📚 The Sunken City ~ Emma V R Noyes 📚

Firstly thank you to NetGalley & Emma V. R. Noyes for the opportunity to read and review this e-Advanced Reader Copy ❤️

💛 "You deserve someone who will love every part of you - the good, the dark, the angry, the broken" 💛

Sunken City centres around Amare Bellamy who was orphaned as a child & raised on a pirate ship by some of the most dangerous men in the Caribbean. She's lived her whole life as a pirate, and pirates hate magic. Until one fateful storm plunges her to the depths of the ocean... when she wakes up she finds herself in a strange new world: an underwater kingdom where magic is real but it is strictly forbidden by the King - a man who claims to be her father!

Whilst struggling to adapt herself to her new role as Princess of the Sunken City, she finds herself being forced to come accustomed with her abilities as they manifest within her...

What I loved 😍
1️⃣ I loved her complex back story & how beautifully woven it was!
2️⃣ Amare's personality was just fab! And the way her narrative was written made you feel as if you were right there with her.
3️⃣ Her interactions with her love interest, her dad and her friends were a combination of hilarious and gut-wrenching.
4️⃣ The fantasy storyline was gripping, fast-paced & woven really cleverly 💛

I struggled slightly with it but I think that's primarily because I'm used to slower-paced fantasy books. But that won't put me off giving book 2 a read!

💭 Overall, if you enjoy fantasy, enemies to loves, found family, pirates, magic & looming prophecies & secrets then I'd definitely recommend giving this one a go! It's available to purchase now!

Rating ~ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️/5

🏷 #TheSunkenCity #fantasy #EnemiesToLovers #FoundFamily #magic #bookish #BookNerd #BookRecommendation #BookReview #booksta #bookstagramner #bookstagram #literaryadventueswithgabby

Oh my goodness, I am SO INTO this story. I have been loving pirate stories lately, and this one gave pirates, magic, undersea kingdoms, and all sorts of dark twisties.

Amare is a young orphan woman on a pirate ship-and women are famously witches and bad luck according to pirates-and she is getting on just fine. Though she never gets to help raid or get off the ship at all anymore. Until she accidentally touches a treasure that awakens something within her, and then peaces out from her pirate crew into the water during a storm. When she comes to after this, she's in an underwater world where the Sunken City holds a community of creatures that are kept safe from magic and witches. There is SO much Amare doesn't know, though, and the fact that the king of the Sunken City is calling himself her dad, and calling her the lost princess, isn't helping her understand things any faster.

This was just a wild ride. The world building was so unique and fun, and the characters are interesting! I want to spend way more time in this world, and this is only the first in a trilogy, so looks like I'll get my wish! My only complaint is I wasn't sure what time period we were in until midway through the book. My brain pictured Pirates of the Caribbean, and then once we hit the Sunken City, it was a little more now-a-days. Which is cool-I just didn't realize it!

Recommended for you if you like pirate or mermaid stories, witches, evils that have been kicked out, but are definitely coming back, betrayals, love triangles, and fun stories in general. This could be a good reading slump-buster, I think!

Thanks to Netgalley and Emma V.R Noyes for the e-ARC!

When I first joined bookstagram, The Sunken City had just released and I remember seeing several posts recommending it. I loved the cover and the summary sounded so interesting.

I'm glad I finally had the chance to read it. It exceeded my expectations. There was great world-building and I found life in the Sunken City to be fascinating, especially the juxtaposition between old world pirate society and what is the more modern world below.

I have to admit that I am not a big fan of love triangles with brothers. Luckily, the rest of the plot was so good that I could ignore it.

I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

Thanks to the author and @NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is an easy five stars! It had me reacting out loud—multiple times.

Amare is a young women raised on a pirate ship, where the dangers are women, witches (women), and other pirates. Amare discovers her call to the ocean is actually because of her secret identity as the lost princess of an underwater kingdom, the Sunken City. She has to question who she can trust, and unlearn a lot of what she knows about herself, Magic, and being a woman.

This was amazing! It started off great, the plot picks up quickly and Amare’s life on the ship is fun to read about. Then you go underwater and wow, the world building is quick and beautiful. The characters are great; I especially love Amare. She’s angry and vicious but scared and she’s doing her best. The female friendships were maybe my favorite additions. And the ROMANCE! Y’all I don’t know which team I am on, and I don’t love a love triangle, but it was so so so cute. So I’ll get over the love triangle.

The internalized misogyny was an interesting dynamic that was kind of explored, but there’s room for more. I really hope to see Amare dissect this misogyny (from above and below the sea) in the next book.

It ends on a mean cliffhanger, and the romance is very YA and clean. 10/10, 5 stars, go read this.

I got an ebook copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a review. Thank you!

If Treasure Planet was written about Atlantis, thrown together with all things aquatic magic...

Pirates, royalty, underwater city, morally grey... villains? Morally grey characters in general, which I was 100% ok with and would love to see more of.

This book was honestly just so well written that I would have given it a 10 star rating. It's hard to find a book that flows this nicely while incorporating so much action and intrigue. Characters, world-building, romance, fantasy, secrecy... This book seriously has it all in spades and will be a highlight on my shelf if I am ever lucky enough to find a copy of it that I can display.

The romance is YA, so don't expect this to hold it's own in the smut category. But what it lacks in the spice it makes up for with fantastic characters that you instantly connect with. The fantasy aspect is out of this world imaginative, and would be amazing as a movie if the right company were to inquire about said project. *wink wink, nudge nudge*

Amare Bellamy is a pirate through and through. Orphaned when the ocean waves took her parents, her biggest dream is to one day Captain the ship she grew up on, the Moonshadow. Destiny had other plans. Amare finds herself in an underwater world where she is actually the Lost Princess.

This imagery in this book was so well done. I really enjoyed the premise of the story and the characters. The only issues I had were the pacing and the world building. The pacing kept going back and forth from right on track to lightning speed to slower than a snail. I felt like I was stopping and starting a lot. The world building was chaotic, imagery wise it was gorgeous, but I feel like a lot of holes were left throughout.

All in all this was a very good book. I adored Shoa and Lukas the absolute most. I will definitely be finishing the trilogy!

3.5 i liked this a lot more than i thought i would. there were some parts that weren't my thing (the overdone orphan tropes, the love triangle with 2 brothers, etc.) but for the most part i did like this book. i felt the worldbuilding was pretty good for just the first novel and the dialogue was great, the only thing i rly had to complain about was the pacing of the romance LOL

The world building was done very well. I really enjoyed learning about mchawi and sereia. This books adds a twist to your typical mermaid and pirates story, which keeps things interesting. From the beginning of the book I couldn’t put it down and loved all the action. It felt like there was never a slow moment for Amare. I’m curious to see where this brother love triangle goes. I also can’t wait to see Amare start kicking some doors down with all her new powers. I’ll be starting the next book immediately!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5

𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙧𝙚: Fantasy series (book 1)
𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙩: Physical book
𝙂𝙤𝙤𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙨 𝙍𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜: 4.23

𝙁𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙌𝙪𝙤𝙩𝙚:
“And that’s just it, isn’t it? I was never going to be quiet and meek. I was always going to pick up that shell. I was always going to chase after the mystery of my own existence. I was always going to heed the ocean’s call.”

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙙:
Beautiful, immersive writing
Reimagining of Atlantis
Morally gray characters
Swoony romance
Loved it so much that I already ordered book 2!

𝙁𝙪𝙡𝙡 𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬:
This book is so well written, from the world building to the pacing to the characters to the romance, and I honestly will be recommending it nonstop to EVERYONE who loves fantasy romance. I love that it mixes a more modern and updated reimagining of Atlantis with a classic pirates tale.

Amare is a likeable, headstrong, stabby MC who has to face some of her dark inner struggles, all while balancing life in a new role and in a new world. Finn is a swoony golden boy who just says ALL the right things, while his brother Lukas is troubled, mysterious, possibly evil, and yet still so alluring. I’m honestly still undecided on #teamfinn versus #teamlukas and I can’t wait to see where it goes in book 2.

This is such a great balance of wonderful characters, turbulent romance, political intrigue, modern influences and classic tales, all set in an immersive ocean setting with beautiful writing. You absolutely HAVE to add this to your TBR!

To be perfectly honest, fantasy is not my genre of choice. But as a teacher, I like to read widely to be able to help direct my students to books THEY may like.

That being said, I really was surprised by The Sunken City. Amare is a great character and the plot has wonderful twists and turns. The author does a great job of presenting the story in a way to keep the reader thoroughly engaged. I was angry and disappointed when I realized this was the first book in a series and it ends on a cliffhanger, because I wanted to know NOW what happens!

Looking forward to the next book in the series and would absolutely recommend to my high school students.

Thanks, Netgalley, and publisher for the opportunity to read and review!
Once again I love stories that explore the mysteries of the deep and the magical nature of the seas. Great main character, great supporting crew, but may be not enough detail and imaginative strike when it comes to the underwater city. I just needed something unique that will make it special and different than what we've seen in contemporary movies for example. I'm nit sure the love triangle is my thing, but......let's see what happens in the second installment.

The Sunken city follows a pirate raised girl Amare who is the heir to an underwater kingdom.

Writing style:
I found this book easy to get into from the very beginning. The pacing was fast and there was constant action to keep the plot moving. For some reason, my favourite part of the book was the very beginning. In fact, I think it was the strongest part of the book. Amare's life as a pirate was exciting and I loved her found family dynamic with the Moonshadow crew.
But once Amare entered the sunken city, I started to lose a bit of interest in the writing. Some parts of the book made me feel like I was reading a contemporary book of fantasy. In particular, the clubbing scenes in the sunken city just read like a party scene in a contemporary book. To be fair, the sunken city is described as modern and high tech but I just couldn't reconcile the technological and cultural differences above and below the sea.
Luckily by the end of the book, there were more fantasy elements in the story.

Characters:
I really enjoyed Amare's tenacity and determination to live freely. At times she did make rash, impulsive decisions but thats basically most YA protagonists out there so I won't hold it against Amare. She eventually grew on me as i continued reading.

The Mason brothers made an interesting duo. Finn is supposedly the sweet nice guy and Lukas the enigmatic guy with a traumatic past. Some readers may not enjoy the love triangle but I found both Finn and Lukas worthy love interests. At this point, I'm not sure whether I should be rooting for Finn or Lukas but according to the YA love triangle formula, Amare is bound to end up with Lukas at the end (let's just hope that neither Finn or Lukas dies). I did prefer Finn's sincere character but it seemed like Lukas had better chemistry with Amare.

Shoa and Cora were fun supporting characters but at times I mixed them up because they had very similar personalities.

Omar and the Moonshadow crew were great. The crew members close to Amare were interesting secondary characters and I wish they had more appearances in the book.

Overall thoughts:
The premise of this story was quite alluring and I think this book is a good starter to a series. Based off the cover and the synopsis, I was expecting this book to be heavier on the fantasy elements. But that being said, I think this book would be great for readers who want to get into the fantasy genre. I would recommend this book for those who enjoy light fantasy books and love triangles.


I received an ARC copy on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I had to put this book down part way through part 2. It had a very interesting concept, but the style and language were terribly executed. There were random pirate history/background dumps thrown in at odd times. And isn’t this set in the 1700s?? Then why is she saying words like “crackpot” and other modern colloquialisms? I found Amare to be rude and annoying. I just could not continue with this one.

Sunken City was fun and sweet, but fell a little flat in the execution. While I loved the concept, I struggled a bit with the world-building. I typically prefer my world-building to be a bit more subtle and shown, rather than told in the format of an info-dump, which is what happened when Amare met her father.

Additionally, there were a few plot holes that really confused me, such as Amare having never left the ship yet being familiar enough with the city of London that she can compare the sunken city to it.

Overall, I did really enjoy the concept and think this book could be great if cleaned up a little more.

Thank you to the author and Netgalley for a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

*4.5/5 stars*
[Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an arc]

Wow. This was a very fun adventure.

At first, around at 30% of the book, I had considered DNFing because it read like a fanfiction (and not in a good way). I was cringing on some moments, on one so hard I had to put the book down LOL. Also, at first I didn't like Amare. It seemed like the author tried to make her seem like a badass, but it didn't work and instead Amare just looked like she was an arrogant spoiled brat, as well as self righteous. Long story short, she was annoying and got on my nerves. Later on into the book tho, around 60% I think, I started liking her more. She wasn't annoying anymore and I actually kinda liked her. Kinda. The point is, I didn't hate her and she didn't get on my nerves anymore.

If I had to use one word to describe Finn, it would be "vanilla". He's boring. I always liked Lukas way more. Lukas and Finn kinda gave off the same brotherly vibes as Damon and Stefan (Lukas being Damon ofc). He and Amare better be endgame. At first, when I heard that a trope in here was "brothers love triangle" (which is the only type of love triangle acceptable imo), I thought that it was obvious that she would end up with Finn, and that it wasn't fair that Lukas wasn't even really an option for Amare. I was wrong. He became more of an option much later in the book, but STARS ABOVE, when he did become an option, he for sure was what I would call a FREAKING GOOD OPTION 🙇‍♀️😍 So you can expect me to throw hands if Amare and Lukas don't end up together in the second book 👊🤬

Even though in the first paragraph of this review I was listing all the things I didn't like, this was STILL somehow so good at the same time?!?!? So easy to read, so FUN. I really enjoyed it, it was the perfect pirate/underwater adventure I never knew I needed. SO IF SOMEONE IS READING THIS, IM TRYNA SAY THAT THERES MORE PROS THAN CONS, AND THAT ITS SO FUN AND THAT U SHOULD READ IT!! I also liked how there wasn't anything too dramatic, and unlike some other fantasy books that are way too complex for their own good, this didn't make my brain hurt 😃👍 (which is a good thing).

And I thinkkk that this is a trilogy? I know that there's a third book on the way, but dunno if there's any more. But basically, what I wanted to say was if you want a good, fun fantasy, but don't want a 7 book series, then this is for you!

Favorite Characters (in order): Maoke, Lukas, Shoa

Final thoughts: Worth it. So happy I read this. READ IT.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

I was firstly extremely thrilled about the idea of pirates in this book, which to my surprise not only managed to meet,but also succeed my expetactions.The way the interactions between the crew (and the MC), are written and their way of speaking, is really well written,to the point where I found myself often forgetting completely that I was reading. The writing also succeeded my expectation after Amare "sunk" aka went underwater.


Further more the relationships between the characters as well as the characters themselves, were so well developed, particularly Amare. I was completely charmed by her personality and constantly rooted for her throught the story. The way she managed to talk about her womanhood and struggles was deeply relatable. I just love how the female characters are written in the book in general,they all are seen to have personality,hobbies and passions as well as insecurities. The friendship between Amarr,Cora and Shoa was so adorable and fun to read about! The love interests were also SO interesting to read about?? The only reason why I took one star was how suddenly Amane fell for Finn (along with some overuse of modern language) but other than that this was an absolutely excellent read and I AM SO EXCITED TO READ THE NEXT BOOK IN THE SERIES!

I enjoyed this! Loved the beginning, a little slow in the middle, but the ending was great.

I've never read a book with an underwater setting, so that was fun!

It felt very Atlantis meets Pirates of the Caribbean + some Little Mermaid vibes?

4.5 stars

This was a great start to a series (trilogy?). I'm not sure if it was intentional, but as I was reading the story, I kept thinking Vampire diaries meets Lore and Little Mermaid, lol! I loved the imaginative world of the Sunken City, and okay, so the physics was totally iffy, but it was a fun place to imagine exploring. The ending was a little bit predictable, but the whole story was a lot of fun, so I didn't mind these things. This is both a series that you will HAVE to read in order and one that doesn't really resolve much so you have to continue reading. I suppose you could call this the story of how Amare figures out who she is and how she comes into her powers and it sets it up very well for the next book. Regardless, for a book that I couldn't find in my library (it appears to only be on Amazon), I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it and I definitely want to continue with the series.

I received an advance review copy from the author and NetGalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I adored this book. If you enjoyed Daughter of the Pirate King you will definitely enjoy this. The strong female MC, hidden magic and torn between mother and father. Also the love triangle in this book is one of the only ones I have read where I didn't immediately know who she would choose and to be honest I still don't. I am super excited to read the sequel!

Amare Bellamy is a feisty young pirate with a deep connection to the ocean. Her life has not been easy but she is not one to sit back and whine. She is determined to captain her own ship one day! When she finds an old treasure chest with a magical secret, her life is turned upside down. Quite literally actually. She discovers an strange underwater kingdom and must learn to navigate all the strange new aspects of who she is.

This book is everything that I love in a fantasy story. Pirates, underwater kingdoms, magic, treasure, friendship, romance, intrigue, surprise plot twists and fantastic worldbuilding! I was completely transported into Amare's world and cannot wait for more. The character diversity is brilliant. I really admire how the author is able to stay so true to two very different societies. The human world is in the 1700s with all the societal norms of that time but the Sunken City has advanced in such a way that I feel right at home in the modern world it represents. Each society has its weaknesses and Emma Noyes brings the differences out so beautifully.

All in all a brilliant book and a must read for fantasy lovers.