The Forest at the Heart of Her Mage
by Hiyodori
After years of city life, Tiller is finally ready to revisit the magical forest where she grew up. But the forest has turned deadly, and Tiller has no magic of her own. To survive, she’ll need a bodyguard.
Tiller finds only one mage willing to escort her. A woman named Carnelian: a soldier with a pretty face and a dodgy reputation. Carnelian loves parties, drinking, flirting, big spending, and taking risks that others would find downright unthinkable. She’ll happily lead Tiller to the heart of the Devouring Forest.
But she won't do it for free.
The two of them live in a country where magic-users like Carnelian labor under lifelong legal restrictions. The fastest ticket to greater liberty: getting married. Which is why Carnelian—known far and wide as the mage who no one would wed—demands Tiller’s hand in marriage as her payment.
Cautious, reserved Tiller never lets strangers invade her personal space. She's horrified by the prospect of marrying a mischievous gambler. But she still needs Carnelian’s magic to overcome the wild monsters blocking the path back to her childhood home.
And the deeper they go in the forest, the greater the danger. Tiller will have to learn very quickly how to deal with the darker side of her would-be wife.
The Forest at the Heart of Her Mage is a slow-burn f/f romance with two polar-opposite heroines—both hiding enormous secrets—reluctantly engaged to be married for the sake of convenience. This novel takes place in the same contemporary fantasy world as The First and Last Demon and the Clem & Wist series, but can be read and enjoyed as a standalone story.
SPFBOX – Our Reviews
John Mauro
The Forest at the Heart of Her Mage is a sapphic fantasy romance by Hiyodori. After the death of her grandmother, Tiller decides to visit her family’s home. Although Tiller’s home is in a magical forest, she does not have any magical powers of her own and recruits a mage named Carnelian to accompany her on the journey. But Carnelian seeks more than monetary payment from Tiller: she wants her hand in marriage to overcome weird legal restrictions placed on mages.
Yes, it’s an awkward setup, but Tiller and Carnelian are such great characters that it works for the most part. They have two very different backgrounds and divergent personalities, so it’s quite interesting to see how their relationship grows over the course of the novel
The Forest at the Heart of Her Mage shares a world with Hiyodori’s previous novel, the SPFBO9 semi-finalist The First and Last Demon. But the author gives The Forest at the Heart of Her Mage a more ethereal feel with its emphasis on natural mysticism.
Hiyodori’s writing is another highlight of The Forest at the Heart of Her Mage. It has a Proustian quality that is poetic without being flowery.
However, The Forest at the Heart of Her Mage suffers from a slow pace and often meandering plotline. The novel would benefit from significant editing to streamline the story.
Overall, The Forest at the Heart of Her Mage is recommended to anyone looking for a slow-burn sapphic fantasy romance. But it may disappoint readers looking for faster-paced action.
