Title: The Midnight Sea
(Fourth Element#1)
(Fourth Element#1)
Author: Kat Ross
Publication Date: May 10th, 2016
Category/Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
They are
the light against the darkness.
The steel
against the necromancy of the Druj.
And they
use demons to hunt demons….
Nazafareen lives for revenge. A girl
of the isolated Four-Legs Clan, all she knows about the King’s elite Water Dogs
is that they bind wicked creatures called daevas to protect the empire from the
Undead. But when scouts arrive to recruit young people with the gift, she leaps
at the chance to join their ranks. To hunt the monsters that killed her sister.
Scarred by grief, she’s willing to
pay any price, even if it requires linking with a daeva named Darius. Human in
body, he’s possessed of a terrifying power, one that Nazafareen controls. But
the golden cuffs that join them have an unwanted side effect. Each experiences
the other’s emotions, and human and daeva start to grow dangerously close.
As they pursue a deadly foe across
the arid waste of the Great Salt Plain to the glittering capital of Persepolae,
unearthing the secrets of Darius’s past along the way, Nazafareen is forced to
question his slavery—and her own loyalty to the empire. But with an ancient
evil stirring in the north, and a young conqueror sweeping in from the west,
the fate of an entire civilization may be at stake…
Buy Links: Amazon US
4 "Let me be a Water Dog and give me my own hot daeva" Stars
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Kat Ross worked as a journalist at the United Nations for ten years
before happily falling back into what she likes best: making stuff up. She
lives in Westchester with her kid and a few sleepy cats. Kat is also the
author of the dystopian thriller Some Fine Day (Skyscape, 2014), about a world
where the sea levels have risen sixty meters. She loves magic,
monsters and doomsday scenarios. Preferably with mutants.
I would:
- Befriend: Nazafareen
- Take to prom & kiss: Tommas
- Take to a desert island and leave behind: Ilyas
- Change into a vampire so we can be young together & forever: Darius
4 "Let me be a Water Dog and give me my own hot daeva" Stars
When promised a fantasy with fresh concept and forbidden romance, there’s
no doubt in my mind I’ll request the ARC and cross my fingers I’m one of the
lucky ones who’ll get to read it before everyone else.
When you do that with a stunning cover, you almost have me begging.
Look at that cover!!! Soooooo beautiful.
*serious (sort of) reviewer back*
The Midnight Sea delivered just what it promised, and I’m thrilled I got
to read it.
Based on Zoroastrian (I had to Google that one) tales with influences of
Persian culture, this book introduces us to a new fantasy world where humans
and the evil battle for power (and world domination, I guess, because that’s
what it always comes down to). Though the story is set after the War (humans
won, so yay, we’re not extinct yet!), we get the sense that things are about to
blow up very soon.
First sign of trouble: Drujs taking over humans and killing them. Not
good at all. Especially for Nazafareen. Our MC loses her little sister to this
dark force right in the beginning of the book and that sets her on a path
toward revenge, a.k.a., killing Drujs. To do that, Nazafareen leaves her clan
and the icy land she lived in and joins the Water Dogs, a group of “warriors” trained
to kill Drujs (and other undead creatures – but there are so many of them I couldn’t
possibly keep track and, therefore, can’t name them all).
The Water Dogs have help. Killing Drujs isn’t that easy, after all. Every
Water Dog gets to bond with a daeva, which, according to what Nazafareen is
told, are powerful Drujs controlled by their link to the human in charge of
them. Basically, a daeva wears a cuff that contains their power, so the human
wearing the matching cuff gets to control the daeva. What makes the bond so
interesting is how human and daeva almost become one. They share more than
power – they also share feelings. I REALLY loved that aspect and what it did to
the story. My favorite moments came from human/daevas reading and understanding
the other feelings or trying to hide them.
Initially, Nazafareen isn’t the biggest fan of letting a daeva inside.
Not even if her daeva is the hot, brooding and mega powerful Darius. Gimme his
cuff, girl, ‘cause I sure won’t complain.
*serious (sort of) reviewer back. Again.*
Sure Nazafareen’s restrictions don’t last forever. I wish it’d happened
sooner, but eventually she sees in Darius what everyone else already did, and
she wants a piece of that. (Okayyyyy, so this review is getting off track.
Sorry, but not sorry.) Together, Nazafareen and Darius kill Drujs, face enemies
they didn’t know they had, find unlikable allies and learn everything they thought
they knew about their world was a lie. Oh, there’s kissing too, so calm down,
ladies.
Let me talk about the kissing for a moment. I was hooked by the promise
of a forbidden romance between a human and a daeva, and while I did get it, it
wasn’t nearly enough. I wanted more Nazafareen and Darius. Much more. And since
this wasn’t traditionally published (meaning there won’t be people telling you
to keep it PG-13 or no one will buy your book), I think the author should
really invest on the steamy scenes because the few we had were good enough to
keep me anxious for more. More kissing. More sexy Darius. More. More.
Now that I got that part out of the way, I need to say I’m impressed by this
fresh and exciting world. The author managed to create a fantasy that felt new
and different from what it’s out there – not an easy task considering the
number of YA fantasy titles published the past couple of years alone. The
writing was good and things moved fast enough to keep me engaged until the end.
Nazafareen and Darius were good, complex characters. I really liked her
and how she interacted with those around her. Her friendship with Tommas and
Tijah was a nice addition to all the drama going on with the Water Dogs and the
Drujs, especially before Darius joined her. The author also did a good job with
side characters like Ilyas (he probably had the biggest character arc in the
book – I know I liked him in the begging and ended up cursing him more than a
few times later on) and Victor (quickly became a fan of him – his relationship
with Nazafareen was one of my favorites. Gimme more of that.).
Something else I’m thankful for is the first person. Nothing wrong with
third (except for the fact that I’ll choose first over third 10/10 times), but I
don’t think the bond would’ve worked if we weren’t inside Nazafareen’s head. I
wonder if we’ll get Dariu’s POV in future books. That’d be cool.
I’m not going to say the book was perfect. There’s clearly room for
improvement. For instance, since this is part of a series, we didn’t need to be
introduced to all those creatures and magical elements at once because it often
got confusing. I’m still not sure I understand the difference between all the
undead creatures, to be honest. I also needed a little bit more description to
paint a better picture of this new world (again, what I got to see was
exciting, but it could’ve been even better). Some of the details involving the
cuff and the bond between daevas and humans aren’t still clear to me, but I’m
hoping the second book will bring more answers.
Having said that, there were more than a few great elements that kept me
interested and wanting more. Bottom line is I’m ready for more daeva, more
Darius, more Nazafareen, more Alexander, and much more of their adventures. So
bring book 2 because I’m ready!
· $30 Amazon gift card
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4 comments:
Thanks so much for having me on your blog, I love the review! Yes, there will definitely be some more explanations (of pretty much everything) in book 2, which comes out in September. And I love your "I would..." Perfect list :)
Great review! This sounds like a very well written and entertaining read. I'm a big fan of first person narrative I find I get to connect with/understand the character much better. Glad you liked it! :)
Thank you, Kat! Can't wait for September, then!! :-)
Thanks, Giselle. :-)
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