Book review:
"The Elf King’s Sacrifice" is a light, fantasy romance tale with a romance between a powerful elf king and an unusual human princess. It features friends to lovers amid curses and chronic illness.

This story is King Emerys' story, as told in a sort of 12 Dancing Princesses re-tell. Kate is a princess and when she falls asleep on her first night as a princess she finds herself in the Elf King's realm. She isn't like the other princesses and Emerys is intrigued, choosing her to be his wife. She believes that it is only so that she can break his curse, but she is willing because she has an illness that makes her weak, and her King fears she will never marry, so he, against a promise he made to her, finds her someone - a not nice someone. When Emerys offers marriage, she is happy to comply - but of course they fall in love! But all doesn't goes smoothly because Emerys must find his sister who is being held prisoner, and it could cost him his life to get her back.

Overall, the book is a sweet romantic story of love and loyalty. Several very satisfying endings.

Nice light read. Fairy tales that can be enjoyed by teens or adults. So far I have read the first 3 book in the series and eagerly await more.

Overall: 2.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥 (possibly 1 scene that is 1 sentence and only implied)
Humor: Maybe just a touch
Perspective: First person from both hero and heroine with alternating chapters (pretty evenly split)

Should I read in order?
I’m going to say yes. I jumped into this book but it felt like maybe some things were established in prior books like some family issues with the hero. The characters from the prior two books also make an appearance.

Basic plot:
Emrys has been cursed. His kingdom hosts human princesses every night as they are pulled from their sleep and transported to him to find a bride. Kate meets Emrys within hours of becoming royalty and they are instantly drawn to each other.

Give this a try if you want:
- Fantasy – elves, humans, magic, in a historical feeling world
- This is novella length (amazon has it at 185 pages)
- Basically no steam – a number of 1 sentence kisses and 1 implied scene at the very end
- Low angst and overall I thought it was low conflict (villain action at the end)
- Instalove feel
- Marriage of convenience
- Royalty – human princess heroine, elf king hero

Ages:
- Heroine is 30, I can’t recall if the hero mentioned his age but he’s much older as their lifespans are infinitely longer

My thoughts:
I wish I had enjoyed this book. But it was just so slow and uneventful.

Perhaps I should have read in order and I would have had a bit more character understanding and maybe understood this whole curse thing they were facing. As it was, I thought the world building was lacking a bit and I wish I had known more about the world and why things were happening.

I also wanted more character depth. By the end, I felt like while I did really like both main characters, I didn’t know them well at all. There wasn’t much tension between them, which being a low steam novel that may have been purposeful. They seem to instantly fall in love, both are caring and sweet to each other and work together to overcome the challenges the kingdom faced. Overall though, I was just bored. It was a bit slow with a lot of plodding through the daily activities and not much emotional pull for me at all.

What a breath of fresh air The Elf King’s Sacrifice is! It takes the fairy tale of The Twelve Dancing Princesses and combines it with a faery realm in peril to create a fascinating story. I loved the practicality of the human heroine Kate and her genuine interest in and kindness towards the shadow elf king Emrys. So it made sense that when Kate, a newly named princess after her brother unexpectedly inherits a throne, is threatened with a repugnant marriage that she turns to Emrys for escape by marrying him herself!

I struggled a bit to get into The Elf King’s Sacrifice. This is the third book in the Elves of Eldarlan series, and the author assumes the reader understands how the fey of this world work and what Kate’s situation is at the start. But once I got past my initial confusion, I warmed quickly to Kate and Emrys. They’re both likable, but they’re also relatable, as both make mistakes and assumptions about one another that make their path to lasting love less predictable than it seems at first glance. And I’m a sucker for a good marriage-of-convenience romance, and The Elf King’s Sacrifice has a lovely one.

There’s a great curse over Emrys’ and his realm—it’s what motivates the princesses to appear in his realm each night. Seeing Kate and Emrys realize what the various pieces of this curse are and how they might solve them makes for engaging reading. There are some minor issues here—Emrys’ countrymen can fix things pretty straightforwardly, and I did wonder what happened to Princess Mariella—but this book goes down so smoothly after that initial bump of confusion.

So if you start The Elf King’s Sacrifice and find yourself a bit confused, give it a chance. I was glad I did, as it was engaging, charming, and thrilling all at once!

It was a cute, sweet, fantasy kingdom tale! And it's also short, so perfect for casual, romantic read.
When I said sweet, I mean sweet. If you want dark, brooding elf king... no, Emrys was not that. He is strong, but sweet in his own way. Kate... well, I do hope she is a little more rebellious/stronger, but I still enjoyed this story a lot :)

(For some reason, it shows "Unable to find book with ISBN "9786103763822" on Goodreads" so I can't auto-add. Provided a link below, but maybe publishers could look into it so other users can post)

I never really read anything like this, but I wasn’t really sure how to feel about it. I felt it could use a stronger plot and more character development as the book continued. It isn’t a BAD book per say, just not for me.

This is a good story which is suspenseful and filled with action, adventure, push and pull, which all leads to a steamy and all-consuming tale. I look forward to reading more from this talented author whose work I recommend.

My Review
I received an ARC from NetGalley. Book comes out 06 Sep 2022.
I smiled right through this book. I loved everything about it. Emrys, the King of Eldarlan, hates parties. He stands in the corner reading a book (I can relate)while people enjoy themselves around him. When he and Kate meet, he is intrigued by her and they strike up a friendship. Emrys cares about his people and wishes to break the curse that he and his people are under. At the same time, he won’t force someone to marry him. After all who would want to enter what may be a loveless marriage? As Kate and Emrys’ friendship continues to grow, the two begin to open up to each other and agree to marry to in an effort to break the curse. As they both say in the book, they would rather marry a friend.
This book was just so sweet! And the glimpse of the world, its people and animals was great. I want more.
Would I read more from Elisa Rae? Yes. Would I continue the series? Absolutely. Given the chance, I would go buy the previous books as well as the one that follows The Elf King’s Sacrifice.

Until next time peace and happy reading.

I was eager to read something out of the box for me and I thought this take on Twelve Dancing Princesses might be it. But the plot is weak, it’s all tell and no show. There was no world building considering there are elves and curses and there was zero character development to Kate or Emrys. The title doesn’t even make sense. And Kate’s condition was magically healed and there’s a heavy “not like other girls” reason why Emrys likes Kate. Pass.

Another wonderful entry in this series. I love these books because they're filled with low angst, humor, and sweet relationships. Kate is a strong heroine dealing with a chronic illness while Emrys is dealing with a curse. A marriage of convenance helps both of them and bonus they fall in love. I enjoyed the breadcrumbs towards the end of future book characters and can't wait to read them.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this book, the setting and conversations between the main character and the love interest were charming. However, I was a bit disappointed during the latter half of the book because the characters barely had any significant conversations between them but they still grew fonder of each other. Overall, it was a light, charming read but I was hoping for more depth than we got.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

An Elf king and a human princess meets and falls in love. A very quick and fun read. I love the humor and romance in it. Love the hero and heroine together. :) It's nice that they are actually good people and people you would want to be friends with. A wonderful take on an old fairy tale.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I will be reading more from this author. Kate is such a mix of sweet and strong. Being thrust into nightly visits to an Elf King's garden opens up opportunities that are daunting. The gross arrogance of some made for some major snorting and eye rolling on my part. The ending was perfect.

A sweet story that has one of the most original takes on The Twelve Dancing Princesses, for the nature of the curse, the posy of princesses that's quite unique and that I'd never seen in a retelling for this tale before, and for the heroine having a chronic health condition. Oh, and the hero is so caring and nice!

However, mild spoiler here, I wish the heroine's condition hadn't been "solved" so easily. I'm not a fan of using magic to heal disabilities and life-threatening or chronic health issues, not without some price to pay and/or a realistic depiction of the condition's challenges first. I'd have loved it if Kate's issue had more impact and she didn't have to get rid of it. Although at least she wasn't too quick to accept the idea of healing, so that's a point in favour. I also liked that she and Emrys were both good people, and that their relationship grew from mutual caring and towards other people.