Tamed by the Troll

The Perished Woods, Book 1

De: Tracy Lauren

Narrado por: John Masterson, Allison River

Once the belle of her village, life took a dark turn for Adelaide upon her parent's death. Plagued by lingering grief, there was not a soul who didn't turn their back on her. They called her angry and spiteful . . . Hell, they called her a monster.

One fateful day Adelaide finds herself alone, lingering on the edge of the Perished Woods—a cursed and evil place. Without warning, an orc army attacks.

Her village ablaze, Adelaide races into the Perished Woods, seeking refuge in a place of nightmares. With orcs at her heels, she's desperate to escape. But when the young woman crosses an aging stone bridge in the middle of the cursed forest she's met with an even more fearsome enemy. A troll . . . one who is determined to save her.

©2019 Tracy Lauren (P)2024 Tantor Media

My first troll romance!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 🖤💙❤️
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Chemistry: 🧪🧪🧪🧪
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: 🙃🙁😀
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Dual Narration

The heroine: Adelaide - her parents died a year ago. She lives in her parents thatched roof cottage home with her aunt Celia. The villagers say that the house is filled with ghosts, but Adelaide knows that it isn’t. Celia moved in after her parents died, supposedly to help her out. In reality Celia was just another in a long line of people who just wanted her parents' home and land. Celia treats Adelaide like a slave, though Adelaide fights against Celia’s attempts to rule her. Celia often tells Adelaide to go off into The Perished Woods and live with the monsters. The villagers also judge Adelaide when she angrily rebukes her aunt, they see only her actions, not her aunts.

The Story: When a horde of Orcs attack her village burning everything in their path, killing and raping as they go. Adelaide runs into The Perished Woods, it was not a typical forest, since it is the home of monsters, a portal to their accursed lands. She knows of the terrible things that happen to women at the hands of the Orcs, so she would rather brave The Perished Woods and try to find her way to Ellen, her other aunt who was once nice to her. She runs and tries to stay ahead of the Orcs when she hears an Orc battle cry behind her. Instead, she runs right into a giant Troll who grabs her and takes her to his lair.

The Hero: Brom - his home is hidden by enchantments in The Perished Woods. His larder contains vials of powders and potions, his precious magic stores that are dwindling. When he saves the human from the Orcs, he has to make sure that the black magic of the Orcs doesn’t get inside him and uses some of his healing potion to get it out. Even the smallest cut from an Orcs blade can kill someone within a day. He tells the human that she belongs to him now since she crossed his bridge without paying the toll.

I liked Adelaide at first when she fought back against her aunt, though for some reason I didn’t like her as much when she fought back against Brom. I think it was because she called him names, like oaf and said things like he is an animal, and other things like that. Not that he was nice to her, he expected her to be a servant to him, so it was right that she fought against being a slave. I just didn’t really like the way she did it.

Adelaide starts out as someone easy to root for—defiant against injustice, refusing to be crushed under Celia's heel. But when she fights Brom, her approach shifts, and it changes how I connected with her. It makes sense; defiance alone doesn’t always make a character likable. How they express it, the emotional undertones, and the level of respect they show—especially to someone who isn’t just another petty oppressor—can alter the way we perceive them. She also tells Brom a lie and doesn’t fess up for far too long.

Adelaide’s insults toward Brom felt less like righteous rebellion and more like misplaced hostility. I expected her to resist in a way that was more strategic, or even grudgingly respectful, given the strange circumstances. She’s in survival mode, sure, but her words might have cheapened the tension between them rather than making her feel powerful in the moment. Though I admit that once they became friends and stopped always arguing and baiting each other, the story got much better, though it was a bit of a slow burn and the story moved about as slowly as the romance, I wanted more action, but it was good enough that I will continue on with this series.

This audiobook was narrated from multiple perspectives, done in dual narration by Allison River and John Masterson. I like Allison Rivers voice; it is soft and feminine. You she does a good job, though isn’t one of my favorite narrators. John Masterson has a super deep voice which I really like for the Troll male, and he speaks in a slow, measured way that just makes them sound more authentic for some reason.

Tamed by the Troll by Tracy Lauren

This was a really entertaining read that kept me hooked the whole way through. I loved how both main characters were grumpy in their own way the way they clashed and fed off each other made every scene spark. The slow burn was burning, and the tension between them was so well done. The pacing was nice, and overall, it was just a fun, engaging fantasy romance that I really enjoyed.

Why am I crying but also aroused 😅🖤🥹

Ummm this was amazing and I will never get over how unbelievably beautiful their love is!!!

This author has a loincloth kink

This was fluffier (but not smuttier) than I expected from the dark cover art and summary. I’m not sure why Brom wore a loincloth, other than the author has a thing for them (see her Alien Instinct series). There are trolls, fairies, goblins, orcs and willowisps. More importantly, there are towns housing these creatures with taverns and, yes, pants. Still, the details on Brom’s appearance, other than his size and fangs are scant enough to overlook (there’s a single mention of yellow eyes, three fingers, and earrings). This was more along the lines of your average pulpy romantasy with a grumpy monster guy and his feisty girl.

Minor downsides include occasional out of place F bombs, little actual nooky between Adelaide and Brom in their slow burn, enemies to lovers arc, and an uneven balance of flaws with him being grumpy and her being quite the ungrateful brat. I warmed up to Adelaide by the middle, but I would have preferred a FMC with more brains and empathy.

Major upside was the narration. Both narrators were fantastic, especially her voicing for the witch and his growly delcious voicing for Brom.

Tamed by the Troll

I am so happy I started this series. Tracy Lauren is a top favorite scifi author of mine and I loved this!

The Perished Woods starts with Adelaide and Brom (the Troll). When Adelaide’s village is attacked by an Orc Army, Adelaide makes a run for the Perished Woods. Normally avoiding the woods where the beats reside, she runs for safety and ends up running g across a bridge and right into our super grumpy MMC

Adelaide and Brom are flawed characters and I love seeing their growth throughout the story. This is not an instalove type of story, these characters really had to work for it and I find that extremely refreshing. I loved the writing, story flow, slow burn and the HEA. I also enjoyed the narration, I feel it fit the characters very well.

Nice

Nice story, good buildup, very fairytale like. I would recomended fairytale readers to read this one , very sweet and whole heartedly story

Tamed By The Troll by Tracy Lauren (The Perished Wood Series book 1)

A delightful tale, about a young girl’s life full of anger, worry and work. Then Orcs attack her home in village, attacking the women and then killing all the people they find. She runs into the.Perished Woods, even though she knows that it is not safe there. But what choice does she have? If she stays, she’ll be attacked and then killed. So she runs for her life. Only to cross a bridge guarded by a vicious Troll. This is a delightful book and hope you will take a chance and read it.

inconsistent FMC

SPOILERS AHEAD
I couldn't finish this book because of the FMC. Her character in the beginning of the book is relatable, whitty, and charming even as she's being off putting. Her decision making originally makes sense for a young confined woman. However, her character rapidly grows to be really flat and inconsistent. For example, she has a serious heart to heart about her history with famine, then proceedes to willingly waste large amounts of food, and never references it ever again even when the one good day she has revolves around feeding people. It also seems kinda important because the MMC continuesly asks her to cook for him. Or how she's supposedly really good at, enjoys, and takes pride in fishing. EVEN picturing it as an activity to do with her future kids fondly. Yet she never talks about it, thinks about it, has fond memories about it ect. Also it's never really explained where her shame from sex and nudity comes from, and even though her main trauma in life is her parents death we don't really have any understanding about what her relationship with her parents was like, or even what kind of people they were. We actually don't really know anything about her life prior to her parents death in terms of her upbringing, attitude, and behaviors. She really just goes from depressed, angry, and prudish, to snarky, content, man obsessed slut after a really bad magical drug trip.
also ..
After she decides to turn over a new leaf and be happy and caring towards the MMC. She is shown as self sacrificing, taking up work to earn him medicine, throwing herself into a fight to save him, using all of her worth to buy him stiches...All of her thoughts and inner dialogue focus on him and how to ease his suffering and help him. Yet, for some unknown reason she rather take him on a week long treck though the most dangerous environment in their lands, putting them both in danger, than admit she wasn't a virgin. She seems to care really really deeply for her to the point where she would physically throw herself unarmed into battle to save him, but won't admit she has slept with a man even after seeing him shot, wounded, and barely able to walk to the inn. it makes no sense. especially after he continuesly blatantly tells her how dangerous both the walk and the witch are and never mentions anything sex negative. she doesn't even think of having sex with him to cover up her lie. Instead she just frolics through the danger while admitting she has absolutely zero plan. that's as far as I could get

Not my usual

I read a variety of genera’s but never this, I usually ready historical romance, rom coms or thrillers but sometimes crave something different. I tried something similar a while back and DNF a chapter in but decided to keep going with this one and it was better than ok although not my favorite. I have tried a few fantasy books but the only one I have ever finished was Quicksilver and it’s one of my favorite books ever. I may try the next in the series the next time I want a break from my usual, I see from reviews that most like it better. Although I think I will stick with traditional reading, the male narrator was a little odd. The cadence was strange. I think he narrates the series.