BRT: ARC The Surrogate Sea by Danielle E. Shipley

Title: The Surrogate Sea

Author: Danielle E. Shipley

Number of Pages: e-book

Rating: 4/5

Release Date: MARCH 24, 2015 - NEXT TUESDAY!

Add it on Goodreads!

(An ARC was provided by the author for an honest review. I was not compensated in any other way.)

My Goodreads review states that this novella, for me, can be described in one word: "unexpected." This still holds true. It isn't unexpected in a bad way. Another phrase I used was "benefit of the doubt."

Being completely honest, I didn't like this novella's conclusion. For all of the tales of true love that we've read in The Wilderhark Tales up until now, how this book ends does not feel like true love. That's why I'm sincerely hoping this turns out to be a Part-One-of-Two ordeal.

Everything else remains just as amazing as has come to be expected though. Each character has their own motivations, feelings, and methods of addressing conflict. Reading The Wilderhark Tales can be like reading a pop-up book: the characters are still leaping off the pages! 

The progression of the plot was steady and never felt too rushed or too slow. Especially considering Shipley's transitions from Liliavaine to Muirigan to Ionquin to Vesparya (and more at times), she did a beautiful job of keeping their stories separated and at the same time joined together, all the while keeping the perception of time well in place.

As for the plot's twists and turns, there are no shortage of twists throughout this novella! Unexpected, indeed. "Whoa," "Huh?," and "What!" were all uttered at least once during my reading. The Surrogate Sea's got it all - sibling rivalry and love, scorned love, playful banter, conflict and resolution. Not to mention we get to see all of the awesome cast introduced in The Sun's Rival! (*Gasp!* More Lumónd and Laraspur!)

Though, as I said before, the resolution didn't satisfy me. It might satisfy others, but it didn't work for me. The final pairing that much of the book focused on (not Muirigan's) doesn't settle well with me, and I'm sincerely hoping that I'm right that the tale of The Surrogate Sea isn't quite over.

Yet, even if it is, that doesn't change the fact that this was a deeply enjoyable read and inspired a myriad of feelings. This book is especially a good novella for moral debates. This is indeed one of the most investing books of the series.

In conclusion, Danielle Shipley's fantastic writing has struck again! 

Read The Surrogate Sea next Tuesday, and prepare for the blog tour starting on its release! Stop by Jodi L. Milner's blog (click!) for the beginning of the tour on the 24th. My own blog tour stop will be the following Saturday, so check back here then too!

By the way, have the link to Danielle's blog as well. She's got all of the other details! 

Lastly, The Sun's Rival is on sale for 99 cents for a limited time! Hurry! 

BRT: The Sun's Rival by Danielle E. Shipley

Title: The Sun's Rival

Author: Danielle E. Shipley

Number of Pages: e-book

Rating: Can I give this a 10/5?

Released: December 2, 2014

Summary

Next to the uncommon beauty of her sisters, Princess Laraspur feels invisible, until she learns the two most powerful kings in the world have their eyes fixed upon her. But the ensuing double-courtship goes horribly awry, requiring Laraspur to brave the secret perils of earth, sea, and sky, on a quest that will try the very essence of her being.

Review

"AHHH!!"

Right, then. That would be my author (Flame Writer) running around talking in tongues about this book. So, this is Ashley Vaandere talking, gonna try to scramble up a review from some of the notes she's got, while she continues to do her thing over there.

Character exploration: Phenomenal. Not a page goes by without a hint toward some development.

Plot progression: Wondrous. It never moves too fast or too slow and keeps the reader hanging on for more.

Plot twists: Scream-worthy. There aren't very many twists, but the ones that exist are scream-worthy.

Flame Writer says, "One of the early seeming 'plot twists' isn't much of a twist, but I don't think it was meant to be. Given the title of the book, the choice Laraspur makes seemed rather obvious. However, that happens near the beginning, so that choice isn't meant to be so much of a twist rather than the framework for an oncoming twist."

With that, this book focuses on Laraspur, one of the daughters of Edgwyn and Rosalba, and plants her in the middle of a story that Edgwyn told her when she was a little girl. With the help of her brother Ionquin she'll have to, as the blurb says, brave many perils on a time-defying quest.

"He was such a jerk!"

Yes, he was. She's referring to Laraspur's antagonist, not Ionquin. And yet, according to her notes, he is an interesting one. He's not an "Oh, I'm so evil!" kind of antagonist - he just seems kind of selfish and not used to being defied. So when that happens, he doesn't react in the best of ways.

Conflict and resolution are top notch, the quality of writing as entrancing as readers have come to expect, and Shipley shows once again how much of a wordsmith she is when it comes to Laraspur and Ionquin puzzling out the map for their quest. In addition to that, the sibling friendship between Laraspur and Ionquin is fantastic. 

"Shipley made a deal with an anarchwitch, I swear, to make these riddles so well," Flame Writer calms down enough to add.

The tension in this novella surpasses almost all of the others, perhaps with only the exception of The Seventh Spell. The Sun's Rival successfully tugs at the heartstrings (Flame Writer cried near the end), has absolutely AMAZING descriptions, builds up character and plot nicely, and concludes perhaps a little too quickly, but in the perfect way regardless. 

There's also at least one point in this novella when you'll glare very darkly at the page. Like so:

With that, Flame Writer will conclude.

Taking a deep breath, the author of Flame Writer and Ashley Vaandere's story lets out a screech: "READ ITTTTTT!!!!!!!"

She swears it's the best one of the series so far.

Only twelve days to the release of The Surrogate Sea, the sixth book of The Wilderhark Tales! Get ready! ARC review on next Thursday.