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Tree Gods
Once, we Drus were as the Dryads: eternally in our roots, one forever with the forest. But we were not content. We longed for form, to set us apart from the trees. So the Dryads gave us the bodies of men, and trapped our spirits in mortal flesh…
Holly Hillwalker has never dealt well with the curse of the Drus. He hates his humanity, and never more than now, when the magic of the forest is failing and it’s up to him to save his people. Tristan Grueder, part-owner of the local sawmill is coming back to town, and a cloud of blood and death follows in his wake. Holly will do everything he can to stop him.
Tristan has no idea of the hatred the forest holds for him and his family. They’re just trees. And his sister’s business is in trouble. He’s going to help her get their company on solid financial ground again and then he’s leaving. Tennga, Georgia has never felt like home to him, and there’s nothing that could ever convince him to put down roots there. Until he meets Holly Hillwalker.
It's a bad time for a lonely man to find his soulmate. It’s a terrible time for a would-be King of Trees to fall for a human. And if there’s one thing the enchanted forest won’t tolerate, it’s a human and Drus in love. The forest issues an ultimatum.
He who is to be king must bring the man here to the sacred spring to die…
Holly Hillwalker has never dealt well with the curse of the Drus. He hates his humanity, and never more than now, when the magic of the forest is failing and it’s up to him to save his people. Tristan Grueder, part-owner of the local sawmill is coming back to town, and a cloud of blood and death follows in his wake. Holly will do everything he can to stop him.
Tristan has no idea of the hatred the forest holds for him and his family. They’re just trees. And his sister’s business is in trouble. He’s going to help her get their company on solid financial ground again and then he’s leaving. Tennga, Georgia has never felt like home to him, and there’s nothing that could ever convince him to put down roots there. Until he meets Holly Hillwalker.
It's a bad time for a lonely man to find his soulmate. It’s a terrible time for a would-be King of Trees to fall for a human. And if there’s one thing the enchanted forest won’t tolerate, it’s a human and Drus in love. The forest issues an ultimatum.
He who is to be king must bring the man here to the sacred spring to die…
ebook
Published March 15, 2024
315 people want to read
About the author
R. Lee Fryar
5 books42 followersR. Lee Fryar is a writer from the River Valley region of Arkansas. She writes paranormal romance and fantasy. Most of the time, there’s kissing in it. When she isn’t writing, she is a bad gardener, a slightly better watercolor artist, and a pretty decent cook.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 13, 2024
I adore a forest book and this just hit everything I wanted! Tree Gods is a contemporary fantasy with a deeply romantic core, and revolves around the story of Tristan, freshly returned to his Appalachian mountain home after a bad break up, and Holly, a member of the notorious Hillwaker family and secret eldritch tree god vying for kingship in his community. With its queer romance, gorgeous foresty imagery and elements of eldritch horror, it reminded me of Emily Tesh’s Greenhollow duology with a little bit of Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo thrown in the mix.
The atmosphere was truly remarkable and I loved how poetic Holly’s POV was in particular, and the tree elements changing his human-like body were so imaginative and well done. I loved how tender the romance was and the forbidden nature of their love. Plus the plot was genuinely intriguing with the Drus community politics and the environmental/ deforestation themes with the sawmill operation. I didn’t want to put it down!
Overall, I really enjoyed this story and can’t wait to read whatever else the author might write!
The atmosphere was truly remarkable and I loved how poetic Holly’s POV was in particular, and the tree elements changing his human-like body were so imaginative and well done. I loved how tender the romance was and the forbidden nature of their love. Plus the plot was genuinely intriguing with the Drus community politics and the environmental/ deforestation themes with the sawmill operation. I didn’t want to put it down!
Overall, I really enjoyed this story and can’t wait to read whatever else the author might write!
June 24, 2024
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to fall in love with a tree?
That's the crux of R Lee Fryar's Tree Gods, a swooning, sylvan romance with environmentalist overtones and a dash of faerie politics. Returning to his childhood home in Tennga, Georgia for the first time in years, Tristan Grueder has no intention of entering a generations-spanning conflict between the strange Hillwalker clan and the flailing Grueder family sawmill. He definitely doesn't expect to fall in love with Holly Hillwalker, who, unbeknownst to Tristan, is a tree spirit in human form.
What unfolds is a somber tale full of passionate longing, forbidden trysts, and the ever-present pull between duty and desire. The love affair between Tristan and Holly treads that delicate line of being earnest and complicated, without becoming cumbersome or laden with misunderstandings. As someone who does not often pursue romantasy reads, there was also enough external conflict to keep me interested, and Fryar's lush, moody prose keeps the pages turning.
Fryar also treats the people of this small town with an affectionate hand. It would be easy to paint the humans as tree-killing monsters (which the book does, to some extent) and the absolute villains of the tale, but the story's main antagonist comes from a more nuanced place.
All in all, I was satisfied with my venture into this urban fantasy. Tree Gods is a queer romance that will scratch the genre itch for those who are not looking for epic quests or world-savings stakes, but something a bit more grounded and personal.
That's the crux of R Lee Fryar's Tree Gods, a swooning, sylvan romance with environmentalist overtones and a dash of faerie politics. Returning to his childhood home in Tennga, Georgia for the first time in years, Tristan Grueder has no intention of entering a generations-spanning conflict between the strange Hillwalker clan and the flailing Grueder family sawmill. He definitely doesn't expect to fall in love with Holly Hillwalker, who, unbeknownst to Tristan, is a tree spirit in human form.
What unfolds is a somber tale full of passionate longing, forbidden trysts, and the ever-present pull between duty and desire. The love affair between Tristan and Holly treads that delicate line of being earnest and complicated, without becoming cumbersome or laden with misunderstandings. As someone who does not often pursue romantasy reads, there was also enough external conflict to keep me interested, and Fryar's lush, moody prose keeps the pages turning.
Fryar also treats the people of this small town with an affectionate hand. It would be easy to paint the humans as tree-killing monsters (which the book does, to some extent) and the absolute villains of the tale, but the story's main antagonist comes from a more nuanced place.
All in all, I was satisfied with my venture into this urban fantasy. Tree Gods is a queer romance that will scratch the genre itch for those who are not looking for epic quests or world-savings stakes, but something a bit more grounded and personal.
March 2, 2024
Man tries to kill trees. Trees try to kill man. Man and tree fall in love. That's the bare bones but still intriguing concept behind this beautifully passionate book about natural enemies turned lovers. With an emphasis on natural, of course.
The book opens with Holly emerging from his tree and, reading his perspective, I was brought back to being six years old and going to a gift shop with toys and other things made out of redwoods. On the walls were black and white photos of loggers standing in front of enormous fallen trees about twice their height and over half a dozen people across. Having played in redwoods many times before then, I felt horrified. Oddly enough, after that I'd see a cut branch and those round rings inside made it feel like an arm cut off and seeing its insides of bones and blood. To this day, I have trouble looking at cleanly cut plants.
So, I immediately connected with Holly despite him being a Drus (tree that becomes a man) in a way that perhaps not every reader will. But, when I say this book is passionate, I don't mean it's some anti-logging story. I felt just as much contempt for the trees as for the humans cutting them. I mean that the emotions, whether love or hate, are very intense. At one point I wanted to burn down the forest. I really couldn't see how the two protagonists could be together with their worlds so different and basically at war with each other, but the romance gave me hope, as good romance tends to do.
The story then follows Tristan as he is called back to his childhood hometown by his sister to help their family's logging business move forward with a project to restore a ship using old growth trees just like the ones it was originally built with. It's preserving a piece of history the way it was intended, so the violent upset of the Hillwalkers (what the Drus call themselves when pretending to be human) seems unreasonable and those men come off as psychotic.
On the other hand, after Holly's emergence from his tree as a man, he's going to be the king of the forest so long as he can protect it from the humans, unless of course his rival gets in the way. To him, Tristan represents all the tree killers, a senseless murderer who must be stopped by any means necessary before it's too late and the screams of the Dryads echo through the forest.
The story was pitched as Romeo falling for Tybalt, but Tybalt's family is a bunch of murderous trees. That definitely gives a sense of the tone, as this is definitely no rom-com and danger is an ever-present part of the enemies-to-lovers romance, but the divide between Holly and Tristan's worlds are far more stark than some family feud. At times it feels like one can't live while the other does.
What pulls the conflict together and supplies much needed hope is their blossoming feelings for one another. This is mixed in with an intriguing world building, with consistent use of how magic works and the history of the Drus. And, yes, there's descriptions of Holly's roots even in intimate scenes, which can feel strange, but it's handled in a touching way that allowed me to appreciate the beauty that Tristan saw when Holly was himself.
The tone of Tree Gods is very dark at times, with definite horror elements, and there's not as much lightness as I would have liked, but it has a unique ability to use romance and poetic writing to make what could be disturbing beautiful. So, while not for everyone, I'd still recommend this to fans of MM romantasies, specifically if you enjoy the enemies-to-lovers trope, as this sets a high bar for that. Just keep in mind that, like with the Romeo and Juliet reference in the pitch, there is violence, blood, and plenty of hate. There's just also the beauty of a love bound to nature, which makes it also ideal for fans of nature too. 💚
The book opens with Holly emerging from his tree and, reading his perspective, I was brought back to being six years old and going to a gift shop with toys and other things made out of redwoods. On the walls were black and white photos of loggers standing in front of enormous fallen trees about twice their height and over half a dozen people across. Having played in redwoods many times before then, I felt horrified. Oddly enough, after that I'd see a cut branch and those round rings inside made it feel like an arm cut off and seeing its insides of bones and blood. To this day, I have trouble looking at cleanly cut plants.
So, I immediately connected with Holly despite him being a Drus (tree that becomes a man) in a way that perhaps not every reader will. But, when I say this book is passionate, I don't mean it's some anti-logging story. I felt just as much contempt for the trees as for the humans cutting them. I mean that the emotions, whether love or hate, are very intense. At one point I wanted to burn down the forest. I really couldn't see how the two protagonists could be together with their worlds so different and basically at war with each other, but the romance gave me hope, as good romance tends to do.
The story then follows Tristan as he is called back to his childhood hometown by his sister to help their family's logging business move forward with a project to restore a ship using old growth trees just like the ones it was originally built with. It's preserving a piece of history the way it was intended, so the violent upset of the Hillwalkers (what the Drus call themselves when pretending to be human) seems unreasonable and those men come off as psychotic.
On the other hand, after Holly's emergence from his tree as a man, he's going to be the king of the forest so long as he can protect it from the humans, unless of course his rival gets in the way. To him, Tristan represents all the tree killers, a senseless murderer who must be stopped by any means necessary before it's too late and the screams of the Dryads echo through the forest.
The story was pitched as Romeo falling for Tybalt, but Tybalt's family is a bunch of murderous trees. That definitely gives a sense of the tone, as this is definitely no rom-com and danger is an ever-present part of the enemies-to-lovers romance, but the divide between Holly and Tristan's worlds are far more stark than some family feud. At times it feels like one can't live while the other does.
What pulls the conflict together and supplies much needed hope is their blossoming feelings for one another. This is mixed in with an intriguing world building, with consistent use of how magic works and the history of the Drus. And, yes, there's descriptions of Holly's roots even in intimate scenes, which can feel strange, but it's handled in a touching way that allowed me to appreciate the beauty that Tristan saw when Holly was himself.
The tone of Tree Gods is very dark at times, with definite horror elements, and there's not as much lightness as I would have liked, but it has a unique ability to use romance and poetic writing to make what could be disturbing beautiful. So, while not for everyone, I'd still recommend this to fans of MM romantasies, specifically if you enjoy the enemies-to-lovers trope, as this sets a high bar for that. Just keep in mind that, like with the Romeo and Juliet reference in the pitch, there is violence, blood, and plenty of hate. There's just also the beauty of a love bound to nature, which makes it also ideal for fans of nature too. 💚
January 22, 2024
A deeply romantic contemporary fantasy with tree gods who lean towards eldritch horror vibes, forbidden romance, complex morals, and a strong dash of environmentalism. This was a gripping read!
Thank you to the author for the arc! Opinions are my own.
Thank you to the author for the arc! Opinions are my own.
Did Not Finish
April 12, 2024DNF @ 24%
This was just not for me. While I love the idea of any kind of of magical tree person, and the promotional email said it was inspired by Romeo & Juliet, but with Tybalt as the love interest (I'm unsure if I didn't get far enough to see that comp, or if the idea was just too far from what was actually on the page) but this didn't pan out. I simply didn't like the characters and it seemed like the romance was going to be mostly focused on sudden infatuation and then sex- which I guess is how these types of romances tend to go, but isn't any fun for me.
Thank you anyway, Midnight Meadow, for the ARC!
This was just not for me. While I love the idea of any kind of of magical tree person, and the promotional email said it was inspired by Romeo & Juliet, but with Tybalt as the love interest (I'm unsure if I didn't get far enough to see that comp, or if the idea was just too far from what was actually on the page) but this didn't pan out. I simply didn't like the characters and it seemed like the romance was going to be mostly focused on sudden infatuation and then sex- which I guess is how these types of romances tend to go, but isn't any fun for me.
Thank you anyway, Midnight Meadow, for the ARC!
March 6, 2024
I received an eARC from the author in exchange for an honest review. It has not affected my opinions.
TREE GODS is a novel with a great world that evokes rural America.
The book brilliantly evokes the sense of a rural community where everyone knows everyone and has for generations, and very much has its prejudices. The Hillwalkers are the outcasts, looked down on and blamed for everything. The local dialect also come across strongly in speech, furthering the sense of the world it happens in.
This attention to detail in the world building is most obvious in the drus and Holly's narration as metaphors and idioms are all natural in theme. Non-human mindsets are so hard to convey in fiction, making them accessible enough to the reader while also making it obvious this is not a human, but it is done well here.
This is a solid story but it didn't pull me in as much as I wanted. I kept putting it down and doing chores or dealing with emails. I'm not quite sure what it was that led to this, but it's this sense of not being utterly drawn in that means it's a three stars review. Something wasn't personally clicking despite the great world building.
I'm not sure if this is a standalone or series. I can't see anything saying it's a series, but I seem to remember R. talking about it as a series a few years back. The story feels wrapped up, but there is scope for more as the humans and drus have to learn to live together.
TREE GODS is a novel with a great world that evokes rural America.
The book brilliantly evokes the sense of a rural community where everyone knows everyone and has for generations, and very much has its prejudices. The Hillwalkers are the outcasts, looked down on and blamed for everything. The local dialect also come across strongly in speech, furthering the sense of the world it happens in.
This attention to detail in the world building is most obvious in the drus and Holly's narration as metaphors and idioms are all natural in theme. Non-human mindsets are so hard to convey in fiction, making them accessible enough to the reader while also making it obvious this is not a human, but it is done well here.
This is a solid story but it didn't pull me in as much as I wanted. I kept putting it down and doing chores or dealing with emails. I'm not quite sure what it was that led to this, but it's this sense of not being utterly drawn in that means it's a three stars review. Something wasn't personally clicking despite the great world building.
I'm not sure if this is a standalone or series. I can't see anything saying it's a series, but I seem to remember R. talking about it as a series a few years back. The story feels wrapped up, but there is scope for more as the humans and drus have to learn to live together.
July 8, 2024
While this was a bit slow to start, and I still find myself in a bit of a reading rut, I really enjoyed this.
Tristan makes for a a great Sad Boy TM. I enjoyed his character. I liked Holly. I suppose he was a Sad Drus TM. Willow, Hemlock, even Rhododendron were intereresting.
This is definitely a slowburn. And I love a slowburn. The book itself is a bit long, and felt a bit long at times… but at the same time, I don’t know what could have been trimmed and could have easy read another 100-200 pages about Tristan and Holly.
There‘a no epilogue, and for those who know me, know that I love a book without an epilogue. I don’t want or need my endings tied up with a neat little bow. In fact, I think that trying to do so in this case would be impossible So, I think it ended on a perfect note.
Tristan makes for a a great Sad Boy TM. I enjoyed his character. I liked Holly. I suppose he was a Sad Drus TM. Willow, Hemlock, even Rhododendron were intereresting.
This is definitely a slowburn. And I love a slowburn. The book itself is a bit long, and felt a bit long at times… but at the same time, I don’t know what could have been trimmed and could have easy read another 100-200 pages about Tristan and Holly.
There‘a no epilogue, and for those who know me, know that I love a book without an epilogue. I don’t want or need my endings tied up with a neat little bow. In fact, I think that trying to do so in this case would be impossible So, I think it ended on a perfect note.
March 16, 2024
This was such a heartwarming story! From the first page you are immersed in this world.
This is a very unique story, I have never read anything like it and I loved it so much. Our two main characters: Tristan and Holly are... I even have no words for how amazing they are. Through the story there is an enormous character developed, but they kept fighting for what field right for them even if in the end it wasn't the same as in the beginning.
This book makes you respect the trees more, let you look at them on a whole other way. You appreciate them more, you stand still by the beauty of them.
This book held a lot of emotions and action. I also loved that the prologue and the last chapter almost started with the same sentence.
This book was truly amazing, I am sad I now have to say goodbye to all the amazing characters.
Last but not least I want to thank the author and midnight meadow for providing me with an earc.
This is a very unique story, I have never read anything like it and I loved it so much. Our two main characters: Tristan and Holly are... I even have no words for how amazing they are. Through the story there is an enormous character developed, but they kept fighting for what field right for them even if in the end it wasn't the same as in the beginning.
This book makes you respect the trees more, let you look at them on a whole other way. You appreciate them more, you stand still by the beauty of them.
This book held a lot of emotions and action. I also loved that the prologue and the last chapter almost started with the same sentence.
This book was truly amazing, I am sad I now have to say goodbye to all the amazing characters.
Last but not least I want to thank the author and midnight meadow for providing me with an earc.
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July 2, 2025This is a Small Spec Book Awards nominee!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews