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A review by mcgbreads
Fated Winds and Promising Seas by Rose Black
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.75
ARC review; thanks to NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton, and Hodderscape for the access to this ebook.
This is my second book by Rose Black and I enjoyed Til Death Do Us Bard when I read it even if a few things about the execution didn't work for me. This time, I had a similar experience, except I liked this one a little less. So it feels like a 2.5 to 2.75-star book for me.
The main difference between the two books is the coziness. Til Death Do Us Bard is, indeed, cozy. It felt like a side quest in a game, so it was engaging enough, and I liked the characters and their relationship.
Fated Winds and Promising Seas isn't cozy. At least I don't think that a story where the characters go through so much trauma and pain could be considered cozy, and I think that's something readers should know beforehand. The description also says this provides mental health rep, and it does, but it also explores those mental health issues at kind of a surface level.
It didn't feel to me that the characters had a proper healing journey. Things happened to them and while they did help each other, and I think the relationship between the MMCs is sweet, they change kind of drastically from one part of the book to the other, and we don't really see the process.
I liked a lot of aspects of the story; the characters were likable, the setting was cool, the romance and found family aspects were lovely, and the premise was interesting. But the execution fell short for me, especially when it comes to depth and worldbuilding (the foundations are there, it was just a little surface-level and I think the ideas were cool enough to explore a little more). The writing was also a bit repetitive around certain issues.
The words "wasted potential" feel a little harsh, but they did cross my mind at some points of the story, so I have to mention that. Overall, it wasn't a great book but it also wasn't awful. I see a lot of people enjoying this more than I did, so it's one of those books that you just have to check out for yourself if anything about it calls to you.
This is my second book by Rose Black and I enjoyed Til Death Do Us Bard when I read it even if a few things about the execution didn't work for me. This time, I had a similar experience, except I liked this one a little less. So it feels like a 2.5 to 2.75-star book for me.
The main difference between the two books is the coziness. Til Death Do Us Bard is, indeed, cozy. It felt like a side quest in a game, so it was engaging enough, and I liked the characters and their relationship.
Fated Winds and Promising Seas isn't cozy. At least I don't think that a story where the characters go through so much trauma and pain could be considered cozy, and I think that's something readers should know beforehand. The description also says this provides mental health rep, and it does, but it also explores those mental health issues at kind of a surface level.
It didn't feel to me that the characters had a proper healing journey. Things happened to them and while they did help each other, and I think the relationship between the MMCs is sweet, they change kind of drastically from one part of the book to the other, and we don't really see the process.
I liked a lot of aspects of the story; the characters were likable, the setting was cool, the romance and found family aspects were lovely, and the premise was interesting. But the execution fell short for me, especially when it comes to depth and worldbuilding (the foundations are there, it was just a little surface-level and I think the ideas were cool enough to explore a little more). The writing was also a bit repetitive around certain issues.
The words "wasted potential" feel a little harsh, but they did cross my mind at some points of the story, so I have to mention that. Overall, it wasn't a great book but it also wasn't awful. I see a lot of people enjoying this more than I did, so it's one of those books that you just have to check out for yourself if anything about it calls to you.