The prose is very lyrical and brilliant. So many lines had me in awe. The themes and metaphors of this book were like a fascinating fairy tale that draws you in. However, the romance was a huge part of this book and while I understand

their happy ending, I wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about them spending half the time miscommunicating and wondering if the other was mad.

 

TL;DR: A OG Romantasy in my opinion. A fantasy that focuses on the idea of love, in it’s myriad of forms, and a powerful woman. Loved this one. 

In full transparency, I vaguely remember reading this bad boy as a teenager. That doesn’t mean much (as I have memory issues), but it could have influenced how much I loved this. 

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is a classic fantasy about the wizard Sybel and her Beasts as she learns about love, man, war, and what the costs of those things are. A young man brings a baby to Sybel at the beginning of the novel and begs her to keep him and raise him. Begrudgingly she agrees, and she raises the boy. Some years later the boys family and the wars that they are involved in rise up on her doorstep. Sybel falls in love, and she most come to terms with those wars, her love and being caught between them. 

There are moments of darkness in this, and it’s very much a denser fantasy, spending a lot of time in Sybel’s mind or wandering along her world and various quests. But it’s all so beautifully told that I ate it up. Sybel grows in her power, and as a person. She goes from a cold wizard in her palace to a feeling person who makes big mistakes and must make up for them. 

There is a reason this is a classic in the genre, and I genuinely can’t recommend it enough. It’s a rich and beautiful story about love and hope. 

5 out of 5 powerful beasts