Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - The Drowned Woods

Enjoyable, but fell flat. Simplistic writing, flat characters, had little invested in the story. Ended up skimming and skipping entire areas due to boredom. The end was good, but the pace until then was slow. The characters were under developed and bland. Felt more juvenile with its writing

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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This feels similar to THE BONE HOUSES in many of the ways that made it just okay for me. In particular I find myself disliking the animal companion, this time it’s a Corgi. I want the guy to be broody instead of just quiet, I have very little sense of what anyone thinks, and I’m just not having a good time, so I’m stopping.

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quietlyfierce's review

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adventurous emotional funny fast-paced

4.75

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jmacminn's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

“She could have brought kingdoms to their knees. Maybe she would yet.”

Thank you to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Netgalley, and Emily Lloyd-Jones for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review
I give this book 3.5 stars which I will explain below.

Mer is the last water diviner, people blessed with the magic to sense and manipulate water. When she is discovered as a child the King of Gwaelod takes her to use her for the kingdom. She is trained by the Spymaster, who becomes a father figure to her as she grows up in the Castell. When Mer escapes the king and the spymaster shows up, offering the chance to stop running and live in safety, she joins up with him to steal a magical faerie treasure.

I was drawn to this book because I love a good heist novel and I had heard about the bi-representation that was included. The book started so impressively and I really enjoyed the twists and turns in the story in the last 15-20% of the book.

I really struggled with the characters and the romance in this book. The characters felt a bit flat, I think we got their motivations, but there wasn't really much more to them than that. Especially Ifanna and Fane, despite having both of their POVs throughout the book I never felt very connected to their characters.

The romance just wasn't there for me and definitely felt like there was not enough building to justify the ending. (view spoiler)

Overall I give this a strong 3.5 stars as I did like the beginning and the end, but the middle drag, the lack of foundation for characters, and the out of left field romance brough down my rating.

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halfbloodprincess_hogwarts's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Ok, I loved LOVED the ending!!!!!

I am utterly grateful this book started moving in a solid direction. I thought it would be a lot more exciting and action packed. But it reminded me of Part 1 of HP and the deathly hallows where all they did was hide in the woods😑😑😑 (see what I did there)

I adore Mer (water wielder), Fane (loveable man/Trefor's owner/iron and finder of metals) , Ifanna (princess of thieves) and Trefor (the sweet corgi whom sniffs out magic).

I would have rated this higher but that middle part damn near took a sista out😭😭😭

The magic was pretty cool, but the magical killer water mare's were badass.

So much sorrow, bloodloss, greed, and heartache🥺🥺🥺 luckily this story ended on a positive note or I would have SERIOUSLY been done with this author🤣😭👏🏼

I appreciate the nod to her previous work The Bone Houses at the end🥰

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