Halfling
A half-orc, half-human belongs nowhere…
Orek has spent his life trying to prove himself to a clan that despises him. The son of a deposed orc chief and human captive, he must try twice as hard to prove himself a worthy male, a strong hunter, a potential mate…
Resigned to a thankless place in the shadows, Orek ekes out a living on the fringes of the clan, just waiting for an opportunity. But what he finds instead one cold autumn night could ruin everything he’s worked so hard to gain—a human woman, captured just as his mother was so many years ago. The choice to protect her from the clan isn’t a choice at all, but what will protect him and his lonely heart from her?
A life about to begin, usurped by fate…
Sorcha has spent her life helping raise her many siblings, but now finally has the chance to seek her own adventures. At least, she did, before she was snatched from her horse and peddled by slavers. Taken far from home, she’s brought to the worst place imaginable—the craggy western mountains infested with brutal, brutish orcs. All humans know to fear them and stay away, and now she’s been sold to the cruelest clan-chief of them all. But the first orc she meets is nothing like the stories. He’s gentle. He frees her.
Nothing is what it seems as they lose themselves in the forest, hunted by trackers and slavers. Out of her depth, Sorcha has no choice but to rely on the mysterious halfling who saved her—but she’s been betrayed already and cannot afford to trust him. Even if, little by little, the quiet male reveals himself to be everything she could ever want.
A human and a halfling, lives ripped apart, brought together by coincidence or fate. Running for their lives, they may find the most dangerous place is together…
Fans of Finnley Fenn, SJM, Grace Draven, and Ruby Dixon will love this fluffy, steamy monster romance fantasy road trip story! Check sewendelauthor.com for content and trigger warnings. Mature content intended for readers 18+
- Pages
- 465
- First published
- October 6, 2023
Shelved by 6 Litcadians
Reviews
Finished July 31, 2026
- adventurousemotionalhopefulrelaxingMedium-paced
Started August 4, 2025 · Finished August 6, 2025
Finished June 29, 2025
- adventurousrelaxingMedium-paced
Started December 20, 2023 · Finished December 31, 2023
I am so sad that I felt the way I did about this book. It let me down. Hard. In short: If this book had ended at approximately the 60% mark, when Sorcha is reunited with her family and she and Orek decide to give their romance a shot in "the real world," this book would have been an easy 4 or 4.5 star read. The character development was chef's kiss and I loved the romantic tension and pining strung through the story, even if some of the "monster" elements were a bit much for me at times. But this book did not end at the 60% mark (shocker). While I appreciated what the author was trying to accomplish in the latter half, I ultimately found it... boring. That boredom, combined with pet peeves about the writing style becoming impossible to ignore, really made it difficult to push through and finish. I strongly considered DNFing this multiple times in the last 20% because any and all enjoyment I had for reading this felt long gone. A spoiler-filled rant: Let me start by saying that I've never read a monster romance. I never thought they would be even remotely appealing to me. But this one came strongly recommended for those looking for sweet and inexperienced MMCs, which I was down for. So I gave it a go. I have learned in this experience that my gut instinct was correct, and monster romances probably aren't for me. Many of those elements were a big turnoff for me (such as Orek's tusks, no matter how small, and "his beast," which just seemed like a convenient way to write off some territorial/jealous emotions that would be a red flag if he was human) and took away from my enjoyment. While I didn't mind that Orek and Sorcha formed a mate-bond, it reached a point where it exceeded SJM levels of calling each other "my mate," which is... I didn't even know that was possible. At one point, Orek said it three times within the span of two short paragraphs, and eyeroll. Because this was a medieval fantasy, I also didn't care for a lot of the language used in spicy scenes (such as "quim" for lady bits and an excessive amount of "spend" for... well, you know). And this isn't even getting into some of my issues with the plot, which I'm not even sure I can fully articulate even after sitting on this for a few days. Mostly, it boils down to being dragged out for too long. When Sorcha is reunited with her family, the reader kind of knows that they haven't seen the last of Orek's clan, so you really spend the next fifty or so pages just waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's just days and days of Sorcha doing a majority of the family's farm work, Orek enjoying seeing where Sorcha comes from and how she came to be who she is... and subsequently getting horny over her total competence (which was actually welcome). Then the other shoe drops and Orek decides that Sorcha and her family aren't safe if he stays, so he leaves in the middle of the night to seek out his clan and kill them before they can harm her. And, it'd be an understatement to say that this is my least favorite trope in literature. What can I say? I utterly despise it when a man takes away a woman's agency by making a decision that affects both of them without consulting her in the name of "protection". Then, of course, because Sorcha is a badass, she decides that she's going to go after him. They're reunited during the big fight and, what do you know? The woman who could hardly yield a dagger earlier in the story is suddenly competent with weapons because she's on horseback. She saves the day, blah blah, blah, they live happily ever after. At the end of the day, the late portions of this book kind of ruined it for me. But I still really loved the characters, the setting, and the romance (up until a certain point). Another book is set to come out in this series, and I'm definitely curious to see where the author takes it. I'm not against the idea of trying a new story in this world.