Tusk Love, the in-world romance novel beloved by Laura Bailey's Jester Lavorre in Critical Role, is being turned into an actual novel. Penguin Random House has put up a book listing for Tusk Love, the latest in their series of Critical Role novels. The novel will be written by Thea Guanzon, the author of The Hurricane Wars. Tusk Love will be published in July 2025 and has an MSRP of $30.
Within Critical Role continuity, Tusk Love is a romance novel that is mentioned periodically over the course of Campaign 2. Jester (played by Bailey) purchased the book, which features a forbidden romance between a merchant's daughter and a half-orc. Jester frequently alluded to the book while romancing Fjord, the half-orc warlock played by Bailey's real-life husband Travis Willingham. A copy of Tusk Love also appeared in The Legend of Vox Machina, the animated series based on Critical Role's first campaign.
This is the fifth Critical Role novel published by Penguin Random House, although it's the first to be an "in-world" book as opposed to a novel focused on the Critical Role characters.
The full description of the book can be found below:
A merchant’s daughter who yearns for adventure gets more than she bargained for when she falls for a broodingly handsome stranger in this saucy romantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hurricane Wars.
As the daughter of an ambitious merchant, Guinevere’s path has been predetermined: marry into a noble house of the Dwendalian Empire, raise her family’s station, and live quietly as a lordling’s obedient wife. But Guinevere longs for a life unbounded by expectations, for freedom and passion and adventure.
Those distant dreams become a sudden reality when her caravan is beset by bandits, leaving her guards slain and Guinevere stranded alone on the dangerous Amber Road. Her only chance of survival is to travel alongside Oskar, the aloof half-orc who saved her during the attack.
Unlike Guinevere, Oskar’s path is not so set in stone. With his mother dead and his apprenticeship abandoned, all that’s left is a long, lonely walk to a land he’s never seen to find family he’s never met. The last thing he needs is a spoiled waif like Guinevere slowing him down—even if the spark between them sizzles with promise.
Despite his cold exterior, Oskar is brave and thoughtful and unlike anyone Guinevere has ever met. And while Guinevere may be sheltered, she brings out a softness in him that he has never dared to feel before. As the flames of their passion grow, they realize that soon they’ll need to choose between their expected destinations or their blossoming romance.
Written by New York Times bestselling author Thea Guanzon at the behest of Critical Role’s Jester Lavorre, Tusk Love brings the most romantic story on Exandrian bookshelves to life.
