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A review by sonshinelibrarian
Heart of the Sea by Moriah Chavis
3.5
I received an eARC of this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review.
I read this several months ago, but felt so conflicted in my response to the book and unsure exactly how to articulate my thoughts. I set it aside and, realizing that the book had officially launched, reread it to get my review down as I agreed to when requesting the advance copy.
I definitely enjoyed the book more on the second read. I like the characters and thought the magic was interesting, though I wish there was just a little bit more explanation around it. There is a good connection between the two main characters and some solid secondary characters. The one betrayal is handled particularly well.
However, I did feel like this needed one more strong edit. The first time I read it, I really struggled with the first half of the book. The sense I got was that the author wanted to hold back certain information from the reader, but the characters obviously know their own backstories. This meant that some of their inner dialogue and even conversations felt oddly restrained as they talked around things they knew so the reader wouldn't learn it too soon. On my second read, knowing everything, I found this less noticeable. There are also several places where, even on the reread, I found myself going over a passage several times because I felt like I had missed something. For example, a character getting up after I thought they were already standing.
I really liked the flashbacks that filled in the information around Nerissa and her sister, and I really wish they had started much earlier in the book. I think it would have helped with the sense of frustration I had with information being "withheld."
There is great adventure, interesting characters and magic, and an interesting world. It just needed a touch more refining.
I read this several months ago, but felt so conflicted in my response to the book and unsure exactly how to articulate my thoughts. I set it aside and, realizing that the book had officially launched, reread it to get my review down as I agreed to when requesting the advance copy.
I definitely enjoyed the book more on the second read. I like the characters and thought the magic was interesting, though I wish there was just a little bit more explanation around it. There is a good connection between the two main characters and some solid secondary characters. The one betrayal is handled particularly well.
However, I did feel like this needed one more strong edit. The first time I read it, I really struggled with the first half of the book. The sense I got was that the author wanted to hold back certain information from the reader, but the characters obviously know their own backstories. This meant that some of their inner dialogue and even conversations felt oddly restrained as they talked around things they knew so the reader wouldn't learn it too soon. On my second read, knowing everything, I found this less noticeable. There are also several places where, even on the reread, I found myself going over a passage several times because I felt like I had missed something. For example, a character getting up after I thought they were already standing.
I really liked the flashbacks that filled in the information around Nerissa and her sister, and I really wish they had started much earlier in the book. I think it would have helped with the sense of frustration I had with information being "withheld."
There is great adventure, interesting characters and magic, and an interesting world. It just needed a touch more refining.