OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: Analeigh Sbrana is a writer and visual artist. She lives in Delaware with her husband, daughter, and chonky kitty named Rey. You can often find her either writing books, reading books, or taking elaborate photos of books.

FORMAT/INFO: Lore of the Wilds was published on February 27th, 2024 by Harper Voyager. It is 352 pages and told in third person from Lore's POV. It is available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: For centuries, the humans of Lore's village have lived trapped in a dark forest. Any attempts to leave are met with a swift death at the hands of the fae sentries that surround the town. But shortly after a disaster befalls the town, a fae lord approaches Lore with a deal: if she will enter a library warded against fae and catalogue its contents, he will ensure the town gets the aid it needs to recover. Lore accepts out of necessity but also because she's hoping to discover something in the library that could change her town's fortune's forever: magic.

Lore of the Wilds is a tale that is absolutely charming when it tries to be a cozy fantasy, but tonal swerves prevent it from truly being one. The cozier aspects of the story are where it shines. From the moment Lore steps inside the warded library, the focus changes from survival to the soothing process of cataloguing books and cleaning shelves. As the story expands, we're treated with cooking, herb craft, and moonlit rituals, all of which make you want to snuggle under blankets as you read. This does mean the story begins to meander, especially in the back half of the book when it leans into the "low stakes" plotting, with urgency largely lost until the final 15% of the story.

But I have to stop short of calling this a true cozy fantasy because of the darker elements that intrude on the story. That includes not only some violence (mostly in the form of combat that results in some gruesome deaths) but some particularly horrifying reveals late in the story. In another book, I don't think I would have made a note of such things, but it was a jarring juxtaposition in a story that largely spent its time embracing cottagecore vibes.

(And if you're wondering about the fantasy romance aspect, there is one explicit spice scene).

Lore of the Wilds is also a bit rough around the edges in its writing style, particularly when it comes to dialogue. The dialogue at the beginning of the book felt a bit clunky, and while it seemed to smooth out as the story went on, that might also have been because the cozy elements were enchanting me so thoroughly that I forgave some of the odd phrasing.

CONCLUSION: Lore of the Wilds honestly makes me wish the book had whole-heartedly pursued its cozy aspirations. There were a lot of elements that charmed me, making me forgive the other elements that grated a bit. But the unevenness of tone makes it a bit hard to know exactly who to recommend this to (and also made me feel like the book didn't truly know what it wanted to be). It's cozy-ish, but one plot line in particular really makes this impossible to call a true cozy fantasy. But if cozy-adjacent is something you enjoy, there's enough here to make a pleasant read.