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crispycritter 's review for:
A River Enchanted
by Rebecca Ross
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
A River Enchanted begins with Jack Tamerlaine's return to the magical Isle of Cadence, after a decade away studying music on the unenchanted mainland. The longstanding feud between the Breccans of the West and Tamerlaines of the East rages on, but now young girls are going missing from the East at an alarming rate. Jack must team up with his old nemesis, the heiress Adaira, to discover the cause before it's too late.
The Isle of Cadence is a place of magic, mysticism, ancient curses, and a dark mystery that satisfyingly unfolds over the course of the book. The worldbuilding and magic in this book are beautiful and one of two big highlights for me. The magic reminded me of the magic in a Juliette Marillier novel (I recently re-read Daughter of the Forest before picking up this book). It was refreshing, unexpected, and special.
My primary criticism with this book is that it's marketed as Rebecca Ross's first adult fantasy, but to me this read like a book half in the adult fantasy world and half in the YA fantasy world. I wanted the prose to be meatier and the main characters to have more depth. Jack and Adaira were your typical enemies-to-lovers. Their backstories were quickly explained. Their dialogue was borderline cringey (unlike others, I was very much not a fan of a particular nickname scattered throughout the book). Jack's motivations were often unclear and changed to suit the direction of the plot, despite feeling a bit illogical and abrupt.
The second highlight, aside from the beautiful setting of this book, is the other relationship that didn't make it into the back cover description: Torin and Sidra. This is where I felt there was the most depth and the most character development. This felt like a real human relationship and was the part that really tugged on my heartstrings.
Overall, I thought this was a great read. I'm looking forward to reading the second book in this Duology and I genuinely hope Jack and Adaira are given the opportunity to develop outside of the overdone trope they spent much of the first book in.
The Isle of Cadence is a place of magic, mysticism, ancient curses, and a dark mystery that satisfyingly unfolds over the course of the book. The worldbuilding and magic in this book are beautiful and one of two big highlights for me. The magic reminded me of the magic in a Juliette Marillier novel (I recently re-read Daughter of the Forest before picking up this book). It was refreshing, unexpected, and special.
My primary criticism with this book is that it's marketed as Rebecca Ross's first adult fantasy, but to me this read like a book half in the adult fantasy world and half in the YA fantasy world. I wanted the prose to be meatier and the main characters to have more depth. Jack and Adaira were your typical enemies-to-lovers. Their backstories were quickly explained. Their dialogue was borderline cringey (unlike others, I was very much not a fan of a particular nickname scattered throughout the book). Jack's motivations were often unclear and changed to suit the direction of the plot, despite feeling a bit illogical and abrupt.
The second highlight, aside from the beautiful setting of this book, is the other relationship that didn't make it into the back cover description: Torin and Sidra. This is where I felt there was the most depth and the most character development. This felt like a real human relationship and was the part that really tugged on my heartstrings.
Overall, I thought this was a great read. I'm looking forward to reading the second book in this Duology and I genuinely hope Jack and Adaira are given the opportunity to develop outside of the overdone trope they spent much of the first book in.