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A review by lifeinthebooklane
On These Wicked Shores by Katherine Quinn
4.0
As this is book #2 in a trilogy, I was expecting to read more of Bash and Margrete's love story, see more battles of mind, wit and magic against Darius, and experience more adventures. All of this, and more, was delivered in a well-written, captivating and exciting story that threw more than one curve ball into the mix. The blurb covers most of the book, with the discovery of the third coin occurring quite late in the story.
The first half of the book, at times, felt a little slow, ponderous, and dare I say repetitive and had it stayed that way my rating would have been hovering between 2 and 3 stars. It's possible that my head wasn't quite in the right mindset for this as, initially at least, I found I was having to push myself to keep reading. Thankfully that feeling didn't last and the more I read the more my enjoyment of this story grew.
I know readers can get irritated by authors over-explaining things but at times I wasn't quite sure of the reasoning or purpose behind events. Perversely there was occasionally too much foreshadowing, which left me waiting for the other shoe to drop. And not in a good "on the edge of my seat" way but more of a "can we just get on with it" feel. Despite those frustrations, I did enjoy the book and, once the pace picked up, it quickly became the 5-star read I had been hoping for. Whilst I didn't need the book to have had that level of pace and tension throughout, as it can be in those quiet, gentle times that we get to really connect with the characters, it needed to be more evenly spread throughout the book. Either that or more ruthless editing of dead passages was required.
Overall I'm still a fan of this series and will definitely be reading the final book when it is released. This is written in the third person, mainly from Margrete and Bash's viewpoints but we also get to hear from Darius and Bay. I liked how this gave extra depth and insight into the story, even if Darius is an unreliable narrator. It has quite dark moments, including on-page deaths of some side characters, and the romance includes several on-page sex scenes.
The first half of the book, at times, felt a little slow, ponderous, and dare I say repetitive and had it stayed that way my rating would have been hovering between 2 and 3 stars. It's possible that my head wasn't quite in the right mindset for this as, initially at least, I found I was having to push myself to keep reading. Thankfully that feeling didn't last and the more I read the more my enjoyment of this story grew.
I know readers can get irritated by authors over-explaining things but at times I wasn't quite sure of the reasoning or purpose behind events. Perversely there was occasionally too much foreshadowing, which left me waiting for the other shoe to drop. And not in a good "on the edge of my seat" way but more of a "can we just get on with it" feel. Despite those frustrations, I did enjoy the book and, once the pace picked up, it quickly became the 5-star read I had been hoping for. Whilst I didn't need the book to have had that level of pace and tension throughout, as it can be in those quiet, gentle times that we get to really connect with the characters, it needed to be more evenly spread throughout the book. Either that or more ruthless editing of dead passages was required.
Overall I'm still a fan of this series and will definitely be reading the final book when it is released. This is written in the third person, mainly from Margrete and Bash's viewpoints but we also get to hear from Darius and Bay. I liked how this gave extra depth and insight into the story, even if Darius is an unreliable narrator. It has quite dark moments, including on-page deaths of some side characters, and the romance includes several on-page sex scenes.