Review: Nymph’s Trust by Laura Greenwood and Arizona Tape

Posted February 28, 2023 by Lola in Fantasy, Post-apocalyptic, Review, Romance / 2 Comments

Nymph’s Trust (Purple Oasis #1)
by Laura Greenwood and Arizona Tape

My Rating:

Genre: Paranormal Romance/ Post-Apocalyptic
Age Category: Young Adult/ New Adult
Type of romance: MF

Blurb:
As the daughter of the Purple Oasis coven leader, the last thing Jasmine expects is to be sent on a diplomatic mission to convince the nymphs and dryads to part with their precious tea. Nor does she expect to make a connection with the handsome nymph sent to negotiate.

Ryburn never expected to like the representative of Purple Oasis, but he’s unable to deny the spark of something special he sees in Jasmine.

Can the two of them forge an alliance between their people without losing their hearts?

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Nymph’s Trust is book one of the Purple Oasis series. It is a standalone m/f paranormal romance set in a post-apocalyptic world that’s starting to rebuild.

My Review

I wasn’t quite sure whether to read this series or not, but as I got the first book for free and was in the mood for a series with a different couple per book I decided to pick it up. This book had an unique set up and it was fun to read, although I would’ve liked to see a few more romantic scenes and I had some trouble visualizing the world.

Nymph’s trust is the first book in a paranormal romance set in a post-apocalyptic setting. This first book features a tea witch Jasmine and Ryburn who is a nymph. The two meet when they’re trying to negotiate an agreement, Purple Oasis wants to bargain for some of the tea that Grower’s Grove has been successfully growing.

I have to admit I found the idea of tea witches a bit odd at first, but I also thought it was pretty unique. I liked reading about how they got magic from tea and that sure seemed like a struggle in a post-apocalyptic world and thus their determination to get more of it. I had wished we had seen a bit more of what they could do with their magic. The nymphs their magic was easier to visualize and I liked the description of Ryburn’s magic use.

The focus seemed to be on the plot first, but it’s also what led the main character to meet. I liked seeing them world together on the agreement and also how they spend some time together while doing that, but I would’ve liked to see a bit more of them together while not working on the agreement or trying to avert disaster. It felt like this was just the start of their romance and I didn’t feel like we got to fully see it blossom.

The world is post-apocalyptic, but I struggled a bit to visualize it all. There is no information about what caused the end of the world, although maybe that’s not really relevant either as the focus is on the rebuild afterwards. I liked that focus on the rebuilding afterwards, but I hope we get to see more of the state of the world now as I had trouble visualizing things and knowing what they have and what not and how the world looks. So I just used a generic post-apocalyptic image for what I imaged the world to be.

The ending wraps up the plot line for the trade agreement as well as some trouble Jasmin and Ryburn try to prevent. Their romance ends on a hopeful note, although I am still not sure what will happen next and whether Ryburn returns to his grove or not. I hope we see more of them in future books. There is a nice set up for the next books in the series and I am interested enough that I plan to continue the series.

To summarize: I enjoyed reading Nymph’s Trust. It follows the story of Jasmine a tea witch who has to make contact with a group nymphs to try and create and agreement for trading their tea. Her contact from the nymphs is Ryburn and they quickly grow fond of another. I admit I found the idea the idea of tea witches a bit odd at first, but it was also pretty unique and I liked reading about how things worked. I liked Jasmine and Ryburn together, but would’ve liked to see them spend some time outside of their work on the agreement and trying to avert some trouble. I had some trouble visualizing the post-apocalyptic setting, but I did like the focus on rebuilding and hope. I am curious to see what comes next in this series.