Deron Generally
Deron Generally
Tusk Love
Written by Thea Guanzon and Critical Role
Random House Worlds
The daughter of a wealthy merchant finds herself the victim of bandits on the Amber Road and is discovered by a handsome half-orc hiding a personal pain. The pair team up to deliver her to her parents and her betrothed Lord along with a mysterious dowry. As the two journey through the continent of Wildemount, they discover more about themselves, each other and the growing passion building and roiling between them.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a fan and player of the TTRPG (tabletop role playing game) Dungeons and Dragons. As someone who played the game as a kid, I was excited to discover that a group of voice actors that I knew from cartoons and video games would be playing the game live and streaming it for others. This was how I discovered Critical Role. Ten years and three campaigns later, I continue to be a fan of this group and the world they have created and expanded in their decade long adventure.
During the second campaign, known as The Mighty Nein, one of the characters Jester (played by Laura Bailey) began reading a fictional romance novel titled Tusk Love. I loved seeing Bailey and Dungeon Master Matthew Mercer improvise elements of the story as it grew in the background of the main campaign. I loved even more seeing Bailey’s Jester playfully tease the object of her character’s affection Fjord (played by Bailey’s real life husband Travis Willingham) with the book and characters as well.
When it was announced that the story of Tusk Love would be made into an actual novel, I was both delighted and a little nervous about picking up a copy. I’ve read all the other Critical Role related novels so I wondered what my trepidation about reading Tusk Love could be. As a cis-het man, I have little experience with the romance novel genre and, while I don’t find the genre personally intimidating, I have wondered if it was an appropriate space for me to dive into. To be honest, I’ve watched a lot of the drama on BookTok (fans of romance novels on the app TikTok) and heard stories from women on social media about their fear of having safe spaces like the romance genre or in person meetups ruined by the presence of men.
Not wanting to contribute to those concerns, I was reluctant to pick up Tusk Love, but as a fan of Critical Role, I decided to “take a chance and roll the dice” and I can honestly say, I’m glad I did.
Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon tells the story of a wealthy merchant’s daughter Guinevere whose caravan to the city of Nicodranus is set upon by bandits who want the mysterious chest she carries that she is told is her dowry. What the bandits don’t realize is that there is an unknown power within Guinevere that she doesn’t understand, but it is powerful enough to protect her from their attacks. When the half-orc traveler Oskar comes upon the scene of the attack, he leaps into battle to save Guinevere and the two manage to escape.
There is a familiarity with the beginning of the story that I enjoyed. As a fantasy reader, I recognized those elements, but Guanzon makes them unique and interesting. Guinevere is the privileged daughter or wealth unfamiliar and naïve to the world around her and Oskar is the brooding, stoic hero, but Guanzon makes them more than that throughout the novel. Both characters are more than their respective tropes and there is a complexity to them as characters that I wasn’t expecting and was genuinely impressed by. They are complicated individuals making their way in a world that can be both harsh and beautiful and each of them shows both the reality and beauty of the world to each other throughout their adventures together.
I really loved the recurring mystery of the chest as well. Guanzon manages to weave in subtle hints at what it might be, but the reader is left to speculate its importance much of the time and it helped me become more immersed in the world. Speaking of the world, the story takes the reader through the continent of Wildemount and Guanzon does a brilliant job of making the world feel like a living place through beautiful descriptions of the land and more. I felt like I was traveling with Guinevere and Oskar down the Amber Road and through the cities of Zadash and Nicodranus.
There are a lot of great Critical Role easter eggs throughout the book in terms of town descriptions and other things I remember from the campaign and they helped to give this story a lived-in feel. The pair truly live the lives of adventurers throughout the story and are changed by their experiences together, which I enjoyed seeing evolve as the story progressed. Their adventures also lead them to some awkward moments, some sweet and often tender exchanges and, in the spirit of the genre, some explicit adult encounters.
As I sat down to write this review, I wondered how I would describe the sex in the book. Would I try to describe it in more chaste, academic or professional terms or eschew decorum and just be raw and honest. Much like a ripped bodice or a torn codpiece, I decided to just let it all hang out. The sex is hot. Guanzon masterfully turns up the heat with every sexual encounter and takes the time to describe it in ways that tether you not only to the moment, but also the characters as they experience them. It helps that the chapters are broken up between the characters, so the reader sees events and encounters from both characters perspectives. There is a wonderfully descriptive beauty to the sex in the book and I can see where it feels more like romance than something others would consider prurient.
Beyond the sex, there is a thrilling adventure in this story as well as characters who discover who they really are who they are meant to be. Guanzon gives the characters their voice and agency throughout the story and you experience them challenging their own ideas and misconceptions about the world and the people in it, especially each other. The adventure elements are beautifully written and contain great moments of danger and discovery. The story elements come together in fun and engaging ways towards the end of the story as more complications arise, emotions are tested, lies are laid bare and secrets are revealed. It ends in a manner that, as a novice to the genre, I am not too familiar with but leaves the door open for more adventures and I hope Thea Guanzon gets the chance to write those adventures.
Tusk Love is a great book for fans of romance, adventure and fantasy. It’s also a great addition to the world of Critical Role as well as standing alone as a great individual story. I’m glad I dipped my toe in the river of the romance novel genre and I might take a page from Guinevere’s book and fearlessly dive in again.
Tusk Love
