A Brief Bullet List of Thoughts: The Perilous Sea

The Perilous Sea

by Sherry Thomas
Book 2 of The Elemental Trilogy

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  4.0 Stars

This review may have information that gives away pertinent plot from the first book. Please proceed with caution.

-- SPOILER ALERT --

In fact, there might be spoilers in this review that give away pertinent information in this book alone, no matter how short the post is. Again, proceed with caution.

This second book was much more fabulous than the first! And yet I felt like the first book had more story. I'm hard to please, apparently. HOWEVER, what's important are the 'FEELS' and The Perilous Sea was up to the brim with FEELS .

I wish I had read this book much earlier!

This review will be short and sweet. I can't think of anything to say about it if only because, even after a bit of time to think, I'm still reeling in FEELS for the story, for the romance, for Titus, for Iolanthe, and for Titus and Iolanthe together.

My review of The Burning Sky was a list of thoughts, so maybe I'll do so this time as well. I like lists after all.

So... randomly, with no formal format in mind:

• There are FEELS. If I loved Titus and Iolanthe before, I love them even more now. Having developed a more romantic, intimate relationship with each other, the two definitely represent a very powerful couple (as seen throughout the future scenes of our couple in the desert where they've lost their memories). And having developed a romantic relationship, the FEELS were abundant when certain factors lead to a whole slew of frustrating yet feel good bitter sweet angst to play off of.
  
  Oh, it all felt good.
• I would say that Iolanthe has grown immensely as both an individual and as a mage. She's stronger now and even more idealistic and opinionated than she was in the first book. In contrast, Titus needs to follow up on that development angle because it irks me that he continues to live his life following a series of predictions written by his mother in a mysterious, magical journal.
• The world building of The Elemental Trilogy was fairly hard to grasp in The Burning Sky. While I overlooked it in favor of the story progression and the character developments, it would still be nice to see more world building to help grasp what kind of a setting we're in. And unfortunately, The Perilous Sea doesn't pick up that slack.
  
  No matter, considering there was quite a bit of progression going on to keep me busy... while at the same time there seemed to be very little story going on to merit such progression.
• The conflict between Titus's choice of either working with Wintervale or Iolanthe was moot, honestly. He could use a lesson or two from Kashkari about the workings of prophecy, fate, and those actions we take to maneuver fate into being. I've never really liked the idea that fate is written to the last word for everyone's life and for Titus to cling to his mother's visions so zealously makes you wonder if he's even really interpreting them properly... and if he really needs to do so.
  
  The minor conflict of believing that Wintervale is the great elemental mage that he's supposed to work with the save the world instead of Iolanthe was a frustrating one. Titus's conviction coupled with Iolanthe's heartbreak turned out a nice bittersweet angst of story, though, so I don't condemn it. It was actually a nice little twist.
• The alternating back and forth of future scenes in the deserts of Africa and the present day happpenings at the school in London were interestingly set up. From the moment our couple appears as two individuals without their memories, I had a feeling this tangential adventure would be an amazing one. Watching a memory-less Titus and Iolanthe start off wary of one another, then begin to partner for survival, then ultimately falling in love with each other all over again despite knowing nothing of themselves or the other person... it speaks volumes of their characters and personalities.

I think my bullet list of thoughts stops there. So much for short and sweet, but I honestly did kind of grasp for things to write about. Once I got going, I guess I just kept going.


Final Thoughts: I really can't wait for the conclusion of The Elemental Trilogy to come around. The more you follow Titus and Iolanthe, the more you find you've fallen for them, both as individuals and as a love story. If I wasn't invested in them before, I certainly am now: I'm invested in their struggles, their plight to save the world, their growth as children to adults, and of course, their ultimate outcome as a romantic couple.

While the story depicted in The Perilous Sea seemed a bit lacking, there was still a lot of forward movement. There was a lot of action that didn't even point me into wondering about the world building, and there were enough revelations and secrets unveiled to keep me on my feet.

This is definitely one of my more favorite books read and published in 2014.

Also, if there are more thoughts that come to mind soon, I may or may not add it to my bullet list of thoughts.

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in January 2015.

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A Bullet List of Brief Thoughts: The Burning Sky

The Burning Sky

by Sherry Thomas
Book 1 of The Elemental Trilogy

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  3.5 Stars

It all began with a ruined elixir and a bolt of lightning.

Iolanthe Seabourne is the greatest elemental mage of her generation—or so she's been told. The one prophesied for years to be the savior of The Realm. It is her duty and destiny to face and defeat the Bane, the most powerful tyrant and mage the world has ever known. This would be a suicide task for anyone, let alone a reluctant sixteen-year-old girl with no training.

Guided by his mother's visions and committed to avenging his family, Prince Titus has sworn to protect Iolanthe even as he prepares her for their battle with the Bane. But he makes the terrifying mistake of falling in love with the girl who should have been only a means to an end. Now, with the servants of the tyrant closing in, Titus must choose between his mission—and her life.

I mulled over how to write my opinions of The Burning Sky for a long time, not quite knowing how to start or what to cover.  All I have are random thoughts here and there about what I liked, what I didn't like, and what gravitated towards "I'm not sure how to take this".

I love reading fantasies.  I love adventures.  To be sucked into a wonderfully created world and live an interesting adventure is always so satisfying, so magical... so wonderful.

But I won't say I'm an expert at fantasy or high fantasy novels/books.  I'm not the best at picking out logic flaws and world building flaws, but I DO know when I love a specific fantasy world built so well that you wish you could live there (like in Harry Potter, for example).

In the end, I just couldn't figure out how to structure my thoughts.

So here is a list of random things I came up with, thinking about The Burning Sky:

• While I've heard that others have felt the book starts off slow, I actually enjoyed a good chunk of the beginning -- it felt progressive to me even if a lot of things failed to make the best of sense.
• The world felt like it was confusing to understand (though I eventually had an idea what was going on).  At first I figured it to be too complicated for me to get all at once, but as I read through, it just felt like there were too many holes in certain places that I can't quite place.
• The progression of the story was enjoyable and actually kind of exciting.
• The characters were created brilliantly.  I especially loved the friendship/romantic intimacy, tension, and witty banter between Iolanthe and Titus.  When (and if) they finally act on their feelings, I think they'd make an awesome, powerful couple.
• The characters were created brilliantly, but also too perfect to be true.  Sure, Titus had his dark and broody side and his "tragic" back history.  Sure, Iolanthe was too stubborn for her own good.  But the too of them seemed to be so good at everything they did that I started to forget that they are only sixteen years old.  With the amount of wisdom that Titus possessed and the maturity that Iolanthe exudes, as well as both person's ability to handle all situations, dangerous or not, they struck me as being more adult than teenager.
• Side characters were also quite intriguing, but they didn't really stand out.  I couldn't tell you anything significant about Wintervale or that other kid that Iolanthe hung out with all the time while pretending to be Archer Fairfax.
• On that note, might I mention that I LOVE cross-dressing plot devices?  Nothing makes me more excited than a cross-dressing plot.  Except that this one didn't exactly go the way I was hoping it would go.  Nonetheless, the whole all-boys school, cross-dressing ordeal was still lovely to watch unfold.  
• I appreciate that Iolanthe managed to impersonate a boy to perfection, but then that ended up eliminating a lot of those "OMG, I'm a girl disguised as a boy in an all-boys school and one wrong move could give me away" possibilities.  There were no embarrassing moments, no "don't get caught by the boys while I shower" moments, no "oh my god, he's touching inappropriate places" moments...  I don't know how I feel about that, because I both love and hate that Iolanthe was smart enough to perfect her role as a boy that no one ever questioned her.
• The magic system was confusing.  I still don't really know how it works.
• The politics are also a bit flawed.  But then again, I don't like following politics all too well.
• I liked Titus's mother's little diary, detailing all of her visions.  I like that it remains a blank book until it's ready to tell the reader what to expect next.  I'm interested in how that kind of magic works, though I'm not sure if we'll just get a case of: it just DOES.
• I don't like the idea of fate being written for each person's lives as an absolute.  If all the visions come to pass unfailingly, then there is no need for human action or choice, though that may contradict the whole intent of fate.  I'd like to believe that our heroes will be able to counter some of these visions that are being predicted and not be tied to their given fates.

My final comment for this book though, is that I enjoyed Iolanthe and Titus so much that I suddenly realized that I'm anticipating the next book a lot more than I had expected.  I just need to either give in and imagine these two the way I want to imagine them, or continue to try reminding myself that they are indeed still teenagers in an adult world of epic struggles.

Also... I kind of like just listing out thoughts like this.  I should do it more often.

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in April 2014.

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