life is bleak. Then a deal is struck between her and the ruling fae - she will organize a library that they cannot enter, and they will help her people.

While Lore looks forward to the promised reward for doing the work, she also has her own reasons for taking on the task. Meanwhile, she meets Finndryl and Asher, two fae who become intertwined with Lore and her mission, for very different reasons.

The thing with the fae, though, is that they are a tricky sort - never make a deal with them without scrutinizing every part of it or you will be deceived. Lore’s determination sees her grow into her own during the story, her naivete understandable as someone who has grown in such an isolated place.

This is only the first part of the story, though, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Lore of the Wilds is a cozy fantasy that follows Lore, a young human woman as she tirelessly works to save her community from the fae oppressors. In exchange for her community's safety and resources from the fae kingdom, Lore agrees to travel from her human home, Duskmere to the fae world to work in an enchanted library. It is there she meets and makes an unlikely alliance with Asher, a fae who protects Lore and later travels alongside her in the journey. In this adventure we find found family, to an enemies to lovers subplot, and, my guess is the beginnings of a love triangle.

The magical world Sbranna crafted is lush and filled with wonderful prose that made me feel like I was alongside Lore. Her writing really stole the show, and in some moments, stole my stomach because the food in this world sounded unbelievably delicious. The world is cozy and fun, and I found myself wanting to be more and more immersed in it. One of the highlights for me was the enchanted library. This specific elements felt like a love letter from one reader to another, and I felt like Lore was living readers' dreams! (minus the human oppression that led her to that circumstance).

My primary critiques arise out of the fact that cozy fantasy is not my primary genre to read. First, I felt the audience needed a little more political and magical exposition to truly understand and feel the impact of the wonders of the magic along the backdrop of fae oppression. Sbranna interweaves themes of social political repression, including systemic poverty, substance use as a tool of destabilization and control, and forced birthing, and I felt like I needed some additional prior narrative of the fae oppression to property situate some of these violences. This is consistent in the magical world building--I felt left wanting a little more to understand the nuances of the magic system at play. Further, some of the plotting and pacing felt a little chunky. Some parts of the story received long chapters worth of exploration, while others were left relatively unexplored. One area where this suffered in particular for me was the character development and character relationships. I felt like I got the gist of the main cast, but they felt one-dimensional. Finn, for example is presented as being grumpy and annoyed, but we are never told why and I felt like there could have been some truly rich character building there that I truly hope Sbranna uncovers in the second book. I had a hard time believing the romance(s?) presented in this book--there was not a lot of tension building and it felt like while the intention was enemies to lovers, we didn't get the tension and eventual emotional hinge that shows us what pushed our main characters over the bridge from enemies into lovers.

Overall, I really enjoyed the concepts of this novel, but feel like the execution is one that didn't make me the right reader for this. And that's okay! I do see the strong potential in this story and believe it will rivet and engage many readers who enjoy cozy fantasy with enchanted libraries, cute FMCs (with a tiny bit of spice), and found family.

Huge thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for allowing me to read this early!

I am downright obsessed with this book! I first heard about it on TikTok and immediately knew I had to request it whenever ARCs went out. This has everything I was wanting and more. Character development, great world building, cursed libraries, fae, and diversity! Say less and just buy this book!

Really great fantasy world building and magic system. The story was fresh and exciting, and the characters were captivating. Lore, Isla and Finn are all relatable and their stories are interesting. pacing was a little off in the beginning, but eventually evened out. 4 stars

I’m torn on this one, because some aspects I absolutely adored. I loved the library and Lore’s character. The pacing, some of the other characters and a couple of plot holes/character moments that just did not make sense kept this from being an amazing read. It felt like it had so much potential, but just made a couple of wrong turns on the way.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

This book started off so strong for me. I was entranced and loving the idea of an enchanted library. The pacing in the middle and towards the end sort of slowed down for me but I was still enjoying it. Then the ending…while I’m glad there will be more books; I’m super upset by the “twist”. It honestly made no sense and I fell like it was unnecessary and took away from the book. The love interests in this was strong and enjoyable and now I feel like it’s messy and unlikeable.

I don’t know. Maybe book two will be strong and make me like book one more. I just had high hopes and now I’m just “blah” about it.

I’m really unsure what to rate this because like I said; I liked it up until the end.

3-3.5 stars.

I cannot overstate how much I loved this book. I was given the opportunity to read an arc from NetGalley and I will absolutely be buying this one for my personal collection.

It has fae. An enchanted library. The entire cast is people of color. You have high stakes and tense situations. It is beautiful. The only reason it isn’t a 5 is that some parts were distracting. A world of magic and horses with medieval style tech, but they know about adrenaline? Some of the dialogue was a little off, definitely a first novel.

But it was great and enjoyable. And I will read this one again and again.

The pros: a fae/fantasy story populated by brown-skinned characters and a black girl protagonist. A magical library!

The cons: Not enough time in the magical library. Pacing, especially in the middle. Aside from a "spicy" scene, this read like YA rather than NA (I love YA and I think this would be a standout if that's where it was!)

A great alternative to Sarah J. Maas, with a much more likable heroine. This fantasy tackles racism, generational trauma and PTSD with a gentle yet adventurous tale that I would definitely define as cottagecore.
The twist at the end made my jaw drop and I’m looking forward to finding out what happens next. I think this will be a popular pick for romantasy readers.

I have been looking forward to The Lore of the Wild for ages now, so I was thrilled when I was approved for an ARC. I am so happy to say that it lived up to the hype I built up in my head!

I will admit that the first half was stronger for me but I think that it is just because it has more of the tropes that I liked and I adored the setting! The story changes about halfway through and becomes more of an adventure, which isn't usually my favourite thing. That said, we meet my favourite side characters in the second half and it becomes a found family story! There are some repeated lines I found distracting and the pacing wasn't perfect but overall I adored this. The ending blew my mind. I really didn't see it coming. Can't wait for the next book!

Rating: 3.5

It felt like too much was happening in only one book. I liked the characters, and I didn't see the plot twist coming, so I'm looking forward to the next book.

Beautiful rep in romantasy, but at times felt more YA in writing and voice, and the cover matched YA more, often throwing me off every time I went to read. Pacing was also off at times.

"Lore of the Wilds" captivated me with its enchanting narrative and intricate story development. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey, but the unexpected twist left me pleasantly frustrated—caught off guard yet intrigued. Regretfully, getting an ARC heightened my impatience for the awaited book two.

While the main characters rightfully earned our love, I found myself warmly attached to Isla, Gryph, and Grey. Hoping to follow their journeys closely in future books.

As someone who didn't label themselves a fantasy reader, I am ready to embrace the genre, thanks to this captivating tale entirely. The book transformed me from a fantasy dabbler to an eager fantasy reader, hungry for more stories like this one. Thank you, Harper Voyager, for trusting me with this one.

I was lucky enough to receive and eARC through netgalley. This was a good debut book, albeit in my taste and opinion, a little slow. For those just getting into fantasy, it would be a good place to start. The world and magic is easy to understand. While this might be of my own fault, I found the book quite slow, boring, and predictable. I’m used to books that are very fast paced with twists and turns where the author connects things in impossible ways. I thought there was a few plot holes as well. *Spoilers ahead*
I found it weird how a human girl easily broke her friend out of the QUEENS castle? There was not even a little fight. I found it odd how fast the FMC fell for a fae guard- and found Asher quite predictable and felt that he would turn on her. Finn is another interesting character who we didn’t get to know almost at all, yet the FMC created this wonderful bond with him. I didn’t end up feeling very connected to any of the characters.

Overall the book was fine, just felt oddly paced and a bit lack luster.