I was given an ARC at YALC, which has not affected my opinion.
Genre: Fantasy (Myths and Legends) Age Range: YA Star Rating: 5 stars Series: yes - second book of trilogy
*SPOILER ALERT: contains SPOILERS for SWEET BLACK WAVES*
Synopsis:
Branwen has a secret powerful enough to destroy two kingdoms.
Her ancient magic led to a terrible betrayal by both her best friend, the princess Essy, and her first love, Tristan. Now this same magic is changing Branwen. Adrift in a rival court, Branwen must hide the truth from the enemy king by protecting the lovers who broke her heart―and finds herself considering a darker path.
Not everyone wants the alliance with Branwen’s kingdom to succeed―peace is balanced on a knife’s edge, and her only chance may be to embrace the darkness within…
Synopsis taken from Goodreads. Add to your shelves here.
Thoughts:
I raced through this book, hardly able to put it down and concentrate on all the other things I had to do. It’s easily going to feature somewhere on my top 10 books of 2019 post (a post I am dreading writing this December as there have been so many amazing books this year).
The stand out part of this book was the conflicting loyalties, and the horrible choices Branwen has to make to protect her home and her cousin. With her loyalties pulling her different ways, and her new home only giving Branwen more people to protect and love, it made the central conflict so gripping.
Whatever choice she makes, someone was hurt or lied to – and I loved watching her struggle to balance all these needs and loyalties. Loved in a argh, what horrible decision will she have to make next and why can’t they all be friends and make up? kind of way. It’s the sort of emotional turmoil I love, because it’s such gripping story telling. I want Branwen to succeed at securing peace and keeping everyone alive (and finding love), but I want Essy and Tristan (etc) to be happy too.
To make it even better, this book had various schemes winding around Branwen. There are gathering war clouds, but there are also internal threats as the nobles look to their own advancement and undermine Marc (my favourite new character. He’s such a devoted King, but it’s not exactly working to his benefit except making me like him!).
I’m so glad I got to read SWEET BLACK WAVES and WILD SAVAGE STARS back to back, and somewhat frustrated that I need to wait a whole year now to read the final book in the trilogy, BRIGHT RAVEN SKIES, to see how it all ends after that ending.
Read my reviews of other books by Kristina Perez
Sweet Black Waves (this series):
- SWEET BLACK WAVES (#1)
- BRIGHT RAVEN SKIES (#3)
Standalones:
Sifa Elizabeth Reads 