This book was a little slow to start, but once I was about 25% in, I really liked it!

The romance was really cute. These two gave me some warm fuzzies and made me smile, remembering what it was like being a teen and spending time with a new crush. And these two were cute together. Instead of judging, Liam seemed endeared by Quill’s strangeness.

The dryad stuff was cool. The book was less plant-y than you might expect, but there were some interesting things that were different about Quill. And I just love reading about supernatural/magical beings that you don’t often find books about.

The story took me by surprise. It was mostly about the romance and Quill coming out of his sheltered life, but there was a mystery and a bit of tension and danger.

Sometimes in books about supernaturals or sheltered characters experiencing life among humans or out in the world for the first time, the things they know vs. don’t know are nonsensical. But I felt like they made sense in this book. For example, Quill knew what a car was and how to get in and out, he’d seen it in movies, but he didn’t know how much force was needed to open and shut the car door the first time.

In general, the way characters acted just felt like it made sense. Which feels like a weird thing to say, because isn’t that sort of the standard in books? But like I said, in these types of stories about supernaturals, sometimes that goes out the window. Whereas these characters felt grounded and believable to me. Sometimes they made questionable or bad decisions, but what teen (or human in general) doesn’t sometimes?

This was also such a great portrayal of what happens when parents are overprotective and controlling, even if it’s well-meaning. Quill’s mom could’ve taught him and supported him, and then he would’ve known what was safe and what wasn’t, could’ve talked to her about things, would’ve been more likely to listen to her advice and respect her rules, and could’ve made smart decisions. Instead, he had to sneak around and figure things out on his own and ended up taking risks that could’ve been avoided. I don’t know if that was meant to be one of the points of the book or not, but it just struck me as very realistic.

The audiobook, narrated by Michael Crouch, was great. He sounded natural and made characters sound just different enough to tell them apart. And he has a voice and style that I feel like was a good choice for this story and character.

Warning, the topics of parent death and cancer come up in this book. So it does get heavy at times, though it’s not an overall heavy book. *SPOILER* One parent is already gone, but the one with cancer ends up getting completely cured with magic. *END SPOILER*

Overall, this was a great combination of realistic experiences, interesting dryad magic, and cute teen romance!

*Rating: 4 Stars // Read Date: 2024 // Format: Audiobook*