J.M. Kearl

In hiding all her life, Layala prepares for the day the wicked High Elf King Thane will come to steal her— his powerful mate. She trains to take her revenge for the wrongful execution of her parents, who died for her freedom.
Now that day has come, forcing her to come face-to-face with what she’s hidden from: a dangerous, dark-haired, warrior king determined to marry her.
After she’s shoved into a black carriage pulled by six ominous steeds, Layala makes plans to take her captors’ lives and free herself...
...but Thane has a secret that makes it impossible for Layala to slay him. She has an even darker truth that makes loving her forbidden, no matter how much Thane wants to touch.

Dare to dive into this whimsical and deeply romantic story inspired by Hades & Persephone, The Lord of the Rings, and a sprinkle of Norse mythology. A tale that will grip you from the first page and stay with you long after the last.

Bow Before the Elf Queen

Megan

I know that this book is totally cliche and similar to a lot of other reads, but I still thought it was so fun. I loved Thane & Layala so much, and the side characters were equally as fun (especially Piper, Tif, and Talon)

The twists were super expected, but I didn’t mind that either. For 600 pages, this still felt like a quick, fun read!

M.G Derio 

I really enjoyed the first half of the book. I liked Layala and Thane first interaction, it started strong. It's obviously that takes inspiration in others book series, which was expected however I enjoyed the world building, the concept of the pale ones definitely it's worth exploring and I liked Layala's spirit. It got me out of a reading slump so I thought I'd become one of my favorites 
Half the book I think it became tiresome reading, Layala keep making the same mistakes; let's thrown away what we build on Layala and Thane due to a comment! Why not? 
I think the mean to be shocking but it feel a little bit out of place. 
I will wait for the second book

I'll give it a three bcs the main characters go off script a lot and it makes no sense, it takes you off the story. The erotic scene wasnt necessary and the vocabulary used was very cringe. Other than that is a very quick read and very topical enemies to lovers trope, very rushed tho.

Mofu

Rachael Wiseman 

I want to start by saying I thought this was an adult fantasy romance book... It is not. If you are interested in PG13 spice this might be up your alley. But that is not the only reason I am giving this 3 stars. First, yes, I am annoyed that this had ALOT of build-up and cute banter for it to turn into a very disappointing paragraph on how they finally consummated their "love" for each other and a FTB. It was very underwhelming for how much pent-up banter and actions happened between the two main characters.

Also, this book did not need to be 500+ pages... there was so much redundancy and Laylah's hate for Thane was exhausting after a while. If there would have been less inner monologue and more action I might have given this 4 stars.

The only saving grace was Laylah's gnome friend, Tif. She was spunky and funny. I guess for me the main characters were just too annoying and stubborn and I truly lost interest after the first half of the book. I think it had the means to be a good book but fell really short for me. I can appreciate the world-building but it was very lackluster otherwise. I guess not every book Amazon recommends to me can be trusted...

Lamis Gharzeddine 

I NEED THE SECOND BOOK!! 

I really loved this book the mc is such a badass with a sassy mouth and can defend herself but she does make questionable decisions and is very stubborn. 

I love that in this book the love interest (who is male) has not slept with anyone but instead has waited for the mc but was the complete opposite for the mc and she did have a love life before him. I just really appreciated that because it's not something that u will read often, cause most of the time the love interest is a total man hore while the mc is the innocent virgin. 

I always live for side character friendships and they had some amazing characters in the book, though the jump from * kind of * enemies to friends was a bit sudden.

The different Kingdoms or areas gave me ACOTAR vibes like different courts.

The pales one's where literally the white walkers from game of thrones.

Pamela Fitzhugh 

I loved Layla and Thanes dynamic in this. The storyline behind this just makes it even better. The betrayal and cliffhanger at the end is heartbreaking.

Lydia White

💳💥💳💥 SEQUEL PLEASE 💳💥💳💥💳 💥💥
April 15, 2022 
Ok ok, time for a somewhat more complete review I suppose.
This was probably a 4.5-5 stars for me, as I look back & try to think of the things I didn't like, I'm really coming up blank. This book is some back-to-my-roots, classic fantasy romance FUN. Filled with all those feel good tropes, in the best way possible. Sometimes I just want to be giddy and smiling like a little school-girl the entire time I'm reading a book, and Bow Before the Elf Queen did just that.

The vibes of this book were immaculate. For me it was reminiscent of Ella Enchanted, Tangled, with some LoTR & GoT sprinkled in. Some good shit right there.

I'm typically garbage at writing reviews about books I enjoy, so here's a list of the all the things I liked:
- arranged marriage trope
- reluctant mates trope
- there was only one horse trope
- easy to follow yet interesting world building
- world filled with fairy tale creatures
- best friend is a gnome (a highlight of the book)
- dual POV
- touch her (or him) & die trope
- FMC and MMC are equally violent
- male falls first
- PRONUNCIATION GUIDE AT BEGINNING OF BOOK (highly underrated)
- consistent pacing (starts strong and essentially continues that way throughout)
 
If any of these speak to you, I highly recommend you check this out! I'm probably going to come back and add to this if/when I think of more.
This book definitely has comfort read potential. 

p.s. J.M. Kearl, if you need beta-readers for #2 ... you know where to find me 😌

cw: graphic violence, discussion of suicide

I wanted to love this but only liked it. The fantasy is a bit of a hodge podge from other stories we've heard, and the relationship between Layala and Thane slow burned until it didn't and everything was a bit underwhelming.

Annie Beth

Jaycie 

I drunk pre-ordered this book, forgot about it, saw it pop up in my kindle library 4/26 right as I finished the previous book I was reading and thought to myself “might as well read what drunk me was excited to preorder!” AND I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! This may be the fastest I’ve ever read such a thick book. I devoured the story in less than 24 hours and am in love with the characters, world and magic building, and story. The character development was chefs kiss as was the banter. I am a huge sucker for enemies to lovers and love love fated mates/soulmate storylines.

I’m a little sad I finished it within 48 hours of it being published because now I have to wait for book 2!

vmknmy

layala frustrated me towards the end but very good overall, just wished she used her brain a bit

Mary

After seeing many booktok videos about this, I decided to finally read it. And oh my gosh is it good. I love the small bits of world building that the author adds without going into too much bulk where it only feels like world building. The main characters are fun, moody, and electric when together. The constant banter between the two had me laughing and yelling. The surrounding characters also build this story very nicely and left me excited for what’s in store. This isn’t a mystery novel by any means but it did have a bit of a “who did it” vibe that just flowed well with the story. Now this isn’t super spicy. It’s very slow burn and more on the YA transition to NA side but it’s worth the read. It’s about 679 pages give or take and depending on how fast you read, this can really fly by. I would like to estimate about 5 hours was spent reading this. My current (6/8/22) down side to this story is that the sequel isn’t out yet and I’m itching to find out how the rest plays out.

Scarlett A.

3/⭐️ - 0,5/🌶

This book was okay. Seemed very promising on TikTok, perhaps I went into it expecting too much? It felt a bit bland to me.

◾️ 3rd person POV (I prefer 1st person)
◾️ Fantasy romance between elves with magic (Lord of the Rings inspired)
◾️ A lot of tropes I usually enjoy: (soft) Enemies-to-lovers, Arranged Marriage, Mates, Forced proximity, Touch her and you die, One Horse, ... 
◾️ Slowburn, but I missed the chemistry between the MC's a bit
◾️ The pacing was on and off again. It didn't really grip me. I found myself wanting to skim sections.
◾️ The banter between the MC's I did enjoy.
◾️ This book is PG13 (fade-to-black), so while there is intimacy, it's not really described.

Bow Before the Elf Queen

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