Reviews

Call of the Sea by Chani Lynn Feener

eloisearchangelobooks's review

4.0

Call of the Sea had no right to be as emotional as it was. Tears may have even pricked my eyes at a certain point.

For a dark romance smut novel, Call of the Sea was surprisingly filled with substance. Not too much, but enough to make it a journey. And a journey with a shocking ending, much to my surprise. Bay turned out to be a worthy match for Sila.

The combination of Bay and Sila made for a thrilling read. Bay, the emotionally ruined, unfeeling feeling junkie of a professor, and Sila, the student, the psychopath twin.

Words cannot express my thoughts on this book. So I'll leave things short and sweet and end my review here.

aarons_chancleta's review

dark

3.75

fullblooms's review

i’ve read 10 of the author’s books, own physical copies, and subscribe to her patreon. this book infuriated me so much it may have ruined all her work for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

bescobar30's review

dark emotional medium-paced

4.75

lovelyinnature's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

whatthefridge's review

dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.0

Goddamn this book is a roller coaster of me loving and hating it. It manages to hit some amazingly dark notes, but then it tries to be too clever about it. 

Things I enjoyed:

• Sila secretly being the catalyst for Rabbit’s story is kind of hilarious.
• Sila knows exactly what buttons to press, and Bay’s sexual peculiarities make him extremely compatible with the depravities Sila puts him through
• Bay sells his soul to Sila in exchange for justice for his wronged and deceased grandmother
• This is like if “Killing/Stalking” was actually what I thought it was about
• The climactic everything was chef kiss. From Bay’s mental decline, to Sila becoming a villain, to things wrapping around to Bay’s subplot involving his grandmother. 

Things that bothered me:

• Bay being only only 25yo feels farfetched. When I was in high school, our youngest teacher was only in his early 30s. To be a professor, especially for Psychology, probably requires more than that. 
• I think it’s a little too convenient for Bay to be a bottom from the start. With everything going on with his premise, he’d be a far more serious stalker if he were a top. But then maybe Sila would have just offed him instead of playing around. 
• Bay is concerned about the size of Sila’s dick, but in the previous book, Rin was concerned about Kelevra’s, which the story conveniently mentions is eight inches. Therefore, by law of identical twins, Sila can’t be bigger than eight himself. 

Things I hated:

• In the trigger warning remarks, the author super stresses that Bay doesn’t have depression, but I swear everything about his emptiness and numbness is like peak depression symptoms. Bay considers at one point how he has “emotional detachment brought on by extreme stress and trauma” and that is literally depression to me. Makes me worry that the author doesn’t comprehend the extent of depression.
• The author’s insistence on having each book be stand-alone is a detriment to the overarching plot. Since getting too much into anything from another book risks spoiling that other book, we’re instead left with a road riddled with pot holes. Or a game of hopscotch. This third book ties together so many things from the first two that having those details missing is a farce. 
• After the climactic everything, when Bay and Sila are debriefing,
  Bay reveals he’s know more than he’s let on all along. The part that I’ll concede is clever is his stalking skills allowing him to anticipate Sila at the cinema, which explains him putting on such a show. The part that makes me seethe is Bay professing he could tell the twins apart as early as Kelevra confronting Sila at the gazebo. Based on Bay’s POV, he DOESNT have the capacity to tell the twins apart until Sila confronts him about it. In fact, Bay didn’t even know why certain photos were removed from his shrine, which directly contradicts him claiming he mixed up Sila and Rin’s photos on purpose.
  Like, I get what the author is going for, but they went too far to get there and now I’m so pissed off that even the most minor annoyances are glaring. 

Ultimately this was almost a 5 star read that tripped and fell at the finish line. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent

andrhyshend's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

meigothic's review

5.0

I loved Sila SO FUCKING MUCH already and was curious how his book will play out. AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I'm so glad to say that once again Chani has delivered!!

lillylouise's review

4.0

This felt like a bit more properly dark than the previous books in the seires 

liss_reads_lots's review

dark hopeful fast-paced

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

3.0