Skip to main content

Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young (Review #224)

"OND ELDR. BREATHE FIRE.

Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient, rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: fight and survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield―her brother, fighting with the enemy―the brother she watched die five years ago.

Faced with her brother's betrayal, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan thought to be a legend, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved family.

She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother’s friend, who sees her as a threat. They must do the impossible: unite the clans to fight together, or risk being slaughtered one by one. Driven by a love for her clan and her growing love for Fiske, Eelyn must confront her own definition of loyalty and family while daring to put her faith in the people she’s spent her life hating."

Review:
What an amazing read! Any girl named Eelyn (or spelled Aelin *wink wink*) is one I’m siding with wholeheartedly.  This was my first story involving Vikings and OMG, it did not disappoint. To enemy clans fighting to the death for as long as they’ve know, only to be forced together in an epic standoff with a common enemy. 

This was definitely a very slow burn romance. But I think the time we spend hating the Riki was needed. Our main character has known nothing but war and trauma and struggle. She was bred for it. And once a warrior like that is forced to stop fighting, it was a hard endeavor. However I think we saw along with Eelyn everything with the same heartache and frustration. It was so moving.

The best parts though were the action sequences. Holy cow, they were awesome. I do wish they were longer, it seems like these epically-sized battles were shrunk into a few minutes which seems a bit unrealistic, but other than that they were fantastic. And even better than that, I loved that the women fought alongside the men as equals. It was never expected for the women to stay behind, they were bound to the battlefield just as much as the men were. The scene where Eelyn and Fiske were checking over each other’s armor before the fight was so friggin sweet, I think that might be a new favorite trope of mine.

Overall, what an amazing read, it was well worth the hype! As always, let me know your own thoughts and feels down below in the comments and I’ll see ya on the next one!




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Burn for Burn by Jenny Han & Siobhan Vivian (Review #29)

"Lillia has never had any problems dealing with boys who like her. Not until this summer, when one went too far. No way will she let the same thing happen to her little sister. Kate is tired of the rumors, the insults, the cruel jokes. It all goes back to one person - her ex-best friend - and she's ready to make her pay. Four years ago, Mary left Jar Island because of a boy. But she's not the same girl anymore. And she's ready to prove it to him. Three very different girls who want the same thing: sweet, sweet revenge. And they won't stop until they've each had a taste." Review: This book was FAN-TAS-TIC!! I am not for the petty popular girl books, and this is definitely not one of those books. The revenge you wish you got on the person who double-crossed you is finally let loose In one of the best and most inventive ways, and the ending left me jaw-dropped. This is a book everyone should have on their shelf.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin (Review #20)

"Mara Dyer doesn't think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. It can. She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed. There is. She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love. She's wrong." Review: This is a book you simply have to read. It's probably a part of my top ten favorite books list. Mara is this girl who just lost her friends and boyfriend in a terrible, but also peculiar, accident and now people who tick her off - and who she's attracted to (cough-cough-Noah-cough-cough) - are in her powerful line of fire... It's a tantalizing tale that will have you (for a lack of a better cliche) gripping the edge of your seat!!

Antigoddess by Kendare Blake (Review #141)

"Old Gods never die.. or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health. Desperately seeking the cause of their slow, miserable deaths, Athena and Hermes travel the world, gathering allies and discovering enemies both new and old. Their search leads them to Cassandra - an ordinary girl who was once an extraordinary prophetess, protected and loved by a god. These days, Cassandra doesn't involve herself in the business of gods - in fact, she doesn't even know they exist. But she could be the key in a war that is only just beginning. Because Hera, the queen of the gods, has aligned herself with others of the ancient Olympians, who are killing off rivals in an attempt to prolong their own lives. But these antigods have become corrupted in their desperation to survive, horrific caric...