Halfling by S. E. Wendel: Book Review
| Pub Date | October 6, 2023 |
| Publisher | Self-published/S. E. Wendel |
| Page Count | 465 pages |
| Genre | Romance, Fantasy, Adult |
| Goodreads Star Rating | 4.0 |
| My star rating | 2.7 |
Halfling Book Summary
Halfling by S. E. Wendel follows Orek, a half-orc as he saves Sorcha (a human) from slavery and the chief of his clan. As they journey back to her home, they get to know each other and slowly fall in love. This book is the first part of a series called Monstrous World.
Halfling Book Review
After finishing Echoes of The Tide (see my full review here), Halfling popped up on my Kindle as a recommended book to read. And while I’m not much for monster romance overall (despite my love for the Deep Waters series), I checked out some reviews and found out that Halfling is actually very sweet and almost cozy.
And well, since I was already set for a day under the blankets, in my comfortable chair (seasonal cold will get you), I decided to give it a go.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t bad at all.
So, this story begins with Orek, who is half human and half orc, as he watches his human mother leave. She’s been a slave to the orc chief (Orek’s father) for years, and since he’s about to be challenged and beaten by a much more dangerous and cold-hearted orc (and Orek’s mother would then have to be with him), she runs away, leaving Orek behind.
The poor halfling then spends his entire life being ignored and mocked, not quite fitting in anywhere.
One day, when he comes back from a hunt, he finds out that there’s a human woman in their camp, and that she’s about to become property of the cruel clan chief. Haunted by memories of his mother’s suffering, he decides to help this woman, Sorcha, run away.
The majority of the story moving forward is spent on their trip home. At first, Orek means to drop her off at the first human settlement, but she asks him to take her all the way home, which would take more time.
He doesn’t mind, however, since he’s halfway in love with her by the time she says her first words to him. And that was my biggest issue with this book.
Orek is such a great character — a cinnamon roll ready to protect and save anyone who needs it, a kind and lonely soul, someone desperately needing affection. But the author makes him randomly fall in love with Sorcha without her even doing anything to earn that. She just exists, and Orek is completely smitten.
At the same time, Sorcha gets a chance to properly get to know Orek and all of his good qualities, before she falls. She sees him care for her and random animals in the forest, she sees his kindness and softness and all of that.
And I understand that Orek is a creature and not human entirely, and that the mating thing comes heavily into play. But you just never understand why he’d even like Sorcha. Sure, she’s pretty and has curves and whatnot, but what else?
It makes Orek much more shallow than he really is, and at the very least their relationship is icky — clearly the sheltered, virginal, touch-starved MC who never knew kindness will fall in love with the first person who smiles at him.
The first half of the book is solely about Orek and Sorcha traveling back to her home. They get attacked a few times, one almost fatal, and meet some nice people who help them out. It is really cozy, as some of the reviews said — they find a baby racoon, have numerous campfire conversations, and see some really beautiful areas.
Orek, in his mind, is obsessed with Sorcha and everything she does. At one point, he starts constantly describing how he masturbates to thoughts of her — which is just too much information, if you ask me. If it was mentioned once, it would be fine, but you get detailed, heavy descriptions.
Sorcha, for her part, is less obsessed and more smitten for a bit, until she starts noticing his broad shoulders and thighs and then she also becomes insufferable.
It was sweet at times, don’t get me wrong, but it was just too much.
And then they finally admit that they want each other. From that point on, all they do is have sex in various ways. This might work for some people, but it didn’t really work for me, especially with nothing to support it. He meets his mother again and even that gets lost in all the spice.
It’s not a bad book by any means. In fact, it’s really well-written and sweet for the first 50%. If you don’t mind liberal use of “male/female” and some cringy “I pop my hip and everyone listens to me” moves from Sorcha.
However, Halfling could stand to be shorter. Not enough happens to warrant almost 500 pages. But if you love cozy romance with plenty of spice, go for it, you might enjoy it.
For me, it was mostly forgettable, yet enjoyable enough to spend an afternoon with.
Notes & Highlights
Here are some things you should know about Halfling before you start reading:
- Halfling is written in the third POV from both Sorcha’s and Orek’s perspective. They alternate, sometimes within the same chapter, but there are usually scene breaks.
- This is a monster romance, so it’s spicy. The sex scenes are frequent starting at about 50%, though there are mentions of it before that. There’s nothing outrageous that happens in any of them (read: they’re pretty vanilla, other than the monster aspect).
- Check the content warnings before reading. Some of them include: implied sexual assault (in the past and threatened), injury, blood, and gore, physical harm, bullying (remembered), and more.
- Halfling is a part of the Monstrous World series of standalone novels. They’re still coming out, but you don’t need to read one to read the other, though some characters overlap.
