The King of Frost and Shadows

Fated to Darkness #1

by Jen L. Grey

A vengeful King.
A lost princess.
And the revenge he’s desperate for.

For the last twelve years, Tavish, the King of the Unseelie Fae, focused on finding the key for taking back his rightful lands from the Seelie fae after they killed his parents.

There was one problem that stood in his way—locating the Seelie Princess hidden on Earth.

After years of haunting her dreams, he finally locates her and drags her back to their realm.

She’s forgotten her fae life and wants to escape. He doesn’t care. He merely needs her blood in order to free his people.

But she’s more than he remembers, and a spark ignites between them every time they touch.

None of that matters though. His goal is set—to drain her blood once her magic activates once again.

He must take back what is rightfully his, no matter the cost.

But if he does, the price might be what’s left of his heart.

The King of Frost and Shadow is a steamy, royal fae romantasy that includes betrayal, morally gray characters, enemies-to-lovers, villain gets the girl, a gauntlet tournament, political intrigue, who did this to you, and touch her and unalive.

Genres: Fantasy, Romantasy, Fae, Romance, Fantasy Romance, Enemies To Lovers, Magic

346 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2024

About the author

USA Today Bestselling Author

Reading has always been one of my favorite hobbies, even as a little girl. When I was a toddler, my parents would read stories to me over and over. I would hear them so often that I had the books memorized and could recite the story word by word.

My favorite genres are fantasy, paranormal, and contemporary romance. So of course that's what I'm inclined to write.

​I have a husband, two young daughters, and a mini Australian Shepherd. I've lived in Tennessee the majority of my life and love the state.

I'm extremely addicted to caffeine and enjoy drinking coffee and lattes.
​
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Reviews

[Lydia Northam · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is basically ACOTAR from Temu

[Traci Danmeyer-Rodgers · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF 22%. Apologies if my review is harsh. The story has potential, but the writing just needs work.

It was interesting up until the main characters fell through the tree …. After that, I cringed and rolled my eyes real hard for the remainder of what I read. I just couldn’t. The storyline has a lot of potential, but the writing needs a lot of editing and polishing. I don’t want to be told every little thing a character should be thinking and/or feeling. It doesn’t need to be spelled out. Also, yes, it’s all fantasy and supposed to be fantastical, but please make the characters’ thought processes believable. The MFC accepted everything being thrown at her way too fast and readily. One or two sentences of shock/scoffing and then she’s like, “Yep, don’t like it, but makes sense.” What normal human automatically accepts fae are real and accepts at face value without asking questions that you shouldn’t thank a fae amongst other things? Writing is too rushed.

[aeryn rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

I was actually pleasantly surprised by this book to be honest! I wouldn't say that it was the best short fantasy book I've ever read, but it was definitely very fun and thrilling.

The main reason I didn't rate this higher was because of the characters. I didn't find myself relating to the whatsoever and they were honestly extremely shallow? There was no background, no depth, nothing but surface level descriptions, and I think that's what let me down the most. I didn't find their individual personalities that appealing and they weren't even that unique. Definitely the most disappointing aspect.

However, with that being said, the actual plot of this book was GOLDEN! It was super fast, straight to the point, thrilling, and bloody and gory. I really really enjoyed myself with it. I found the first half (about 150 pages) to be a bit on the less eventful side, but once Lira is thrown into the trials and is fighting for her life was SOOO GOOD. I truly love books with trials and life or death scenarios, so it was really enjoyable reading this one. The stakes were extremely high, and I think the author did a great job of laying out the battle scenes with her words and descriptions.

Overall, at first I wasn't going to continue this. I thought I wouldn't give it any more than 3 stars but the second half of the book definitely got me. This is a fantasy book that would be so easy to read and consume within a day or two just because of how fast and interesting and engaging the book is. Now that I've finished, I'll definitely be continuing the series, ESPECIALLY AFTER THAT ENDING??? Diabolical.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

𝓟𝓻𝓮-𝓡𝓮𝓪𝓭: ❄️🌸

Need a short fantasy while doing my 24 hour readathon and this is under 300 pages so why not??
Also, I'm also skeptical going into this cause it's so short for a fantasy 😭

[Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE a true morally gray villain!

It's so hard to find books that promise a morally gray villain, and he actually stays morally gray, lol. We had all my favorite tropes and tons of "dont touch her she's mine" AHHHHH!

I need book two after that cliffhanger!!

[Jaimee Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was gifted an ARC for this and HELLO morally DARK grey MMC with bat wings! This was such a quick and fun read! Fast paced, romantic tension, games and trials and a dog?? Yes. Can’t wait for book 2! The cliffhanger is quite rude.

[Randi Bustamante · Rating 1 out of 5]

What in the Wattpad App did I just read!?
The writting is very amateur, needs some proof readers and a good editor to help flesh out the storyline and characters. We are told the story instead of being shown it or experiencing it. The author managed to both over explain while not explaining anything, at the same time. For the 3rd time in chapter 1, Lira mentions how she can't drink, well she can, but nothing happens ... "Eiric and I had watched a ton of people get drunk and tipsy, but we’d never gotten a buzz, not even after splitting a gigantic bottle of tequila between us." Yet we have no idea what the scenery looks like, no world building, no character development, and so on.
I DNF at 25%, I just couldn't anymore.

[elizabeth rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted a cute and exciting romantasy, but this was not it 😭

Pros:
✅️ fated mates (fae)
✅️ easy to read quickly
✅️ 'Touch her and you die'

Cons:
❌️ bad writing (repetitive phrasing, jarring Earth slang, and abrupt chapter transitions)
❌️ poor character development
❌️ insta-lust
❌️ inconsistent pacing
❌️ needed stronger editing

It's a repeat of familiar tropes all over again (particularly ACOTAR), with little originality added 👎

Sidenote: Nightbane the monster hound was the best character 🐕

[Tiffany aka Chai Tea And Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ohmygoshhhh. This ending. My heart. Lira’s heart. Tavish’s heart. All the hearts. And then I clicked on the link to immediately grab the next in the series to binge only to find out that the second book isn’t out until September 😭😭😭 I’m gonna say, this romantasy had me in a chokehold and I loved it way more than ACOTAR as the first in a series. There are a couple of similar vibes here, but I thoroughly enjoyed this more.

❤️ Tropes ❤️
💋 slow burn
💋 childhood friends to enemies to not quite lovers
💋 fated mates
💋 seelie ve unseelie fae

Lira is at a New Year’s Eve celebration with her sister when a gorgeous man saves her from a drunk athlete trying to take her home when she wasn’t interested. But her savior might not be what he seems. Because the next thing she knows, she is in a different world with fae and she is locked up. His plan is to kill her for what her parents did. So why does she feel safest when he is around?

Thank you to Lady Amber PR for the copy, all thoughts are my own.

[Heather]

I’m only 14 pages in, BUT this is not going to be the book for me. It’s already heaped heavily with PC inferences, which definitely don’t belong in my fantasy romance. The heroine’s thoughts are incredibly childlike and have the thickest coating of, “I’m not like other girls!” And she’s already simping for the dude declaring (in her mind) that she’s never wanted any guy or girl and she’s finally into someone! It makes me wanna gag with how literally cringe this story has been in only the first 14 pages. Yeah, I’m gonna pass. The high rating this story currently has, seems to have been accumulated by ARC readers….

[Desiree (Anxious Opossum) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not capture my attention at all. Was this written by a teen? I tried to get through 4 chapters, but the characters were empty-headed and sophomoric, and I couldn't continue. 🤷🏻‍♀️

This is another BookTok recommendation that did not live up to the significant hype.

[Courtneay Malek]

DNF @ 38% - Did you know their skin buzzed when they touch? It was only mentioned a million times by chapter 12. The book felt like it was missing a lot that made it not feel like an adventure or escape from reality, like I hope for my books.

[Emma Halbrook · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one has all of the typical enemies to lovers, morally grey shadow daddy MMC, romantasy tropes we know and love. For me, the writing style was a little hard to get past at times and took me out of the moment. Although it did include a lot of my favorite tropes, I didn’t feel that this story had any original themes, making it pretty predictable. I definitely think a lot of people will enjoy this book if they’re looking for a quick, trope heavy romantasy.

[Toni · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 15%

I’m not sure I’m even qualified to write this review given I barely read it, but straight out the gate the writing is juvenile and AGGRESSIVELY cringe. It reads like a YA… which maybe it is(?) and not the fun cutesy kind. Very insta-love, but I guess that’s deemed okay since they’re fated mates and grew up together, even though she doesn’t remember. Lira has about half a brain cell and I think was intentionally written to be dumb and gullible for the sake of a very fast paced intro into the story, but the sacrifice wasn’t worth it. Tavish is not “morally gray,” as so many reviews have written, and is as equally stupid and unlikeable as Lira. It’s funny, this book is exactly what it promised, every classic romantasy trope, but somehow executed so poorly.

[ritika · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5 stars

the ever king x acotar x hunger games

[Ava Paseka · Rating 1 out of 5]

I should have stopped when they mentioned a Halsey song in a fantasy book..

[letsgosupernova · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a hot mess. Let’s be real, the potential is there. But it falls so short I’m actually heartbroken. I might give book 2 a try and see how it progresses, but outside of the trials (seriously, another book with trials) nothing about this storyline was compelling, because the emotional maturity of both MC’s are the same as your average 12-yr-old. 🤷🏽‍♀️🫣

[Kylieisreading · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! The King of Frost and Shadows can kidnap me from the human realm whenever he pleases. I finished this book in one night and my mind/heart was in shambles towards the end. Lira lives in the human realm with her adoptive family and doesn’t remeber her memories prior to age 10. While at a new year’s party she runs into Tavish and feels drawn to him. Before she knows it she’s falling into a portal and into the Unseelie Fae Realm. If you are looking for TRUE enemies to lovers this book is for you. In order for Tavish to save his realm he needs to kill Lira once her memories/powers return. And the longer Lira is in the fae realm the more she learns about her past. This Romantasy has enemies to lovers, touch her and die, competitions/gauntlets, incredible side characters, tension, and an adorable yet terrifying furry friend. Give me book two immediately 🤭🖤

“Are you not fond of mistreatment?”

“Eager to die, Sprite?”

“You protected yourself so you could live another day. And i need you to do it again, even after the gauntlet.. even if it’s me.”

[Joanna Owens · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first novel I have read by this author and her style isn’t really my favourite type of read.
She leant on a constant internal narrative for both POV’s of mmc and fmc. For me, these narratives felt incongruent to the age and social positions of the characters. And both narratives felt similar in style rather than unique. Character development was not really explored and general world building was poor. Don’t ask me what anything looked like because it wasn’t described in detail. That’s a shame for me, I like characters and worlds to come to life.
Not bad and I will probably read the next one in sept but I feel like this book could have been a lot better with more development time.
Just my thoughts though, for what they are worth, as
A lover of fantasy.

[Neja Inge · Rating 2 out of 5]

Average is too good to describe this book. The mix of a normal world and fae world is bizzare, the story is super rushed and makes little sense. I cant tell you a thing about the MC because I have no fucking information. And the fmc suddenly being this great fighter makes absolutely no sense? What is thisssss, I’ve been duped again

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up

[Marisa P · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why

Why do I torture myself w books like this? Ugh. I just can't even w this right now. So bad.

[Teesh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sorry but as soon as she flirted back with him as soon as she’s just been kidnapped I couldn’t. Like just be angry for a little while longer. Don’t know why that irks me. Just not for me. DNF

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars
1 for spice


This was a very solid Romantasy. I liked the magic from Tavish, that he has both very strong powers, I did not see a lot besides his magic and would have liked more. I really wanted more information from this book. I was waiting and some things came to light, but I still have way too many questions especially to do with the conflict between the seelie and unseelie. The story and the dynamic between the two fae courts really pulled me in and the mysteries dragons, but again I really want to know more but not enough was given to the reader. Tavish was a real conundrum. I felt like he was all over the place with his mood and actions; it was just head spinning. I get the back and forth of enemies to lovers' trope that this book has but it was over the top a bit. The plot is what kept me engaged and reading but was not feeling the romance all the time or Tavish for that matter. I do want to continue reading this series and I am really looking for more to come out and things to really flip in regard to the romance and really hoping that this will turn around for me.
I received an ebook, via Netgalley. This review is my own honest opinion.

[christineann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a bit disappointing. I saw so many good reviews and quotes for it, and I had high hopes. Unfortunately the writing felt quite amateur, there were times she directly contradicted herself and I found myself rereading a paragraph 2-3x to try and understand what I *think* she meant to say. There’s only so many times I can read the exclamation blasted/blast/blasting before I start to give side eye. I’m fairly sure it was used more than any other word in the book, sometimes more than 3x on a page.

That aside.. the rest was quite entertaining! I enjoyed the premise and the main characters, despite them not being the most well fleshed out. I was able to finish the book in less than a day with its shorter length, and enjoyed it enough to give the next book a chance.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don’t waste your time

[Elle G. Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

The King of Forst and Shadows is a good start to the series. If you’re looking for a book with ACOTAR vibes then I think you’ll enjoy this one. However, this book doesn’t give the slow burn, “I’d burn the world for you” feelings like ACOTAR does. On the other hand, TKOFAS does deal more on the family spectrum, has a decent childhood-friends, to enemies, to lovers vibes with a tiny but of spice for those who need it in romantasy. Don’t go into it looking for smut though because this one is much more focused on the fantasy aspects.

One of my favorite things about this one was the games/trials that were incorporated into the plot. I’ve come to learn that I love seeing our heroes and/or heroines fight for their life. I don’t know why, maybe it’s all the action and seeing their strength that does it for me, but this book DOES have it. And while I don’t agree with WHY Tavish put Lira through it, it does push the plot forward in terms of them finding out their true feelings for one another.

In any event, this is a good start to the series and I’m planning to read the trilogy so stay tuned for my thoughts on the other two books.

𝗠𝗬 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (3.5 rounded up)

𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗘𝗖𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗙𝗔𝗡𝗦 𝗢𝗙
❥ Romantasy
❥ Trilogies
❥ Childhood friends to enemies
❥ Fated Mates
❥ Games and Trials

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I already had a physical copy of this book pre-ordered when I stumbled upon it on Netgalley. I'm currently in a romantasy mood. I just want tension, enemies to lovers and some steam. I was pretty sure this book was gonna be it and when I requested a digital review copy the author was so kind to give me one.

This book totally has its flaws. At some moments the pacing feels incredibly fast. The characters also clearly have mood swings when it comes to their feelings towards each other, going from hatred to love within a split second. However, I was so incredibly angry when I reached the last page of the book! I was convinced my copy must mis pages or even an entire chapter. But no, the cliffhanger truly is that mean. And the fact that I cared so much, says everything you need to know.

Because despite its flaws, it's also insanely addictive. The prologue sets the atmosphere and from the moment these characters meet again you feel the tension, chemistry and longing. I'm normally not so much of an insta-love girl, but in this case it all worked out fine. The prologue explains that it isn't. There is a whole history. And considering the fact that there are two more books in the series, I assume we're gonna get to hear more about it.

I also loved the challenges Lira faced. It's clear that she wouldn't have survived those if she had been entirely human, but it makes a lot of sense that especially those trials triggers memories, but also training she didn't even know she had. I'm really excited to see her grow more into her powers. I'm also really excited to see the consequences of everything that happened in this book and I can't wait to get more romantic moments. Surprisingly enough, there weren't even that many in this book!

[Cheenu (◕ᴗ◕✿)]

Shadow powered MMC + sweet and innocent FMC who is also kinda badass + deadly trials like hunger games + everyone hates the FMC and wants her to die + fated mates + mating tattoos + MMC is an asshole + unwanted feelings on both side + dilemma over love and duty + fae world of seelie and unseelie = Nothing new = same old cliches.

[Jordan Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost gave up 100 pages in because I didn’t love the writing, but then it felt like she just gradually got better?? And the story was so interesting!!! And THE ENDING??

[Bevany · Rating 4 out of 5]

an action-packed fantasy. Great for fans of the cruel prince. There is court intrigue and betrayal. This book has so much action. perfect for fans of fantasy trials.