I feel like I need to make it very clear that some of the books I will be talking about in this series won’t necessarily be popular but they do have pretty high ratings on Goodreads (anything over 3.5 is classed as good I’d say). “Popular” was just a shorter way of me saying highly rated and I like how the title forms a triangle on the graphic.
Siege and Storm (Shadow and Bone #2) by Leigh Bardugo
I have spoken about this book so many times now and the more I think about it the more I dislike it. I know that is a pretty blasphemous thing to say as Shadow and Bone is a staple YA series, but it just did not work for me.
I actually quite enjoyed the first book and read it relatively quickly but Siege and Storm took almost four weeks for me to read. Those four weeks were quite painful. I know what you’re thinking ‘why didn’t you just give up?’. Well, I’m not a quitter and besides, I already had the last book so I wanted to see it through to the end.
I think the main issue for me is pacing. The pacing of this book was so incredibly slow that I kept losing interest in the plot. The pacing in the first book wasn’t much better but it was setting up the world and introducing characters so I let it off.
Secondly I just really don’t like Alina or any of the ‘good guys’… well except Nikolai. He genuinely made this book bearable for me. It’s really not often that I find myself hating the main character, but I don’t know, there’s something about Alina that doesn’t sit well with me.
Synopsis: Darkness never dies.
Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land, all while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. But she can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.
The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her—or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.
Sea Witch (Sea Witch #1) by Sarah Henning
Now this one is a bit of a strange one. I didn’t love it, but I also didn’t hate it. I just think it had a lot of potential which sadly was not met.
Again the pacing of this book was extremely slow. Nothing really happens for the first half of the book and even when it does pick up slightly it’s not much better. The ending definitely set up the second book really well, however, I feel like a lot of the first book could have been cut and the two could be put together. It probably just me that thinks that, but personally I would have preferred that.
I’m also tired of books about mermaids and sirens that don’t spend any time actually under the sea. Is that too much to ask for? I think it might be.
Synopsis: Everyone knows what happens in the end. A mermaid, a prince, a true love’s kiss. But before that young siren’s tale, there were three friends. One feared, one royal, and one already dead.
Ever since her best friend, Anna, drowned, Evie has been an outcast in her small fishing town. A freak. A curse. A witch.
A girl with an uncanny resemblance to Anna appears offshore and, though the girl denies it, Evie is convinced that her best friend actually survived. That her own magic wasn’t so powerless after all. And, as the two girls catch the eyes—and hearts—of two charming princes, Evie believes that she might finally have a chance at her own happily ever after.
But her new friend has secrets of her own. She can’t stay in Havnestad, or on two legs, unless Evie finds a way to help her. Now Evie will do anything to save her friend’s humanity, along with her prince’s heart—harnessing the power of her magic, her ocean, and her love until she discovers, too late, the truth of her bargain.
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Like this post? Why not read this one too: Book Review: Your Place or Mine? by Portia MacIntosh