In Which a Demon King Has a Realization and Attempts to Court His Human Gardener by Aurora Lee Thornton (Demon King's Gardener #2)

After a bit more encouragement, Jurao realizes he does have a romantic interest in Brealin - and decides to pursue it. 

But what should have been a simple matter of confessing his feelings turns out to be more difficult than the Demon King anticipated when he loses his nerve. Seeking advice from friends and family - including an excitable princess arriving to confirm the rumors of his crush - Jurao comes up with a new plan to express his feelings in the form of a courtship gift. 

Now all that remains is whether or not Braelin is interested in being courted...

PUBLISHER: Self Published
YEAR: 2023
LENGTH: 136 pages
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy, Romance
RECOMMENDED: Highly

Queer Rep Summary: Lesbian/Sapphic Minor Character(s), Gay/Achillean Main Character(s), Bi/Pan Secondary Character(s), Genderqueer/Nonbinary Secondary Character(s), Ace/Aro Main Character(s).

*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book. 

This features the next step in the Demon King's emotional life: specifically, a realization that he does have romantic feelings for the gardener, just as the many people in the first volume suspected. This is a very character-driven novel, and so there are minor developments related to many of the people around the demon king, most of which were delightful. Both books so far I’ve had a very cozy feel to them. I was pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of a new storyline related to the Elven deity in the shrine, and the introduction of snow to the demon realms. I don’t quite think anything was both introduced and resolved here, especially since each volume is so short, but this did resolve a few things from the first volume while clearly setting up for more to come in later ones. The demon king’s narration is consistent with the previous volume, and I like the choice of bonus story at the end.

The whole thing is driven by relationships, most of what actually happens is the demon king walking around in various places of the castle while thinking and talking to people. There are implications of more serious things in the background, such a certain parts of the gardener's backstory and some previous war, but the fact that demons live on a completely different time scale from humans means that even kind of urgent things have time to breathe. 

It’s going very well, and I’m excited for the next volume!

Minor CW for bullying, violence, war.

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