A review by fromjuliereads
On These Black Sands by Vanessa Rasanen

adventurous challenging funny hopeful reflective tense medium-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

4.5

Wow. This book really surprised me. It has so many fantastic elements, good characters, a good story. I really like the world, set up, premise for the story - how could I not? It's essentially leading to a quest, one of my favourite things! This is very much a set up for that. We get to know the characters and for them to all connect, learn the power players and lay of the world. 

I read this so quickly. It's enticing and I really like the characters! Aoife is difficult to like at first but she grew on me. Declan is a great character as a pirate. There was one scene with him that I disliked though - the author says he is based on Dean from Supernatural, and while I see that in most of his character, Dean would never...
To make a point in one scene, Declan basically forces himself onto Aoife, pushing her under him on a bed with no warning. It felt icky to me and I get it was him acting and making a point, it felt like a bit much.


I will say though that I liked the panic attack rep in this! I actually teared up at a few lines because it felt so real and true what the characters were saying about panic attacks. 

Anyways. It ended at an interesting point and I'm curious to see how the next book goes!
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