Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - A Song of Silver and Gold

The story of The Little Mermaid meets the characters and dynamics of Pirates of the Caribbean, but make it queer and enemies-to-lovers.

You can really tell where the author got her inspiration from, but she framed it in such a way that made me excited to keep reading. I found myself quite giddy from the ways it matched and deviated from some of my favorite stories growing up. The ways that the characters were distinct and consistent and lovable. Our pirate siren-hunter Captain/Princess Kae who never intrudes into others' business or feelings unless she's explicitly desired or needed (for better or for worse). The desperate and conflicted Aqeara, willing to sacrifice everything for her family and kingdom to feel somewhat whole again after a major loss. And the way that all of the other characters are described and interacted with, making readers feel totally immersed alongside the crew. "Show don't tell" is strong with this one, as was the world-building. And as a character-driven reader, this story kept me in its waves throughout.

I thoroughly enjoyed the representation and the discussions surrounding sexuality present throughout the book, but in a non-preachy and non-explicit manner that I think many readers will appreciate. Whether with the lesbian female leads, the gay support characters, the sapphic nature of siren culture, and even the casual use of 'they' used at one point.

Something that I will always love in queer media, is how many characters wind up being queer. It makes me happy.

But, my enjoyment doesn't come without caveats. For one, this is very much a book that feels like a Disney movie - for better or for worse. As a self-proclaimed quotaholic, I didn't find very many quotable moments (which is a bit saddening). In fact, several of the words of wisdom felt like standard sayings - not fully befitting the wiser-than-thou-years reputations of the characters speaking them. And several subplots were climaxed and resolved so quickly I wondered if I missed something. Even the ending portion of the book, leading into the sequel, didn't feel built up to - which made it feel out of place. Like I said, rather like a Disney movie. Which may have been the intent, as the author writes in her back copy about enjoying these stories very much (and the inspiration materials are both Disney).

This very much could have been a standalone, but based on the promotions for the sequel, I can understand and appreciate why it isn't. And I am very much looking forward to seeing these characters and their dynamics with each other and their world again.

Content Warnings

sophieissapphhic's review against another edition

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adventurous dark lighthearted fast-paced

Sapphic Little Mermaid meets Pirates of the Caribbean? Bam, you’ve got A Song of Silver and Gold!

Content Warnings: magic healing trope, murder, sibling death, family death, parental abuse, death of children (on-page), vomiting (on-page), blood (on-page, graphic), alcohol consumption (on-page, graphic), alcohol-induced hangover, emotional abuse, refusing to eat, sexism, sexual assault, being drugged (the characters’ drinks were spiked), kidnapping, torture, confinement, sex scene (fade-to-black), death from childbirth (mention), broken bones, injury to eyes, mutilation (threatened), homophobia

For the past year, Princess Kaelyn of Avalon shortened her name to “Kae” and disguised herself as a man. After Kae’s brother was murdered in a siren attack, she sets out to avenge his death. Consequently, she puts together a crew and captains the Mar Daemon, a pirate vessel that hunts sirens. After a fatal siren attack on Avalon’s harbor, Kae resumes her authority as Captain Kae and sets out to destroy the sea demons once and for all.

Aqueara is a siren warrior of Meyrial, the underwater kingdom of sirens. When an attack on Avalon’s harbor goes terribly wrong and costs the life of her youngest cousin, she is exiled. However, a sea witch offers her cousin’s life in exchange for Captain Kae’s heart. Aqueara is given a human body and a month to carve out Captain Kae’s heart before her cousin can no longer be brought back.

When Aqueara joins Kae’s crew in an attempt to get close to her, her objective is complicated by her attraction to the pirate captain.

The plot of A Song of Silver and Gold doesn’t pick up until around a quarter into the book- but once it does, it was wonderful. The story feels light and fast-paced, filled with drinking, banter, and swashbuckling. While some aspects of the story feel unrealistic (perhaps intentionally so, to keep the story light), I appreciated that Aqueara and Kae had a genuine reason to hate each other.

At some points, the reader witnesses events through one character’s perspective. The next chapter, the other character would retell the same events in full. This only happened once or twice, but it was noticeable enough to disrupt the flow of the story.

Aqueara and Kae were good narrators, but Aqueara feels underdeveloped in comparison to Kae. I liked Aqueara as a character, but I wish her chapters were more fleshed out. In addition, I wish both of their character arcs were drawn out more. the characters changing their minds seemed to happen very suddenly. It makes more sense for Aqueara, who is surrounded by humans who hate sirens and is better able to put herself in their shoes, and therefore would most likely be quicker to stop hating humans. Kae’s beliefs changing, however, felt abrupt and forced.

Regardless, I loved both main characters and I’m excited to continue their story in the sequel to A Song of Silver and Gold. I also particularly enjoyed the side characters, especially Dalton.

This book provides easter eggs for fans of Pirates of the Caribbean and The Little Mermaid. They were subtle enough to not be overwhelming while still providing readers with a treat.

Finally, my biggest gripe with this book was the use of the magical healing trope. (Spoilers ahead! I don’t use character names.)

It was used to heal a character after they died from their throat being slit; then it was used to heal a character’s broken leg. The first character dying was only for shock value. They were only dead for a few pages, and in my opinion, could easily be taken out. I think the other character’s broken leg could easily be changed- it doesn’t need to be healed.

In both cases, the characters are restored to fully able and it’s like their injuries never happened.

Thank you to Hansen House Publishing, Melissa Karibian and BookFunnel for an advance review copy!

Content Warnings

sofiefarmer's review against another edition

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adventurous dark lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.5

First of all, thank you to Hansen House and Melissa Karibian for this ARC of A Song of Silver and Gold.

RUN to go get this book. It scratched such a severe book itch I did not realize I had. It has sapphic pirates, found family, enemies to lovers, sirens, and the one-bed trope. Did I mention it is also a Little Mermaid retelling? What more could you ever want?

Normally, I don't like enemies to lovers books. I just struggle to understand the relationships or find the evolution of them to not be very believable. However, this book executes enemies to lovers impeccably. From the very beginning, you understood why Aqeara and Kae hate each other. They are true enemies. The relationship slowly evolves in such a believable way. There is passion and threats and self-reflection that all build up to the end when they finally get together. It was just perfect.

I really liked the casual queerness that was present throughout the book. There was commentary about the societal perceptions of queer relationships, but for the most part, the characters were really comfortable in their queerness, which was so nice to see.

I also really loved the dual POV. They were such distinct characters and having both POVs really added to the story and my experience as a reader.

The fresh take on The Little Mermaid was perfect. It was so fun to see the moments that mirrored the original story, and I loved seeing how Karibian changed up the original.

I was amazed by the depth of every character in the story. I felt like we really got to see every aspect of their personality and growth. The pacing of the characterization was just perfect.

I thought that the plot had strong development and the pacing was great. I LOVED the plot twists at the end. With retellings, that is often something I worry about. However, I thought it was done super well, and it really surprised me. Not to mention that ending. I gasped. Consider this my official application for an ARC of the sequel because I am DYING to know what happens.

All in all, a solid 4.5 star read. Really loved this.

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nicdoeswords's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

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

2.5

I received an e-ARC of this book as part of Hansen House Publishing's Influencer program.

This book is a sapphic Little Mermaid retelling with a mean streak. The To Kill a Kingdom comparison is apt—the arc is very similar across the story and the dynamic of the main couple has a similar "I want to kill you but wait you're actually really hot and maybe not a bad person, uh oh..." journey, which was fun to read.

What I enjoyed: the unabashed sapphic energy of this book, and classic tropes being reimagined and queered in a fantasy setting. Some of the particularly escapist and lush descriptions of locations (e.g. a market, or the interior of a pub). Kae's relationship with various crew members, particularly Ruff, for the first half of the book.

Most of the rest of it just didn't work for me (keeping in mind that this was an ARC, and it's a YA book! I'm an adult and not the intended audience!). The writing was simplistic in style and structure, rarely deviating from short or medium sentence length and often repeating phrases. This style then made many emotional moments and reveals feel rather hollow—the story's narrative tended much more towards telling rather than showing, particularly when it came to how our two characters feels about each other. For some, this would be a selling point, since this style does give some punchy quotes and cliffhanger moments at the ends of chapters, but those moments didn't feel earned to me.

Overall, if you enjoy enemies to lovers and many of the sub-trope trappings therein (knife to throat, pinned during a sparring match, there was only one bed, reluctant allies), I do think you'll enjoy this! That's not my favorite getting together trope because I often feel that the romance can be shallow, which felt like the case here, but I do think my inability to get swept up in the tropes hurt my reading experience as a result.

I did find our main characters fun! I liked the Kae POV chapters more than the Aqeara ones for the most part, because I felt Kae had a clearer and punchier voice, but I enjoyed them both, and Aqeara fumbling through her lies about where she's from made me laugh at times. The moments of sexual tension, especially early on, were interesting and exciting to see played out in queerer ways than I've really felt I've gotten to see in original fiction, which I always appreciate.

One last note I want to make is that as a non-binary reviewer I tend to be pretty sensitive to tropes traditionally used to harm the trans community. This was definitely not ill-intentioned, but there was a moment in here that felt bad to read, and I wanted to mention it. Spoilered because I'm going to talk about the event itself, though it's in the first quarter of the book:

Kae disguises herself as a young man in order to captain a ship of men (it's kind of a Mulan thing, going undercover to be respected). One of her crew members learned of this early on. As Kae recounts it, he caught her changing and she had to "come clean" about her lie. Later, another crew member finds out and Kae apologizes profusely to him and other crew members. The ultimate moral of the story as the narrative presents it is that in masquerading as a man she did harm to the crew, with no accounting for a) the fact that she's right that they wouldn't have respected her if she'd told the truth off the bat, and b) the "caught while changing" trope is traditionally used to "prove" that trans people are lying about who they are and that your sex assigned at birth is the Truth about your identity

. It was a quick moment early on, and like I said I don't think the author meant badly by it, but it pinged as uncomfortable to me and I wanted to mention it.

Overall, this book wasn't really for me but I do think there are readers who would thoroughly enjoy the ride! The cliffhanger at the end did have my eyes bulging, and I imagine it's leading to a very interesting setup for book 2!

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