This was really fun, and basically what I want the romantasy genre to be. There was adventure, romance, politics, high stakes, good worldbuilding, internally consistent characters, and drama, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. If you're looking for a fae romantasy but want the romance content to stop at steam and never reach spice, then this is a good fit for you. I know I'd happily read this book again, and I'll be on the lookout for more by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The atmosphere in The Arrow and the Alder is great, super gothic and eerie. I do think this is more YA than described, but it was an interesting read nonetheless. Seph is your classic strong, sassy FMC but it was a breath of fresh air to see her struggle and not instantly be great at everything. Alder’s is also flawed, but you get that vulnerable moment and I just loved him from there.

I did want more from the villains, and it did feel a tad predictable - but otherwise a really fun YA romantasy.

This was such a fun one. Trying to work together when you're mortal enemies and just trying to stay alive was not their plan, it's what they're dealing with.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book!! The story felt unique and unlike anything else I’ve read before. The world building was beautiful, and the love story was AMAZING. Even with zero spice, I didn’t even notice because the yearning and the beautiful way the characters spoke to each other was so wonderful! I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy/romantasy!!

Beautiful book full of allegory and hope and enough romance to season it. I fell in love with this world and am eager to return to it when the lines of it have begun to smudge in my mind.

Josephine, Seph as she is called, is determined to protect and provide of what remains of her family. Her brothers and father have been dragged to war by the kith, immortal beings who had been the cause of the curse slowly leeching from their lands into the human world. However, when one of the kith comes to her family's doorstep, she realizes that the stories she has been told may be closer to her family than expected.

I am still processing all the little details that Kloss wove into this story, and for all its dark moments, there is such hope threaded through it as well.

4.5⭐️

Fae (in this book kith). Slow burn. Enemies to lovers. Secret identities. Magic. Monsters. Immortal royals. Ancient curses.

This is The Arrow & The Alder in a nutshell shell. It’s a mix of the ancient magic and world-building of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the lyrical sweet romantic innocence of Rebecca Ross’ Divine Rivals, and the decaying woodsy feel of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted.

Josephine and Alder were such rich, deep, well rounded characters. I felt I really got to know them on a personal level and that doesn’t happen very often for me. I got lost in their swoon-worthy romance and the detailed world around them.

I also deeply enjoyed that it was a closed-door romance. It was wonderful to experience a love story with its sweet subtleties and witty banter.

Thank you NetGalley and Whimsical Publishing for this complimentary ARC ebook copy. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

***Posting to Instagram, Goodreads, StoryGraph, and Fable on May 8th.***

Sephie, the main character, is shocked when their small village is raided by kith, immortal beings that she does not trust. They are seeking a coat that is hidden beneath her home and when she refuses to give it to them to protect her family, she runs into the woods.

Unbeknownst to Sephie, she stumbles into the kith kingdom. It is here that the kith prince, Alder, accompanies her to court in efforts to get the coat for himself to gain back the favor of the court.

As Sephie and Alder journey together, Sephie begins to learn more about her history and the coat itself. When the curse that has come upon the land threatens to destroy it, Sephie must come to terms with what she has learned in order to save herself and both the mortal and kith worlds.

Overall an enjoyable book. I thought the characters were well written and I liked Sephie as the FMC. I do wish the author would have gone more into the kith themselves as well as their magic, but a good novel nonetheless.

Thank you for the ARC!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was well written, with wonderful world-building and well-developed characters. The suspense was perfect—I couldn’t stop reading mid-chapter. I also loved the blend of humour, especially when she and Alder were fighting. They really make a good pair.

Read Full Review on my blog (Hani's Daily Life) right here: https://obasinaomi.wordpress.com/2025/05/03/book-review-the-arrow-and-the-alder-by-barbara-kloss/

Posted on the 6th of May 2025

This is a YA, enemies-to-lovers, fantasy romance with Robin Hood vibes. This book has strong, well-developed characters and an interesting story line that keeps you turning the pages. Great characters that make the story come alive. Pain and passion radiate from them. The plot draws you in so that you can’t put the book down because you need to know what will happen next. This review is based on an early review copy I was sent by the publisher, but this didn't affect the content of my review that I am voluntarily providing.

Barbara Kloss’s storytelling is absolutely magical. This book was fast paced, immersive, lyrical, and overall enchanting! From the first turn of the page I was hooked. An atmosphere of mists, shadows, dark creatures, and two worlds divided battling an ancient curse…say less!

Josephine was a great FMC. Fierce, determined, and never willing to quit on those she loves. Our MMC, Alder was a classic brooding prince, forced to face down his own past and personal demons. Together they create the perfect balance and have wonderful chemistry.

Overall the Arrow and the Alder is a lovely tale filled with mystery and magic, love and betrayal, sacrifice and redemption. Thank you Barbara Kloss and NetGalley for allowing me an ARC of this read!

I am truly impressed! This book was my first read from Barbara Kloss and I absolutely loved it. The author's style is great and the flow was so smooth I've read this book super quick.

I love the fact that we have a romantasy book without any spice, which is a big change from what I have been reading lately (and from what the trend is currently), so it gets extra points for that.

A nice, refreshing standalone book, with characters that are not too much -like it is often the case in fantasy reads- and a slow burn romance that I have swoon over. 😍

The world is beautiful, with descriptions that come to life very vividly in my head that made me actually feel very peaceful, wanting to just visit the forest and be calm there. 🤭

I will definitely read more books from Barbara, as I have absolutely adored this one.

Overall, this was a pretty standard and somewhat mediocre fantasy novel.

The first few chapters are almost criminally similar to ACOTAR, but from there it diverges into a more unique story.

<b>Tell me, does this setup sound a little familiar?</b>

A town is plagued by its proximity to a cursed magical land. The FMCs family is starving so she hunts illegally in the woods to feed them (including her naive but sweet sister who is courting a rich but hateful boy in town. *cough* Elaine *cough*). One day, while the FMC is hunting she comes across a magical animal and attempts to kill it. From that day on her life forever changes as she is forced into the magical realm.

To be fair, I did leave out some details there, and once the FMC (Seph) goes into the other world the story no longer closely resembles ACOTAR.

As the story went on there were some literary successes and some pitfalls.

Personally, <b>I found the romance to be a miss</b>. I would rate it maybe like a 2.5/5. It wasn’t poorly written per se, I just felt unattached to their romance and it felt very rushed. There was a very weird emphasis on virginity, which was an ick. And god the last 20 pages made me roll my eyes — hard.

Another neglected aspect was Seph’s tie to her family. After she left for the magical world it was like she stopped caring about her family at all — that her little sister was ill or the fact that before Seph left she was the only one feeding her family?? Like they were starving and circumstances did not change??

And when it came to the action/magic, like with many fantasy final scenes, the plot got pretty abstract towards the end. I won’t provide details to leave this spoiler free, but I felt like it lost the plot a bit.

That being said, <b>I did for the most part enjoy the book</b>. It was captivating and the world building (which is no easy task in fantasy novels) was pretty good. <b>Not sure if I would recommend this book, but I wouldn’t write it off completely either.</b>

Barbara Kloss has crafted an immersive fantasy that pulled me in from the very first page. "The Arrow & the Adler" follows Josephine (Seph), a resilient huntress trying to provide for what remains of her family while the men are off fighting a war. When the High Lord comes seeking an enchanted coat that mysteriously appears in her possession, Seph refuses to surrender it without answers—a decision that catapults her into the cursed kingdom of the immortal kith.

The worldbuilding is truly atmospheric. Kloss creates a vivid contrast between the struggling mortal lands and the mysterious, mist-shrouded kith kingdom. I could practically feel the oppressive gray of the cursed realm and the dangerous forests where Seph hunts. The attention to sensory details makes every setting come alive.

The relationship between Seph and Alder (the disgraced prince) develops with a perfect slow-burn tension. Their banter is genuinely entertaining, and watching their reluctant alliance evolve feels earned rather than forced.

This closed-door romantasy strikes an excellent balance between character development, world-building, and romance without relying on explicit content. The book stands perfectly as a standalone while creating a rich world I'd gladly return to.

If you enjoy fantasy with strong, capable heroines, complex heroes with hidden depths, and worlds where the line between good and evil blurs beneath layers of secrets and curses, "The Arrow & the Adler" deserves a place on your TBR list.

pretty well written romance. the kith setting was fairly well-trodden but always felt fresh in Kloss's hands and the chemistry was strong. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

What an absolutely stunning story. I felt like I was reading a bedtime fairytale in the best way possible.

Josephine is such a badass. Alder is so dreamy. Josephine and Alder work together to figure out how to unleash a coats powers to help save the lands. Beautiful storytelling!

How far would you go to save your family? Things aren't always what they seem. In a cursed world with time running out, Seph must make some hard decisions. I love the tie in to Married by Treachery. I saw someone make a comment about the ending. These stories are exactly what we need at times. Overcoming your past. About perseverance. Seeing things through even though it may cost us.

Barbara Kloss is a wonderful storyteller. This book had me hooked from the start, where we meet our FMC Seph (Josephine), trying to provide for her family. Her brothers and father are off fighting a war brought on by another Kind. This book has many layers of secrets that only reading will help to unfold.

Archer, the MMC, has been missing for the last few years, to the point where he is now believed to be the leader of the depraved (bad dark creatures). His story is consistently unfolding as you cannot just unpack his last few years in one chapter.

One thing that I really enjoyed about this book is that the prose does not heavily rely on the magic system and our FMC coming into her powers. While there is something special about Seph, her battles and training are still combat based. Her archery skills are solid. She does not learn battle combat fighting at a disadvantage against those with stronger or advanced magical abilities. This gave me more Robin Hood esc vibes, which I really enjoyed.

As we see political world dynamics come face to face with lies and deception, we get to see how the previous choice to choose love over everything altered this realm to near devastation. But I promise, the lore of this world will not let you down.

J'ai eu la chance de découvrir cette histoire en avant première et j'en suis ravie. Je connaissais déjà la plume de l'autrice et j'ai pris tout autant de plaisir à lire ce livre que les précédents ( Gods of men ).
En effet, on plonge dans un univers fantasy bien construit et riche où on fait connaissance de Seph, jeune humaine révoltée et forte, lutte pour sa survie et celle de sa famille. J'ai tout de suite aimé ce personnage féminin fort, indépendant et loyale. Elle affronte tout la tête haute même si elle est déstabilisée. Elle va pourtant avoir toute sa vie remise en question mais elle avance et se bat.
Alder est plus sombre, mystérieux même si on le découvre au fil des pages. Il a volé mon coeur rapidement avec sa lutte acharne pour tenir Seph à l'écart... Son passé le hante et il fait tout ce qu'il peut pour se racheter mais la tache n'est pas simple ...
L'autrice nous plonge dans une aventure passionnante qui est parvenue à me prendre à contre-pied quelques fois ( oui oui j'adore ça ! ) et qui fait mnter la tension jusqu'à la toute fin sans qu'on ne parvienne à deviner la suite des événements .
Le dénouement est spectaculaire et je ne m'y attendais pas du tout !!!

En bref : J'ai adoré ! Une bonne aventure fantasy avec un duo de personnage attachant et haut en couleur dans une quête périlleuse et imprévisible . La plume de l'autrice vous embarque dans cette histoire et ne vous laisse en sortir qu'en toute fin, hors d'haleine et comblée ... Coup de coeur

NOTE : 10 / 10

Barbara Kloss has a gift for delicate storytelling, while at the same time bringing monsters and drama to the stage. Her style remains spellbinding page after page, and I wasn't bored for a single minute while reading this story. The rhythm is perfect and the characters are so endearing that I'll never tire of discovering them a little more ;-) in my eyes, this story is a pure marvel that will conquer the hearts of readers eager for fantasy but also for sweetness.

pacing occasionally slows with dense descriptions and reflective moments, readers who savor immersive fantasy and introspective characters will find this to be a rewarding, thoughtful read. The ending strikes a perfect balance of bittersweet and hopeful, closing the story in a way that feels true to its core themes.