Book Review: Sweet Black Waves by Kristina Perez

Book: Sweet Black Waves by Kristina Perez
Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating: ★ ★ ★

The premise of this one, the Tristen and Isolde story in a fantasy setting, seemed promising. I thought I would like it more, but... yeah. It was just okay.

The setting was awesome. The magic pretty cool. The writing not too bad. (Sometimes overly flowery and sometimes I thought certain word usage was weird, but not too bad.)

But I just didn't FEEL it like I wanted to. The chemistry between the characters was lacking. Or too instant. Like... let them develop something, not just be instantly... OH I WANT TO KISS YOU, you know? And the conflict she should be feeling at liking this guy didn't seem powerful enough.

There were a bit of twists on this take of the story, but basically the same sort of thing where Tristan washes ashore injured and she heals him. (The she is Branwen though and not Esuelt... which is different, right?) And the whole getting Esuelt to go be Marc's wife (but not Branwen) but Tristan is involved, which in the "real" story he is not, right? I might be confused, but I thought when she shows up to marry Marc, Tristan is all... CRAP. So... yeah. Anyway, the story is familiar, but different, which is good because then you don't always know what's happening.

It's pretty dark, and much dark magic is used... life and death sort of magic. It's pretty intense at times.

Anyway, intriguing idea. I just wish I was drawn more to these characters more. Like I think maybe there was too much world building and magic and political stuff, and not enough character stuff? Sigh.

This is a first in a series and I am not sure about continuing. Maybe? It ended on a pretty big downer, so now I want to see if things get fixed or not!