The Assassin and the Sorceress Review: Is It Worth Reading?

Updated on October 6, 2026

Verdict: A warm, character-first sapphic quest fantasy with an autistic elf assassin whom readers praise almost unanimously, held back by a romance that several readers say moves too fast and a rating built partly on advance copies.

Best for: Readers who want authentic autistic representation, a queer-normative epic fantasy world and an enemies-to-lovers road trip, and who care more about characters than a slow-burn romance.

Heat level: ★★★☆☆ (3/5 — open door; readers report two explicit scenes, romance.io has no heat rating yet)

Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.8/5 — a 4.23 Goodreads average across 44 ratings, discounted because many of the top reviews come from advance copies)

Tropes: Enemies to lovers, assassin and target, forced proximity, road trip quest, autistic heroine, morally grey heroine, fire magic, elves, queer-normative world, found companions.

The Assassin and the Sorceress is N.R.G. Selove’s self-published 2025 debut and the first book in a series, a sapphic epic fantasy in which Jessara, an autistic elf and the King’s most effective assassin, is sent to capture or kill Asha Weaver, a reckless human fire sorceress on the run — until a run of disasters forces the hunter and her target to travel together.

It holds a 4.23 Goodreads average across 44 ratings and 32 reviews, with a 4.3 on Amazon across 30 ratings. Those are small numbers, and 13 of the 30 most visible Goodreads reviews mention an advance or free copy. But the praise is unusually specific, and the criticism is too. Both halves are worth understanding before you start.

What Is The Assassin and the Sorceress About?

It is classic quest fantasy — a kingdom, an elven Compact, mountain tribes and a long journey between them — with a sapphic enemies-to-lovers romance at its centre. Readers compare its bones to the big epic fantasies they grew up on; one names The Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time and The Priory of the Orange Tree as clear influences. The difference is the world: queerness is ordinary here, and the cast includes lesbian, bisexual, asexual and nonbinary characters without anyone having to defend their existence.

Jessara was trained from childhood as a weapon, and her autism is part of who she is rather than a plot device. Asha is everything an assassin would hate in a target — impulsive, talkative and very hard to predict. The story is told in third person, and the friction between a killer who wants rules and a sorceress who breaks them is the engine of both the plot and the romance.

What Makes This Sapphic Fantasy Romance Work

Jessara: The autistic representation is the most praised element by a distance — it comes up in nearly every positive Goodreads review we read. Even the book’s harshest critic in our sample says Jessara is written as a dangerous assassin first, with her autism treated as a fact rather than a problem.
The worldbuilding: Seven of the higher-rated reviews praise the world, and the two-star reviewer agrees that each place the characters pass through feels distinct rather than copy-pasted.
Humour: Asha is the wisecracker, and seven positive reviewers name the banter or the humour as a draw.
Representation across the cast: Readers list lesbian, bisexual, asexual and nonbinary characters, and two reviewers praise a neurodivergent sapphic fantasy that does not make anyone’s identity the conflict.
Action with feeling: One five-star review praises the balance of action and emotional moments, and several readers say they finished wanting book two.

Book Synopsis

Jessara has spent her life becoming the King’s perfect weapon. Born an elf in the forests of Anwood and trained from childhood against her own people’s Compact, she is the assassin the crown calls when a job needs precision. Her newest contract looks simple: find Asha Weaver, a human fire sorceress who escaped execution in the capital, and bring her back, alive or otherwise.

Asha does not make anything simple. She is reckless, quick-tongued and far more capable than a fugitive should be, and she has no intention of going quietly. When a chain of bad luck and worse decisions leaves the two of them needing each other to survive, the assassin and her target end up on the road together, crossing settlements, mountains and elven lands with enemies on every side.

The longer they travel, the less sense the contract makes. Jessara starts to question who she is working for and why the King wants Asha so badly. Asha starts to see the person behind the assassin. With old loyalties cracking and the kingdom’s future tied to what they find, the question is whether Jessara can trust someone she was paid to kill — and whether she can stop being a weapon long enough to want something for herself.

My Review

The best thing in The Assassin and the Sorceress is Jessara, and the reviews agree with near unanimity. An autistic heroine who is also the most dangerous person in the room is rare in any genre, and Selove writes her with care: her way of reading people, her need for structure and her lethal competence all belong to the same person.

The second strength is the world. For a self-published debut, the geography is unusually concrete — elven lands, human towns and mountain tribes each feel like somewhere different, which is the thing even the most critical reviewer concedes. The queer-normative setting is a deliberate choice, and it lets the conflict come from loyalty and power rather than prejudice.

Where it struggles is the romance, and that is the recurring note in the lower ratings rather than my own complaint. Three of the six reviews at three stars or below say the relationship moves too fast — the declarations come early, and one reader says they fall in love within a few weeks without enough groundwork. One three-star reader found the first half gripping and the second a struggle to finish; another found the plot hard to follow at times. The loudest critic, at two stars, says the book handles its heaviest themes poorly, leans on what the reviewer calls index-card exposition to explain Asha, and needs content warnings. That is one voice, but it is detailed.

Then the evidence itself. Thirteen of the 30 most visible Goodreads reviews mention an advance or free copy, which is normal for an indie debut but means the 4.23 is partly an early-reader number. Two readers also feel the representation is sometimes crammed in; most reviewers call it the point. If you came for an autistic sapphic assassin, you will get exactly that; if you came for a slow-burn romance, adjust.

My honest note: A four-star heroine and world in a three-and-a-half-star romance, carried by Jessara. If an instalove pace ruins a romance for you, be warned; if you want representation done with care inside a real fantasy quest, this delivers.

Element	In The Assassin and the Sorceress
Central relationship	Jessara & Asha Weaver — autistic elf assassin and fugitive human fire sorceress, enemies to lovers
Core tropes	Enemies to lovers, assassin and target, forced proximity, road trip quest, morally grey heroine, fire magic
Setting	A secondary-world kingdom, an elven Compact and the mountains and settlements between them
Heat level	3/5 — open door, two explicit scenes per readers
Series	The Assassin and the Sorceress book 1 of 2 so far — book 2 out April 2026
Content notes	Death, violence including against children, fantasy racism, genocide, past trauma

How Spicy Is The Assassin and the Sorceress?

It is a 3/5, with a caveat. romance.io lists the book but has only two ratings and no heat band yet, so we are going on reader reports: one detailed Goodreads review says there are two open-door scenes, and nobody in our sample describes the book as steamy or as closed door. That places it at moderate heat — explicit when it happens, but a small part of a long adventure.

The thing worth knowing in advance is darkness rather than spice. Readers list death, violence including against children, fantasy racism and genocide, and the two-star reviewer says the book needed clearer content warnings. For a sapphic fantasy at similar heat, try This Splintered Sea, also medium-heat; for another assassin heroine at much higher heat, Consort of Fire sits at a fully explicit level.

Who Should Read This Book?

You’ll likely love it if: you want autistic and wider queer representation written with care, you enjoy classic quest fantasy with a road-trip structure, you like a deadly heroine paired with a chaotic one, and you are happy to start a series.

You may want to skip it if: you need a slow-burn romance, you dislike exposition-heavy character introductions, dark themes like genocide need clear warnings for you, or you prefer books with a large base of independent reviews.

In short: a heartfelt indie fantasy with a standout autistic heroine, best read for Jessara and the world rather than the pace of the romance.

What Readers Are Actually Saying (October 2026)

This is a small book with a devoted audience. We found no trade coverage, and romance.io has only two ratings. What it has is a cluster of committed readers: a 4.23 Goodreads average from 44 ratings, an Amazon 4.3 from 30, and reviewers who write at length about Jessara. A large share of the early reviews came through advance copies, which is how many self-published debuts find their first readers. The sequel, Heist of the Assassin and the Sorceress, came out on April 30, 2026, and sits at 4.90 across its first 10 Goodreads ratings — an even smaller, even more devoted sample. We found no audiobook edition.

Why readers love it (according to the discourse): Jessara and the autistic representation first, by a wide margin. Then the world, named in seven of the positive reviews, and the humour and banter, also seven. Readers repeatedly mention the broader queer cast, and one praises the balance of action and emotion. Notably, even the two-star review opens by praising the world and Jessara.

What readers argue about and complain about: The romance pace, above everything — three of the six reviews at three stars or below say it moves too fast. Second: structure and clarity, with one reader losing steam halfway and another finding the plot hard to follow. Third: execution of the heavy material, which the two-star reviewer says is handled poorly and used to explain characters rather than explore them. The genuine split is the representation itself: two readers find it forced in places, while most call it the reason the book exists.

The series question everyone should ask first: Is it finished? Not yet. This is book one, and the sequel is already out, so there is no long wait. No reviewer in our sample calls the ending a cliffhanger, but several say they finished wanting the next book, and the larger kingdom plot is clearly set up to continue. If you want a complete story in one volume, know that you are starting a series.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is The Assassin and the Sorceress a sapphic romance?

Yes. It is a sapphic enemies-to-lovers fantasy between Jessara, an autistic bisexual elf assassin, and Asha Weaver, a human fire sorceress, in a queer-normative world.

Is the main character autistic?

Yes. Jessara is autistic, and readers praise the representation as the book’s greatest strength.

How spicy is The Assassin and the Sorceress?

About a 3/5. Readers report two open-door scenes in a long adventure; romance.io has no heat rating for it yet.

Is there a sequel to The Assassin and the Sorceress?

Yes. Heist of the Assassin and the Sorceress was published on April 30, 2026, and continues the story.

Does The Assassin and the Sorceress have content warnings?

Yes. Readers list death, violence including against children, fantasy racism and genocide, and one reviewer says the book should flag these more clearly.

If You Loved The Assassin and the Sorceress, Read These Next

For another assassin heroine in a romantasy world, at much higher heat, read Consort of Fire. For a newer indie sapphic fantasy with fast, addictive pacing, try This Splintered Sea. For enemies-to-lovers magic with a sharper rivalry and more spice, Her Spell That Binds Me is the next step. For more, see our adult sapphic romantasy guide and the list of sapphic romantasy with good communication, or browse every title in Book Reviews.

The Bottom Line

The Assassin and the Sorceress sets out to write a big, old-fashioned quest fantasy with an autistic sapphic assassin at its heart, and the heart is what makes it. Jessara is a genuine achievement, the world feels lived in, and the banter keeps the long road moving. But the romance rushes, the heavy themes are not always handled with care, and the rating rests on a small, early-reader-heavy sample. If representation and character matter more to you than a slow burn, it is worth it. Check The Assassin and the Sorceress on Amazon →

The Eikna Overall Ranking

On the Eikna scale, The Assassin and the Sorceress ranks as a heartfelt indie sapphic quest fantasy — outstanding on representation and character, held back by a rushed romance and a thin evidence base, and best approached for Jessara and the world rather than the love story.