Amazon Cover
Shield Band (Elven Allliance Book 6) by Tara Grayce
BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON
Julien always thought he knew his duty…until an arranged marriage upends his future.
Prince Julien of Escarland was the kingdom’s spare. His duty is to quietly stand in the background at his brother’s side, protecting him and his heirs.
When it becomes clear that one more marriage is needed to secure the three-way alliance between the kingdoms of Kostaria, Tarenhiel, and Escarland, Julien agrees to an arranged marriage with a troll. He doesn’t know their language and he might not be strong enough to fit into their battle-focused culture, but other than that, how bad could it be?
As King Rharreth’s shield sister, Vriska is duty-bound to protect him and his queen. But she never expected her duty to include a marriage with a human.
An empire-hungry kingdom is lurking, seeking any weakness in the alliance. Will this final bond keep the alliance from crumbling? Can Julien and Vriska find love in a union based on duty?
Return to the snowy mountains of Kostaria in this installment of the bestselling Elven Alliance series, a no-spice, humorous fantasy romance / romantic fantasy featuring elves and arranged marriages!
MY REVIEW
I read this book based on a TikTok recommendation list about powerful love interests in a fantasy romance, where the female characters in a fantasy couple aren’t the “princess being rescued, but doing the rescuing”. And this book definitely delivers on that vibe.
Vriska is one of the personal bodyguards to a mountain king where all nobles must be warriors; she is so deep into the royal household she is considered his sister within their culture.
Prince Julien comes from a low-land human kingdom and has been the spare prince in-waiting, happy to serve in the military and then in his brother’s household – because no longer being spare would mean the loss of his closest family. When his brother-king needs a marriage alliance as part of a peace treaty, Julien heads into the mountains to court a warrior bodyguard/adopted sister of the new ally.
Warrior and Prince have to merge their countries in a strong alliance, stop incursions from a sea-power kingdom seeking to destroy the peace treaty, and discover if love can develop out of duty.
This fantasy romance is no spice, with only a few kisses, and has the POV alternating between the Warrior and the Prince. They both bring their strengths and weaknesses to the sparring ring. The plot and world are solid; characters each have their own wants and needs, but characterization isn’t as strong as the worldbuilding and plotting. I only read the sixth book of this eight-book series and it worked fine as a stand-alone.
These are just things I didn’t like as much. All of these particular items felt like personal tastes and not general downsides.
1. The cover shows Vriska as shorter than Julien, and as described in the book she either his height or slightly taller – not the typical 85% shorter than the male shown in the drawing. The picture could be interpreted that the rocky ledge area he is standing on is slightly higher than hers, which is why he appears taller, but, still, I don’t like it. (note – while uploading this review, I ran across the original cover, which, while “simpler” does have the height correct, so I like it better for that)
2. The characterization isn’t distinctly strong for me, but that could be me starting in book six of the series.
3. The author’s tagline on her website is “Humorous Fantasy with a Dash of Romance.” Snark, humor, and layers of worldbuilding … in the way I like them … aren’t in this book. Basically overall okay for characters, world-building, plot, and entertainment, but nothing exceptional. At least the way I like it. But that, I think, is more like liking mustard-based BBQ over ketchup-based BBQ – personal preference.
This book doesn’t match my personal preference. It was good, in my opinion, but not great. But I can see people adoring this book.