Reviews - Of Mountains and Seas

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83 reviews for:

Of Mountains and Seas

Emily Renk Hawthorne

3.79 AVERAGE

casuallybrook's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A boy who feels inferior, a girl who doesn't know she is superior.

If you like Chinese based fantasy, reality with magic, LBTQ+ Representation, complex political plots you need to read this book.

This complex political fantasy spans about 100 years of American alternative history. The story isn't presented in a linear timeline.

Step into a world of American Chinese where magic exists and the magical world is torn on a major issue. Should magic people stay hidden from normal people?

While I struggled to keep track of all the timelines (probably due to listening to the audio), the author expertly twisted and knotted this story into an exquisite tapestry. I really enjoyed the complicated relationships and learning more about Chinese mythology.

I liked the narrator and felt she was engaging and versatile.

bookishgabs's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I was lucky enough to get an early copy of the audiobook and I’m so glad I did - I loved this book and cannot wait for book two! I love when we meet multiple characters who we know are interconnected but don’t know how and this book absolutely delivered on that in the most satisfying way. I also loved the complex family dynamics showcased here. I also learned so much about Chinese culture and folklore without it feeling like a school lesson. The narrator on the audiobook also did fantastic! I listen at 2x speed and flew through this in less than 48 hours. Thank you for the early copy!

meg_za's review

4.0

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious tense 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⭐
'A multigenerational mystery told through converging timelines.'

Absolutely enjoyed this fantasy read! The multiple timeliness confused me at first, but devoured this book once I knew who's-who (& the when's-when)! The magic aspect wasn't too complex - making it more enjoyable for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Hawkridge Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

everlaerian's review

1.75

medium-paced

Its not a romance book. Thank you.
It has an interesting stone like magic system when necessary.
Not a fan of the back and forth. Its a lot of timelines where you need to keep track of the POVs, the year and the connection as you progress in the story. Due to the constant back and forth, I missed out on any amount of suspense or tension. My brain cells were trying real hard to keep track.
There is no character development, IMO.
Lastly, Im not sure where the mythology inspiration came from? Is it the myth creatures? I dont know. This is one mythology I have zero information on.

trinitytalksaboutbooks's review against another edition

3.5

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Overall Rating: 3.5⭐️

Spice Rating: None

Language Rating: None

Reader Age: 12+

Genre: YA Fantasy

Content Considerations: Murder, death of parents

This was such an interesting read!

Filled with multiple POVs and multiple timelines, this book was a little hard to follow but I really enjoyed how the author was able to weave them together throughout the story.

I really enjoyed how complex the characters were and how characters flaws were a driving force of the plot.

Overall, a pretty good read. I look forward to reading future books by this author!

beanie_reads's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 13%

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!
DNF @ 13%

I am not starring this book, because my opinion is so strongly my opinion that it isn't fair to star this. I would just remove the book instead of reviewing it for netgalley normally as I don't think I experienced the book enough to get an opinion, but I have feedback on why this book didn't work for me.

The blurb of this book did not do a good job conveying what it's about. That plot is still there, and I see the sprinkling of it, but in the first 13%, I saw Davis twice and Iris once. This was over six chapters + prologue. This means that we got the PoV of the two named MCs from the blurb less than half the time.

This is not a horrible thing, because the way this book works, it's very jumpy. Intentionally, not badly. It follows multiple characters from different timelines as it all comes together to form the narrative. This is a narrative type that I just do not click with. It requires a specific type of patience and attention to small details to realize how the narrative pieces tie together, and you don't even get that tie together until later on.

These types of books are hard to pull off, and I give Hawthorne all the credit for that. But the blurb and advertisement needs to convey this better, because I wouldn't have picked it up. These types of books are not for me, and I know they're not for everyone, so others will go in unaware of the type of book this is.

If you like these types of narratives and the plot sounds interesting, please, try it. But if you don't like those sort of narratives, just know that this book features it, because man, the blurb does NOTHING to indicate it xP

rue1990's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

☆☆☆

𝙾𝚏 𝙼𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚂𝚎𝚊𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚊 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚗𝚜 𝚊𝚌𝚛𝚘𝚜𝚜 𝚍𝚒𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚖𝚞𝚕𝚝𝚒𝚙𝚕𝚎 𝙿𝙾𝚅𝚜. 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚒𝚜 𝙲𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚎 𝙼𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚢 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚙𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚜 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚍𝚘𝚗𝚎. 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚊 𝚕𝚘𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚞𝚗𝚒𝚚𝚞𝚎 𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚊 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍. 𝙸 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚎𝚗𝚓𝚘𝚢𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔.

𝙰𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚘𝚗 𝚊𝚞𝚍𝚒𝚘 𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚊 𝚙𝚑𝚢𝚜𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 𝚓𝚞𝚖𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙿𝙾𝚅 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚜 𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚊 𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚏𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎𝚐𝚒𝚗 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚊𝚝 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝟸𝟶% 𝚒𝚗 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚎𝚗𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠𝚕𝚎𝚍𝚐𝚎 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚗 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚘𝚛 𝚍𝚒𝚍 𝚊𝚗 𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚓𝚘𝚋 𝚘𝚏 𝚋𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎. 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚊𝚒𝚍 𝙸 𝚏𝚎𝚎𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚒𝚏 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚊 𝚙𝚑𝚢𝚜𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚌𝚘𝚙𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍𝚗'𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚊 𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚘𝚛 𝚒𝚜𝚜𝚞𝚎. 𝙸 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚎𝚗𝚓𝚘𝚢𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙲𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚎 𝚖𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚢 𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚊𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 𝚋𝚞𝚒𝚕𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚌 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖. 𝙸 𝚊𝚖 𝚍𝚎𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚊𝚞𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚛 𝚊𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚊 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚋𝚎𝚊𝚞𝚝𝚒𝚏𝚞𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚗 𝚙𝚒𝚎𝚌𝚎.

ᴅɪꜱᴄʟᴀɪᴍᴇʀ - ᴍʏ ʀᴀᴛɪɴɢ ʀᴇꜰʟᴇᴄᴛꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ᴠɪʙᴇꜱ ᴀɴᴅ ᴇɴᴊᴏʏᴍᴇɴᴛ ɪ ʜᴀᴅ ᴡʜɪʟꜱᴛ ʀᴇᴀᴅɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴏᴏᴋ.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for my ALC and a huge thank you to Emily Renk Hawthorne.

ᴬˡˢᵒ ʳᵉᵛⁱᵉʷᵉᵈ ᵒⁿ ᴳᵒᵒᵈʳᵉᵃᵈˢ,ᴺᵉᵗᴳᵃˡˡᵉʸ, ˢᵗᵒʳʸᴳʳᵃᵖʰ,ᶠᵃᵇˡᵉ ᵃⁿᵈ ᴵⁿˢᵗᵃᵍʳᵃᵐ {ᴾᵒˢᵗ ᵗᵒ ᶜᵒᵐᵉ}

(¯`*•.¸,¤°´✿.｡.:* @read.with.rue *.:｡.✿`°¤,¸.•*´¯)