by Adalyn Grace
In this book we follow Amora, a princess set to take over the rule of the kingdom after her father. To do so, however, she needs to perform a deadly ritual and use the magic reserved for her family’s bloodline to prove to her people that she’s strong enough to take on the burden. Her magic fails her though, and she risks execution for it not being able to control it. She flees her land with a mission to prove that she’s a worthy queen, but on her quest for redemption, she learns not only of an ongoing rebellion, but of secrets that changes everything. Now, she must decide which road to take and who’s side she’s really on.
I feel like I’ve said this a lot lately, but I’m really conflicted about this book. There are a lot of things that I like about it. It’s a great concept with an interesting and unique world, and the plot is good too. But the execution is lacking a bit for me, well, a lot actually. I had a really hard time believing the characters and their motivations and their actions. The characters are very one-dimensional and flat, and there are no development at all.
It’s overly described to the point that I’m like “I know, can we please move on?” The characters jump from one emotion to the other without any explanation, things don’t add up sometimes and rules that have been set previously are either broken later on, or explained in such a way that it sounds like they have been broken.
The scenery and people’s looks are explained in such detail, and in such long paragraphs that it felt like my eyes were bleeding after a while. At the same time, I wanted to know about the world, but it was just a little too much, especially in a situation like the characters found themselves in. They wouldn’t have had time to stand around for half an hour pondering over the color of the houses and the hair of the fifteen people around them and the sky and the jewelry and the history of the city and the magic they wield and so on.
And when it comes to the characters, for me they fell completely flat. There was no chemistry between them. I could see the attempt to create it, but to me it felt forced, and I could tell someone else was pulling the strings there. It wasn’t fun to read, and I just kept rolling my eyes, hoping that things would get better.
Most of all, though, I disliked how cliché the book was. Just take the love triangle. I mean, they are sort of cliché as it, but when the two men literally fight over the girl … I don’t know, it’s too much. And it wasn’t just that, it was basically like every decision and action from the main character was cliché in some way. Or perhaps it was just she who was a cliché.
I liked the plot a lot, the different islands and the way the magic worked and the different kinds of magic. It was exciting at the right times and the pacing was sort of there (apart from the mind-bogglingly slow heaps of exposition). The writing was easy to read, at times a little too purple prose, but overall, the style of writing fit the genre. It was more what was written that didn’t really work for me. But there was a clear structure in the plot that I thought worked, and it’s obvious the author knows how to create an alluring plot with its rising action and climaxes and so on.
The side characters were way better than the wishy-washy female lead which honesty changed her mind and thoughts and feelings with every other page. But not even the side characters got enough depth to them, they are all very very flat.
So, when I say I’m conflicted, that’s not an understatement. On one hand, it felt like I read an early draft of a story that still has leagues of edits to go through before publication. On the other hand, I enjoyed the core of what I was reading.
As a developmental editor, I would have said that this was an amazing story with so much potential, that it just needed a little more to reach the top. As purely a reader, I want to say that it wasn’t finished, that I don’t want to read it again.
At the same time, when I finished the book, I felt like I wanted to read the sequel because I wanted to know what happened next. I wanted the end to Amora’s story. I did remember the story the day after finishing it, which to be honest doesn’t happen with every book. And I found myself thinking about the book and the characters while doing everyday tasks.
So, I suppose that my brain liked the good parts more than the bad parts initially. That the editor in me chose to praise it instead of getting stuck on all the things I wish had been different.
After reading it, I was ready to give this book 4 out of 5 stars and buy the sequel. Now however, a week later when I return to this review to give my final verdict, I don’t even know what happened in the book. I can’t remember how it ended or why I even wanted to read the sequel. That’s not a good sign at all.
Therefore, my final rating for this book will be 3 stars out of five, and I won’t read the sequel. I’m disappointed of the execution of a story I had so much hope for, of a story that had so much potential to be amazing.
All in all, this book doesn’t feel finished. It reads like an early draft with too much exposition, too many clichés, too much tell, too little character development, and too little focus on the things that actually matter. Maybe the sequel is better, but that I’ll probably never find out.
If you like YA fantasy, mermaids, magic and seafaring pirates, you‘ll probably love this, though. So, I highly recommend you reading it and decide for yourself. It’s not a book for me, but plenty of others love it, and you might too. I don’t regret reading it.
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