What a refreshing read! The main character Eelyn, is a strong woman who is battling between family, love, and customs. Plenty of action, and romance!

I buddy read this book with the super amazing Amy from <a href="https://amagicalworldofwords.blogspot.com/">A Magical World of Words</a>. We had a lot of fun chatting about this book and you can check out her review <a href="https://amagicalworldofwords.blogspot.com/2018/04/sky-in-deep-by-adrienne-young.html">here</a>

3.5 stars

<blockquote><b>“Believe what you like, Eelyn. The bear is an omen.” The words came slowly on her thin lips. “And omens often bring change.”</b></blockquote>

I think I went into Sky in the Deep expecting to completely fall in love with everything... And while I <i>did</i> enjoy the book a lot, I think the hype got to me and it wasn't the five star read that I wanted it to be. The book hooked me with the opening chapter but I felt it perhaps couldn't live up to this for the rest of the book.

It's a <b>Viking inspired tale, full of ancient feuds between clans and Gods</b>. It's bloody and brutal and almost everything I could ask from a debut YA Fantasy:

• A great world that felt like a true and authentic Viking world
• Great use of language which again, felt very authentic
• A back story including clan warfare and feuds.
• Equality on the battle field between men and women
• Unflinching action and brutality when I didn't think that the book would go there
• A slowburn, hate-to-love romance

However for some reason I really struggled to connect with the characters and events that should have had me holding my breath or <i>feeling</i> just left a void. <b>I got the essence of what was going on, but everything just felt too perfunctory.</b>

Eelyn was technically a great female lead - a little headstrong, a whole lot determined and virtually fearless. She had great family and values and fought for what she believed in.

Fiske was a little dry for my taste - I picked the love interest immediately and really struggled to get on board with the romance, even though it was some of my favourite things in a romance!

There were a few lovely descriptions, especially when the harsh winter set in to the land, but I did feel as though <b>the writing was a little expository and the interactions between characters felt too superficial</b> and the pacing felt a little off, starting with a huge battle and ending with a huge battle but the middle being filled with random incidents and a couple of escape attempts surrounded by everyday life in the Viking world. I felt like the plot wasn't propelled forward by much more than random incidents occurring to Eelyn and that we spent so much time 'warming up' to the world that the important stuff that happened about 75% into the book was too quickly swept under the rug and neatly resolved in such a short time.

<b>I did really enjoy the representation of family and the fact that family doesn't necessarily always have to be blood</b>. There was also a pretty fierce female friendship that just needed to be fleshed out a little more. The overall message that underneath everything else we are all the same is also an important one.

<blockquote><b>I reminded myself of who I was— an Aska warrior who’d lost everything. A girl with fire in her blood.</b></blockquote>

<b>The premise, the intentions and the bare bones of this one are good but I just feel that if it had been developed and cultivated a little more, this could have been a 5 star for me.</b>

An unusual era and society for a YA novel, that places an anachronistic young woman in a Viking-like drama of clan warfare. The anachronism of a strong, defiant warrior-woman and the heady if facile romance can be forgiven for the unique and engaging adventure.

Had you asked me what I thought about SKY IN THE DEEP in the beginning, I would've said, 'my favourite kind of YA fantasy, kick ass lady heroine, mysterious circumstances surrounding her brother's death, prisoner in an enemy camp, woo, four stars'. But the further along this story went, the more typical the plot, the more transparent the direction ("connection") of the characters, the more banal the events leading up to the actual point of it all, and the meaty substance of this violent Viking-esque world with a five-year cycle of warring clans instead felt.. not so meaty after all?

There were a lot of interesting aspects of this world that I definitely expected to see expanded (hello dreams and bear and gods or whatever?) and instead weren't. There were certain tropes that, yeah, okay, are not particularly unique for YA, but I'm okay with that if it's done well, but they were never developed enough for me to feel connected to. And while I was really on board with this kick ass chick and her strong convictions, clinging to who she is when cut off from everything she knows, she spent more than half the book crying and constantly re-aggravating a shoulder wound. Which we got to hear all about all the time. Not to mention this big epic battle at the end.. wasn't?

I appreciate what Young was trying to do here and I think it's a different enough flavour that fans of this genre will enjoy it (and obviously already are) but I think this story would've been better served as a duology in order to flesh out the world, the culture, the characters, and definitely the romance. I think it's a good effort from a debut author though, and it easily could've been a win had the overall story been as strong as it was coming out of the gate, and I'll be curious to see what she tries next.

2.5 stars

I would probably rate this more in the 3.5 range closer to a 4 star. So, I have a lot of thoughts on this book...i will try to make them coherent, but I'm still not sure how I feel about this book. The good part is that I was interested enough in this book to read it in one sitting. And that says a lot. The writing was clean and nice, the world building was enough to picture, but not too wordy.

There were times in this book that were a little too graphic and gory for me. I get that they are fighting clans and battles and such. But some of it was a little unnecessarily bloody for me. And some of the scenes were a little too graphic...and not totally necessary. And then it felt like it swayed hard trying to have some tender moments that didn't make the cut for me.

Ok, I'm not saying it was totally predictable, but there were definite lines of being predictable and kind of leading to where it was all going.. Most of the book we had been reading about feelings and such, and felt the last part didn't lag at all, which was o.k. But was surprised that it all wrapped up so quickly. Also, my most annoying part of this book was the random celtic/norse words...with no way to find out what they meant??? I mean couldn't you have put a guide somewhere as to what these words meant? That was super annoying. If the majority of your book is in one language and you use different words from other languages, just put a guide in there, it helps us all!

So, part of me wants to say it was a good book, but here's my struggle, the people are in a primitive lifestyle, they are all clans and have a massive hatred for each other. Yet, they can all work it out and get along? I get the view of we are all alike and have lives, so why can't we all just get along blank statements...but you're expecting ax wielding warriors to have a change of heart...and i get the whole survival thing, I'm following...but still some of it was a little Pocahontas for me. I get to a degree about Iri, and honestly that part made some sense. And I followed the progression of Eelyn and got it from her, but I don't know about the rest...

For me the book was like Pocahontas meets Brave mixed in with Braveheart fight scenes. Overall it was an enjoyable book, I finished it, maybe not a favorite, but a fine read and would recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

This book will no doubt make many YA readers very satisfied. The writing is solid and as a reader I felt situated in time and place, a good amount of action in the beginning and in the end. Likeable and relateable characters, but I wasn't feeling that I was presented with anything new.

An exciting, original story about vikings. Sky in the Deep is a great action-packed standalone fantasy novel which leaves you wanting another one.

Sky in the Deep was a fun read--it's quick and light and I enjoyed it all!

4.5 stars

This is a viking inspired tale. Eelyn is devoted to her clan, the Aska. She's a fierce warrior and fights against the Riki, their enemy. One day, she's on the battlefield and thinks she sees her brother, who dies 5 years prior, fighting with the enemy. She is then captured by the Riki, when she was trying to follow her brother, Iri. She then learns that there's two sides to every story and maybe they are not so different. 

This story caught me from the very beginning and didn't let go. Adrienne Young has a way of capturing you in the story. I read this book so fast, maybe 4 hours. It's a fast paced book that made you feel and see what they did. There is a lot of action and it is actually how this book starts out. 

I loved Eelyn so much. She's strong and loyal to the bones. She doesn't understand what Iri is thinking and feels betrayed. She sticks to her beliefs but isn't dumb enough to see that things are not always black and white. Her character really grows because she starts to see how the Riki are more like the Aska than anyone thought. They are people, they are human. She learns to forgive and trust. 

I really wish that we got a dual POV in this book. I would have loved to read what Fiske was thinking throughout the story. I loved his character so much. He comes off as cold and uncaring from the beginning, but there's so much more to him. I also loved Halvard. He had a big part in helping Eeyln, in more ways than one. 

This was a great read. I really liked it and the story. I love how it's not romance driven either. It's a slow love. I think that I like this so much because it's a stand alone! It's so rare. 

I want to thank Netgalley and the publisher, St. Martin's Press for an e-ARC of this book to review. 

You can see my review at my blog: Books Are The New Black

The main character, Eelyn, is an Aska. The Aska and the Riki meet for battle every five years, it is understood. Aska is taken by the brother she thought to be dead to the Riki village, and must live as their prisoner. You probably already know that though if you read the synopsis.

I think what really spoke to me about this book was the deeper meaning behind it. Equality, understanding and accepting cultural differences, working together to accomplish one common goal are just a few. It’s just a really wonderful novel with an amazing deeper meaning.

I felt like I was doing more than reading. I felt like this novel really helped open my mind to a multitude of possibilities and helped to make me more understanding of others.

I would recommend this novel to anyone, really. There’s minimal romantic interest vibes so it’s not super mushy. It’s not all gore either though. The main fighting sequences are the beginning and the end. Although they are super graphic, they are detailed enough to fully comprehend the battle situation.

Sky in the Deep tells the story of Eelyn who is a part of the Aska clan. She's spent her whole life being taught to hate the rival Riki clan only to find out her brother who she thought dead for 5 years is very much alive and well. And fighting with the Riki.

Eelyn is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding her brother's "death" and how he came to fight on the enemy's side.

Eelyn is a B A D A S S. She will not hesitate to cut a throat or throw an axe and take someone down. Side note - Tough heroines tend to sometimes be tough to connect to. But I truly adored her character. She was so fierce in everything she did, everything she thought, and in her love for her family.

And when she tries to speak with her brother after seeing him on the battle field, she winds up getting caught and trapped in the Riki's village. Where she meets Fiske.

Fiske
Fiske
F I S K E

Who is Fiske? Oh he's just the boy that helps teach Eelyn that maybe the hatred their clans have had throughout their lives isn't so valid, who shows her how their clans are actually quite similar. He's the rival boy she's supposed to hate but who forces her to slowly open her heart.

“I don’t belong to you.” I repeated the words I said to him the night he pulled the stitches from my arm. This time, to lift the weight that pressed down onto him and silence whatever words were whispering in his mind. And because a small part of me still wanted them to be true.
“Yes, you do.” He pulled the hair back out of my face so he could look at me. “Like I belong to you.”

I LOVED FISKE. I LOVED Fishe and Elyn together. The subtle forbidden romance between these two made the book for me. The writing during their moments together was just so so beautifully done.

"And when he kissed me again, the seconds slowed. They stretched out and made more time. I felt his body against mine, unraveling everything else that was between us and my soul unwound, threading itself to his. And I let it. I gave myself to him. Because I was already his."

So why not 5 stars? While I really did enjoy this, I just need a little more.
More romance.
More dialogue.
More character interactions.
More battles.

I really think if this was dual POV or maybe just a tadddd longer it could have propelled this book to epic for me. But Adrienne Young is definitely someone to look out for and an author I will most certainly read more from.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press for receiving this title via Netgalley. All opinions remain my own.

I rather stumbled over this title but was totally intrigued by the cover and desciption. VIKINGS? WOW! That's rare.

Somehow I got the idea that there would me magic but there was none. Instead I found myself in a world of vikings and rituals and religious beliefs that were foreign to me but fascinated me all the more. I am not usually the type for books without magic or anything similar. I guess that is because I love to be surprised and no other element has the potential to surprise me in the way magic does.

But this title made me turn the pages without any magic in it. It never got boring. There was so much haeppening! I rather dreaded the end because this is a standalone and I did not want it to be over. I have the feeling the the romance was evolving slowly but somehow I must have missed the point when love finally took over. Don't get me wrong. There is absolutley no romance overdose in this book. It is rather refreshing and the focus is on the main story whichis absolutley brilliant by the way.

The Riki and the Aska people hate each other to death and regularly go to war against each other. The main character Eelyn is a warrior and sees her believed to be dead brother fighting for the other clan, gets captured and discovers that there is more at stake. In order to survive the clans need to be a united front against what's coming at them. It seems impossible and that makes it all the more exciting. Well... and there is a bit of romance.

WOW!
I thought this would be ok, I did not think this would be amazing. In the end, it was not just amazing, it was heartbreakingly beautiful, powerful, moving, soulful, action packed, exciting...
I could go on for quite sometime. As far as YA goes, this is definitely going to be on my favorites for this year.
It was pure Viking inspired magic with plenty of feels! I was captivated by this story from the first to last page and now that I am done with my kindle arc I cannot wait to re-read it in its physical format.

The Blurb:
Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: fight and survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield—her brother, fighting with the enemy—the brother she watched die five years ago.

Faced with her brother's betrayal, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan thought to be a legend, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved family.

She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother’s friend, who sees her as a threat. They must do the impossible: unite the clans to fight together, or risk being slaughtered one by one. Driven by a love for her clan and her growing love for Fiske, Eelyn must confront her own definition of loyalty and family while daring to put her faith in the people she’s spent her life hating.

Let's start with the battle scenes. They were intense. The author did not shy away from the reality of battle. They were slightly gruesome scenes, there was plenty of moments that kept me on the edge of my seat suffering from anxiety while my heart beat faster. And yet... it was all also somewhat poetic. Adrienne Young has a beautiful style of writing and I was captivated by it.

Eelyn was a true bad-ass heroine. She and her ax can do some damage. She was not a heroine because she was a special snow flake with special powers like so many ya female characters out there. She was just Eelyn. And Eylyn has learnt to fight and has fought her whole life.

Fiske had me at hello 😃
He was very much like Eeylyn, a fighter and a survivor. Just sadly for them, one that fought for the enemy. Fiske was given a difficult choice, and through out he tried to make the best he could of the situation.

The slow burning romance between the two main characters was perfectly written. Everything happened at the right time and for the right reasons. LOVED IT.

Another great thing were all the family dynamics. There was a great emphasis on family and friendships and it made the whole story even more appealing.

Have I convinced you to go read it yet?
If you like action packed stories and a heavy dose of romance, you are bound to love this book! GO READ!

While I enjoyed the setting and the narration of the book, I wish there had been more action. This is a Viking novel after all, but it was mostly filled with home life scenes of gathering food, mending clothes or preparing for a ritual. I had anticipated more violence and drama than what was offered

I didn’t know what to think when I first got this book, since at the time I was seeing a lot of hype for this one, but it was very cryptic since no one was really dropping hints as to why it was so amazing and awesome, when I was able to sit down and start reading it, I saw where the hype was coming from.

Sky in the Deep starts with an action filled first chapter, a bloody action scene ending with a shocker, Eelyn believes she sees her dead brother alongside the enemy clan. Despite telling her father and her friend what she saw, she is dismissed and told that it was their God blessing her. Despite being brushed of Eelyn knows what she saw and is determined to confirm it for herself. She sees her brother again and this time trails him despite being told to ignore him and act like she never saw him. She is caught and taken prisoner by the Riki.

Eelyn is a strong but stubborn character. She is determined to find out how and why her brother betrayed her, the Aska, why he didn’t return. He tries to explain to her what happened but she doesn’t want to believe it, she can’t believe what she is hearing since all her life she’s been raised to know that the Riki are the enemy, they are heartless and brutal and that they would never show pity on their enemy.

The majority of the story takes place in the Riki village and Eelyn fighting the people around her along with a couple of failed escape attempts which in turn makes things harder for her. While being with the Riki clan her pride and her honor start to wear down and she starts seeing similarities between the two clans, that they aren’t to different from each other, even their calm ritual to honor the dead are very alike despite different gods and the other side of the history between the clans.

A common enemy between the clans arrives and Eelyn knows that the Riki are not strong enough to fight them alone and she proposes that the Riki and the Aska fight alongside each other and put their differences aside to save both clans. Eelyn offers to be the spokesperson to convene the Aska to work alongside the Riki. Tensions arise once again with Eelyn returns to her clan and for once Eelyn sees how her own views have changed since being with the Riki.

There is a romance between Eelyn and a member of the Riki clan, but it is a super slow burn, you don’t see any sparks till near the end of the book.

Adrienne confirmed that there will be a companion novel due out in 2019, I’m hoping it will be from Fiskes POV.

On the heels of an upsurge in the popularity of vikings comes this story about a young, female warrior trying to find her place in the world. The original premise of the book immediately pulled me into the story, and while we don't stay with that mystery or that dilemma for very long, by that point I was interested in the story and in finding out how the characters lived and why they were fighting. While the climax and ending were very predictable and the big bad guys were a little too one-dimensional for a book whose message was about finding understanding with the enemy, I still enjoyed the journey.

Full review to come on the blog.

Sky in the Deep is exceptional, original, and one of the best YA fantasies I've read in a long, long time. The Viking-inspired setting feels fresh, there's a terrific kick-ass heroine, and the action scenes are well-written and exciting.

What really elevates this book is that Adrienne Young has done a rare thing for this genre - she's given her characters some quiet, a the plot a bit of room to breathe. And this slowness isn't dull - even when the characters are doing something mundane like cooking or gathering herbs, every sentence is crafted in such a way as to deliberately add layers of complexity to the narrative.

Eelyn in particular is so remarkably written that it feels wrong to call her a character - her emotions jump off the page. I could feel the fire of her anger, the sting of her humiliation, the ache of her loss. Eelyn is a warrior, raised to value honor above almost everything else, but even when she's not swinging her sword and axe, she's fighting an equally tough battle between what she has been taught about the world, and what she is now experiencing for herself.

Eelyn's growth, and that of the cast around her, is what makes this book such an exceptional, character-driven narrative on top of being a fantastic adventure. I will be handselling the heck out of this one when it's officially out!

3 stars

Eelyn was raised to be a warrior. Her clan, the Aska, have an ancient rivalry with the Riki clan and Eelyn’s life consists of fighting and surviving. Yet, one day she sees her dead brother fighting with the enemy against her clan.

Faced with her brother’s betrayal, Eelyn must survive a winter in the mountains with the Riki after they capture her during battle. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan of legend, Eelyn must find new allies to trust outside of her clan.

One of these is Fiske, her brother’s friend. She and Fiske must unite the clans to fight together or be slaughtered one by one.

Someone please tell me I’m not the only one who shipped Fiske and Iri.

The Eelyn x Fiske dynamic was so bland. Her brother and Fiske had more chemistry than Eelyn and Fiske. Although I admit there was less chemistry between Fiske and Iri than the normal YA couple, it’s more than the dynamic between Eelyn and Fiske.

Seriously, if I hadn’t read the summary before reading, I wouldn’t have expected Eelyn and Fiske to get together until they actually kissed (which I would have passed off as a momentary fluke because Fiske is obviously bi?).

Or maybe this fantasy is just so bland that I had to start inventing some fun, flirty LGBTQ+ romances to make up for the loveless heterosexual ones.

This is only the tip of the iceberg of how unpassionate I am about this book. It’s not that I dislike it, it’s just that it was so…dry? bland? zest-less?

It’s disappointing because I had really high hopes for this. It was supposed to be super fierce and passionate without being misogynistic. This is from the publisher of Wintersong, and although same publisher does not mean same quality, a publishing house’s books typically have similar tastes & literature styles. The books are literally right next to each other on the Wednesday Books website.

I heard so many great things, read so many 5 star reviews, and I just don’t know what happened.

This whole experience was just one big sigh for me.

I think part of this is because neither of the plots felt complete. If you’ve read my review of Turtles All the Way Down, I talked about how it was like there were two half plots rather than one whole plot, and I feel like that’s what happened with Sky in the Deep.

There’s the whole action-plot that’s about the two clans, their rivalry, and how they band together to fight off a mutual enemy, and then there’s the character-plot with Eelyn. But neither plot felt comprehensive enough to hook me into it. Sometimes in books with dual plots, one plot hooks me and the other doesn’t. Yet in Sky in the Deep, neither plot hooked me.

The action-plot felt so simplistic? There was barely any moral dilemma or question behind this plot despite the potential for this in the book. There’s this giant rivalry between the Riki and the Aska because of their gods, and a parallel could be drawn with modern religions and how people fight because of religion.

In Sky in the Deep, the Riki and Aska don’t work out their issues in the way they should be–out of true desire to do so. The Riki and Aska’s hands are forced to work together and find peace between their clans because of their common enemy, and this felt way too…simplistic for me. I feel like if their hands weren’t forced, they wouldn’t have sought peace and this was a big downfall for me because I wanted true peace, not forced peace.

A world forced to peace is not a world at peace. The deep standing issues behind the problem are not solved.

I feel like the action-plot didn’t go nearly as deep as it should have been, and that was a large part of why it felt like a half-plot which didn’t hook me.

The character-plot, on the other hand, was just really dry. I felt like the story between Eelyn and her brother Iri was left very much unresolved and wanted more from this. More angst, more passion, more everything.

I liked how Eelyn developed as a character from hate to acceptance, which was one of the highlights of this novel.

The entire concept as a whole was a highlight–I thought it was very interesting to read a Viking-inspired book and thought this was really cool!

The action scenes were well done in my opinion, although there were only really five of them. I’m not like super into action scenes and I usually skim over them versus intensely read them just because nothing really important happens in them, but I could recognize how well they were written.

The whole book was written well, but I just did not end up being super into it, which was just one of the biggest problems. Nothing in it hooked me (except Fiske and Iri).

Overall, I wasn’t very much into this novel despite being super excited for it. I think if this appeals to you, definitely try it out, but if it ends up not working for you by the halfway point, I say it’s not worth your time. There’s not super intense buildup at the end like there is in other books that makes it worth your while (see: Shadow and Bone), and it remains relatively one-tonal.

The links will go live on May 31st and also be shared on Twitter.

This book was so refreshing. It cured my book hangover. It was everything you need, kick ass characters, vikings, violence and fantastic story! I can't wait for other people to enjoy this wonderful book!

This was a great read! I found myself drawn into Eelyn's physical and emotional struggles throughout the story, and I loved the quiet chemistry between her and Fisk. Adrienne Young creates a beautiful world that is both subtle and unique, and the characters feel real and genuine. I recommend this book for anyone looking for a good fantasy/Viking read. My only issue with this book was that it took me a few chapters to get used to all the Viking-like terminologies Young was using. I found myself trying to guess if she was talking about a person, place, or thing- but the terminology became a lot clearer the further I got into the story.

Highly recommend! It was worth the read!