Books like In the Coils of the Snake

In the Coils of the Snake, the third book in THE HOLLOW KINGDOM YA fantasy trilogy, is about a human girl, Miranda, who is Matilda’s daughter (Matilda being a minor character in the prior two books in this series). Miranda has grown up in the underground goblin kingdom, but when there's an upheaval there, with her long-planned marriage to the goblin king going south, she leaves. Wandering around at loose ends and suicidally depressed, she's found and snagged up by Kir, the elf lord, who sees her as a useful pawn for his plans ... and perhaps as something more.Coils takes place maybe 40 years after the first book, The Hollow Kingdom, but most of the original characters from Kingdom are still around, and it’s fun to see what’s happened to them. You need to have read at least The Hollow Kingdom for Coils of the Snake to make any sense at all, and preferably the second book, Close Kin, as well. This book is more enjoyable to read than the second one, with less harshness and more beauty, love and hope. But Clare Dunkle is still working her theme of life and love sometimes being brutal and hard, and how often people hurt each other even when they're trying to do the right thing.Miranda is a much more frustrating heroine to read about, and to try to sympathize with, than is Kate, the main character in the first book. She spends most of the book feeling sorry for herself(view spoiler)[, so much that at one point so much that she's about to commit suicide when the goblin king tells her he needs to marry someone else, even though their relationship was more affectionate than romantic (hide spoiler)]