Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon

At a Glance: A Fantasy Romance Full of Plot and Worldbuilding

Tusk Love is a great entry point for Fantasy fans looking to jump into the Romantasy genre, it’s a fun adventure tale with suspense, interesting characters, a real plot, a traditional magic system, and a beautifully crafted world. Told from a dual POV ofGuinevere and Oskar, our main characters, while it can get spicy, the love story never overshadows the plot and only adds to the story as they make their way across the world of Exandria and meet unexpected friends and foes along the way.

The world is based on the popular Twitch stream Critical Role, where a group of voice actors play dungeons and dragons together with Matt Mercer as their dungeon master. While you don’t need any previous knowledge of the show that sparked the book, it does add that extra level of connection to the world Mercer created for the D&D campaign. Tusk Love started as a joke when Jester (Laura Baileys D&D character) entered a book shop and picked up a Romance book called Tusk Love, Fast forward a few years, and we have a real book with a really fun story!

Exandria: A World That Feels Alive

Exandria is a world that has been developed over many years by Matt Mercer which certainly gave Guanzon a lot to work with, and she does that world justice by stripping away all the game mechanics and leaving in what makes the world feel familiar to fans of Critical Role, while also using her elegant writing style to describe Exandria to readers who are being introduced to the world for the first time.

The Dwendalian Empire is at the core of the world, where there is a three tier class system that feels familiar, old money, new money, and an impoverished working class. Our main characters fall into the new money class with Guinevere coming from a merchant family, and Oskar who is a half-orc from a mining town where he was a blacksmiths apprentice.

The magic system doesn’t get a ton of explanation but follows all the rules of a classic elemental magic system, magic is not a foreign or new concept to the citizens of Exandria. It serves as both a part of the world and a tool to show what happens when one is forced to suppress who they really are.

Unlike a typical fantasy world, Exandria is a place with refreshing progressive handling of gender, sex work, and individual sexuality. These topics never feels overstated or like they’re a focal point of the story, and just come across as part of the world and society as a whole which is really nice to see from a medieval setting.

The adventure takes us through some beautiful landscapes as our main characters traverse The Amber Road, through the lush Cyrengreen Forest, different towns, and interesting inns.

Characters At The Forefront of the Story

Tusk Love while creating and working with an expansive fantasy world, never lets the focus on our characters be overshadowed. Guinevere and Oskar are the stars of the show that we come to love and admittedly get incredibly frustrated with at times, making them feel real even if Oskar is a half-orc.

When we meet Guinevere, she is a sheltered merchants daughter, who has grown up very well off and is traveling to meet her parents across the continent from the capital. As Guinevere travels The Amber Road with Oskar, we really get to see her depth and growth through not only interactions with Oskar, but a really well done inner monologue during her chapters. She struggles with her suppressed identity, parental trauma, and societal expectations as she slowly comes into her own.

Oskar is our half-orc male love interest, who instantly has a pre-determined opinion of Guinevere when they meet because she is from the upper class. He’s stubborn and hardened from years of labor and struggle. Oskar is selfless to a fault, even against his better judgement at times, he has a consistent internal conflict of fighting his disdain for the upper class and his growing love for Guinevere.

The story is spent with the Majority of the focus on our two main characters, but we do get some interesting side characters who don’t particular stand out, but feel authentic enough that they don’t just feel like tools for the plot.

Action Packed: Romance and Action at a Steady Pace

In the first few pages we’re thrust into the action which was a real surprise from a “Romance” novel, but a welcome setup for a book that continues to make the plot feel as equally important as the love story. The book only slows down to give our characters relationship room to grow, but never feels like it’s uneven. The book is paced well, with moments of action, passion filled love scenes, and times of reflection for our characters.

The classic tropes of opposites attract and forced friendship that turns into romantic attraction work really well in Tusk Love. There is enough build up and yearning to not make the love feel instant, and the romantic scenes feel like they come along naturally and didn’t ever leave me thinking how did we end up here.

The character development and plot progression weave seamlessly into a well paced blending of romance and fantasy. Intimate character moments allow us insight into the decisions they make and their personal motivations alongside their shared goals.

While almost all things are done well, Tusk Love does suffer a bit from an underwhelming antagonist and outside of the middle of action scenes, I didn’t ever really feel the underlying threat throughout.

Between the Sheets: Quick and Dirty

Tusk Love only has a few chapters with intimacy, but when they do show up, they’re intense, descriptive, and earn this book a 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ (4/5) spice rating. The story has an instant attraction, but the romance is a slow burn and the sexual encounters gradually build, giving the readers that yearning feeling between our two love interest.

Oskar is always respectful and puts an emphasis on consent, but that doesn’t stop him from laying the dirty talk on hot and heavy. Guinevere’s inexperience only shows in her feelings during the intense moments, making references to the “love talk” she heard from the other ladies at court.

While it does get steamy, from a shared bath in a waterfall, to a roll under the covers surrounded while camping with a group, it never feels gratuitous, and very much servers the development of the love story and our characters. The romance feels natural and never like it’s secondary to the sex.

Bro Reading Comfort: Not An Airport Read

This is certainly a book that will get some looks if you’re reading at the airport or on the bus, the cover is tasteful which earns it a 😳😳😳(3.0), Tusk Love is clearly a romance, but doesn’t convey anything else on the surface. If you’re not comfortable with the occasional sideways glance or possible conversation about your current read, I’d opt for the audio or e-book on this one.

There are a few chapters with some detailed intimacy as well, so if you do go with the audio option, just make sure the windows are up and the volume isn’t too high if you’re wearing headphones on the subway.

For the unknowing, the cover will just portray a Romance novel, but for those in the know, you might get a sly smirk of acknowledgement.

Darkness Factor: This Book Shines Bright

Tusk Love will barely dip it’s toe into anything we’d normally consider dark, earning it a 💀 (1.0) on our scale. This book is cozy fantasy, bubbly fun, and a cute love story with a fun and interesting plot that never really gets gory or dark.

The book explores some themes like mentally abusive parents, self worth, and the struggle to conform to the “norms” of society, but doesn’t dive too deep into the underlying effects. This book certainly didn’t give me many introspective moments, and if I didn’t read things with the review in mind, I wouldn’t have found myself reading into much of these things at all.

Book Battlefield: Plot Driven Cozy Fantasy

Tusk Love is certainly a romance, and will tick all the boxes of well done love scenes, heavy doses of yearning, opposites attract, and that sweet slow burn. That is certainly to be expected and welcome since it serves the character development well in this book, but what was a surprise to me was how invested I was in the plot it’s self.

This certainly won’t be getting any epic fantasy nods, but if you go into expecting just a romance, you’ll come away happy because you get a good romance, and an even better story. While the overwhelming threat wasn’t really all that well done, the story as a whole had enough mystery, suspense, and a satisfying conclusion that I could easily recommend this to anyone looking for a Cozy Fantasy or even a Cozy Romantasy. I would have loved if the antagonist got a little more love, but that certainly wasn’t the goal of this book, and it certainly does what it set out to do in the genre.

Should You Bother?

For Romance Fans: This was a nice story hitting all the fun romantic tropes, it’s full of yearning, slow burn romance, and some good old fashion spice.

For Fantasy Fans: This story was surprisingly well done, the plot hits all the fantasy notes, the world is fleshed out, and the elemental magic feels pleasantly familiar.

For Critical Role Fans: An absolute must read, the world of Exandria shines and all the familiar elements for fans of Critical Role will be there as an added bonus for fans of the show.

Final BroMantasy Verdict

Thea Guanzon did a great job bringing the world of Exandria to life in Tusk Love, and creating a Romantasy fans of Critical Role have slowly been teased with for years, earning it a 3.75/5. This story was just plain fun, I didn’t go into this with any kind of expectations, and came away having really enjoyed myself.

I really enjoyed the dual POV telling of Tusk Love, getting the perspective of not only the Female main character in Guinevere, but also getting the inner dialogue of Oskar was a real treat. These two characters were complicated, fascinating, and at times very frustrating. You could feel the yearning as you read some of these chapters, and there was a few times where I found myself actually yelling “stop being stupid” at both of them.

The story does a great job of pulling you in, even if at times you don’t really feel the stakes of their situation since the antagonist can feel like a foot note, the rest of the book was interesting enough, and Guanzon does a great job at adding some mystery to the plot that kept me interested.

Tusk Love is what I would call a Cozy Romantasy, it has all the fun elements of a Cozy Fantasy, with all the great slow burn romance and yearning I’ve grown to expect from a good Romantasy. The added bonus as a Critical Role enjoyer was getting a glimpse into a fake book from a live streamed D&D campaign, which takes place in a world fans of the show have grown to become intimately familiar with, full of little easter eggs and fun call backs.