Elves from California

It took quite a slog to get through Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory's Crown of Vengeance, but it was mostly worth it.

As a prequel to two other trilogies in the same world, it took some time getting used to centering on only the elvish race, with occasional interludes to the Endarkened. The map this time, however is basically the Western US, with Elvish kingdom's stretching from the Mississippi to the Pacific even though most everything is centered around what we would consider California. (We end somewhere near El Paso.)

For the sake of my sanity, we'll refer to our heroine, Vielliessar, as V, and use initials for any other characters needing named, since Elves seem to enjoy long freaking names that put everyone else to shame. V is the last of House Farcarion, who's father died in battle, betrayed by his allies and who's mother died in childbirth at the Sanctuary of the Star. the Astromancer in charge of the Sanctuary believes V to be the fulfillment of the prophecy that will doom the Hundred Houses and lead the Elves in battle against a greater darkness. Which doesn't help when she gets schlepped back to the Sanctuary at 12 by the Lady of the most powerful house after the fall of V's original house.

Anyway, V is exiled by the Lady, basically. She does eventually figure out who and what she is, and most of the rest of the book is her figuring out how powerful she is, uniting most of the Houndred Houses, figuring out she's love bonded with R, Heir Apparent to the House she grew up in (and neither of them are exactly happy about this) and essentially leading everyone into a war that violates all the old rules.

It's a long trek.

It's a good trek.

The plotting in this setting is much more involved than what one might expect, and war and politics dance under the stars, and the reader is never sure exactly who is actually a decent person.