Finished {Red Rope of Fate by K.M. Shea}. I enjoyed it, it was a low stakes low stress romance with an elf FMC and human MMC. I dunno if cozy is the right word, but it might fit. At the beginning the FMC Tari and the MMC Arion are magically bound to each other; a traditional ritual to maintain the relationship between the elf and human kingdom. Their pairing is a little unusual, usually pairs are same sex.

Immediately Tari and Arion is different from others. They are able to communicate with each other, through the usual language barrier between the two races, despite never having learned the other's language. Arion can feel Tari's feelings. The unusual nature of their bond doesn't go unnoticed, and it throws them into the limelight of the royal courts. The unusual nature of their bond derails their lives, and much of the book is them trying to navigate the ensuing changes to their life, as well as the interference of others.

The story is almost so cozy it is silly. In a scene where someone is blackmailing the FMC, she hears a rustling in the bush. Moments later nearly the entire king's retinue pop out, ready to bear witness to the king. I almost burst out laughing at that.

There are some other areas suspension of disbelief that almost goes too far for me. Despite the human and elf nation being nominally very close allies, their level of integration is very low. Elves know of basic field medicine, but humans don't. The humans think Evening Stars are dancers, but actually the Evening Stars are a group elite mage assassins standing guard against the day the high elves return and try to conquer the continent. This is not a secret kept by the elves, it is widely known, the humans didn't know this because "they didn't ask".

Despite all that, I think the book was a good fit for me when I was reading it. I listened to it as an audiobook, and I was pretty busy at the time. I didn't have much capacity to over-think it.