Sky in the Deep is like nothing you’ve ever read before. Its the kind of book that will have you hooked and saying, 'Just one more chapter' and the next thing you know its three in the morning and there are no more chapters to read. 

Eelyn is a warrior. She is strong, feisty and determined and I wanna be her when I grow up.  She isn’t like most fantasy heroines - in a good way - and the world she lives in plays a huge role in her views and how she lives her life. 
Eelyn goes through many things throughout this book, not all of them good but you watch this strong young woman go through hell and back. 

This book isn’t for the faint hearted; there is violence, slavery, physical abuse, sexual assault, murder, loss - a lot of unpleasant things but unlike some books that use those themes, it fits the viking world. 

Surprisingly enough though, I found that this book was more character driven than action. The relationships between Eeliyn, her brother, Halvard and Fiske - its those relationships that drove the story and had you glued to the pages. 

Sky in the Deep is a vivid, unique and captivating read that leaves you breathless and wanting more. Every time I picked it up I got sucked right in and was transported right into this world. I would definitely recommend!

This is honestly one of the best books I've read this year. I couldn't get enough of it and have told everyone that I know about it. I loved how emersed in the story I became while reading it. It wasn't predictable like a lot of the books I've been reading and like I said it's the best I've read so far this year. I really connected with the main characters and was rooting for them the whole time. I honestly can't say enough about how amazing this book truly is!

The Aska and the Riki clans are enemies locked in a long-standing feud. Eelyn is an Aska warrior whose life is upended when she sees the brother she thought was dead fighting with the Riki against his own clan. Captured by her brother and his friend, she is taken up into the snowy mountains with the Riki warriors.

Adrienne Young's debut novel is rich with Viking imagery; the setting, the clans, the clothing, the weapons, the rivalry, the religions. It's a book that creates striking visuals in the imagination of its readers including some nail-biting battle scenes. (Battle scenes often bore me, but I found the battle scenes in this book to be pretty riveting.) Eelyn is such a strong female protagonist--both mentally and physically.

I devoured this in only a couple of days. 

It gets going right from the start, and I have to say that I loved the world and the vikings element. The characters were wonderful. I really loved Eelyn, Fiske, and Iri. The different clans and way of life for each of them kept me intrigued throughout the novel. At times, it was a bit slow with normal everyday life tasks taking up a good chunk of the middle of the book, but it quickly recovered into more action packed fighting. I liked that this was a stand alone novel, but I also felt that the story line was wrapped up a little too conveniently for there being a generations long battle between clans.

If you're looking for a fast paced, viking centered fantasy stand alone, this one is for you! I've also heard that Adrienne Young will be publishing a companion novel next year, and I'm all for it!

This was pitched as a novel for fans of the show Vikings, which I was for a period of time (Lagartha deserved better). I went into this with modest expectations, and found that they were mostly met.

The fight sequences are done well, with a fairly realistic portrayal of injury and recovery. The main character's internal dilemma about being held captive by a clan she's grown up fighting a deeply ingrained blood feud was one of the more compelling parts. The romance was expected but built slowly and felt relatively natural. Overall the writing style was competent, but relied too much on short repeated sentences for emphasis. 

Did this book set my soul on fire? Not really. Was it enjoyable while it lasted? Yep.

I jumped at the chance to read this one when the publisher asked me to be part of the blog tour. I love the cover, I never get to read books about Vikings or people similar to them, and I wanted a gory fantasy read.

Instantly this book pulls you into the story. Starting out with a gore filled battle scene was the perfect way to get the blood flowing, if you will. I loved how blood thirty the main character, Eelyn, was on the battle field and how her family trained specifically to fight this war every five years with a rival clan. A blood feud is something I just haven’t seen in a book before and I thought it was really interesting to learn about why these two clans felt the need to shed blood every five years exactly. I thought the religion of these two clans was interesting how they believed in different gods and had different yet similar traditions. I think that in the end though we were so focused on the mundane aspects of the one clan’s lifestyle that we missed out on some of the fun. The story takes place during several fast battle scenes and then long drawn out homestead scenes where the main character is stirring a pot or cleaning.

The characters in the book really had this nice slow growth that I enjoyed. Eelyn started out as a girl who only believed that the rival clan, Rikki, were evil and out to kill all of her loved ones. She believed that only her own clan, Aska, were living the right kind of life. I enjoyed reading about her struggles to fit in with the idea that no matter what clan a person is born into that everyone is human in the end. I felt this was a strong message for the book and I like that it took her some time to grasp that concept. It can’t be easy to go from killing every Rikki to seeing them as human, with real lives and real flaws. I did feel that sometimes along her journey that Eelyn could get a touch annoying because she really honestly thought at times that her life would be better if her brother had died. I feel that those are just things you do not say or wish for when that sibling is alive and in front of you after near death.

Opposite Eelyn I really enjoyed the family environment of her living in a Rikki household. I loved seeing her brother Iri and the struggles he had in seeing his sister again after so long. I liked how strong he was and how he wanted to keep his sister safe. I do feel that since he was such an integral part of Eelyn’s growth I do wish he had more interactions with her and that his character would have been fleshed out a little more. I enjoyed the strong silence of Fiske because he was just always where he needed to be and he always just had a certain aura about him that made him mysterious but loving. I liked that he didn’t waste time with pretty words and let his actions and his love of his family speak for him.

Overall, I enjoyed this one for how the author didn’t shy away from the gory details of war, both with blood shed and with human fear and emotions of battle. I highly enjoyed the overall message of this story and the look into human fear and emotion while going into battle or being afraid of death. I felt the book was slow at times and provided a dull landscape when there could have been a touch more beauty in the descriptions. I also feel that at times Eelyn could really use a good reality check when she wishes for her own brother to be dead on a battlefield instead of alive and by her side. Also I felt the romance could be seen from far off in this book.

I hadn’t heard of Adrienne Young before this book was talked about by almost every person I knew. And now that I do know who she is, I’m excited to start reading more of her books!
This book was exciting, adventurous, plot-packed, and overall out of this world! I think my favorite part about this book was the world building, which was exceptional. 
The main characters have become engraved in my heart, which is also important when reading a book. I don’t think I’ll stop thinking about them for a while yet, and I cannot wait for more!
If you want a book with lots of adventure and action, this is the one for you!

Difficult review to write... I really wanted to like this book - really, really wanted to like it. There was such a lot of hype and it sounded well... awesome!

Vikings - tick
Kickass female - tick
Great opening chapter - tick
Sibling and friendship dynamics, NOT just romance - tick
Beautiful prose (like the title) - tick
Action, but character driven - tick
Standalone (it's hard to commit to series when you have so many books to read) - tick
Interesting world building - tick

Yes, it had these things - as we were promised. And I spoke to Adrienne quite a lot on Instagram before, learning about her writer's journey - remember this is a debut. I was really excited for it (as was the rest of the book world). 

But, it just didn't live up to the hype. I don't like to leave negative reviews, so I'll keep this short. It was a very slow book, there was a lot of time when it felt nothing was happening. When the title character was captured by their rival clan, they started to be nice to her... and then there were pages and pages of conversation, wood carving, garlic crushing... Where was the excitement? The build up? Things happened in fits and starts - it was all or nothing. The characters weren't really fully developed; it felt shallow and stilted. And there did end up being some stereotypical YA romance after all... 

It's not a bad book - I think the problem was the hype. If I hadn't had such high expectations, I might have enjoyed it more. It has also what I have dubbed 'debut novel syndrome' where a writer tries to put in EVERYTHING about the world they've created and the research they've done, when, sometimes all you want is just the plot to  move forward.

Ultimately, I hate to say it but it wasn't brilliant. I do expect brilliance from this author in the future though... 2 1/2 stars.

Meh....I'm not too sure what happened with this book. It sounded amazing, folks were raving about this book and when I got the ARC, I jumped on this.

 

However, I didn't really like it. It didn't grab my attention and hold it. Eelyn, is an okay character. We start with her in the mountains when she is called back home earlier than expected. So off she goes making her way back with some people to accompany her. They never expected to be under attack. Eelyn should have run and hide like she was told, and maybe should have been able to escape. Instead she's caught and puts up a  good fight. Unfortunately they over power her and she is forced to go with this enemy.

 

I gave it about a few more chapters after that scene. And then I just gave up on the book. I wasn't feeling it. The character's weren't screaming amazing at me. The story seemed to be moving along slowly. I ended up putting the book down at that point.

This was a dark, gripping read for me. I loved the action scenes and main character but felt the pacing was a bit off. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and will be telling people to pick Sky in the Deep up and to keep an eye out for the sequel.

This book surprised me! I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to like it. I mean, the description looked awesome, but I've been fooled too many times by synopses who's book don't live up to my hopes. This book wasn't perfect, but I couldn't put it down. I read it in three days-and I can't remember the last book I read that quickly. 

And OK, this isn't an extremely long and detailed book, so that might have been one of the reasons why it was such a quick read. It starts off with high action and things don't slow down at all until the last couple pages. so that really helped move things along. Sometimes I think things could have used a little slow down. I feel like there were times when more explanation and detail was needed to take this book to the next level. It was a little predictable at times, but not painfully so. I figured out what would happen pretty quickly, although I was still able to enjoy the story. 

But the characters really shined in this book. I loved Eelyn so much; she was a fantastic combination of fierce and caring. Honestly, I enjoyed pretty much all of these characters. Fiske annoyed me occasionally, but I still found myself rooting for him more often than not. They were all so unique and well-developed. I loved getting to know them!

So, all in all, I am so glad I picked this gem up. Like some other reviewers, I was a bit hesitant at first because I thought it might be too cliche. But, this book was not at all what I expected, and I really appreciated that (although, yes, there were some predictable parts)! It's a fun, quick read. If you love vikings, I'd recommend giving this a go.

Excellent read! It's highly unique to have a stand alone fantasy novel these days, so it was very refreshing to have everything wrapped up in the single novel. Fantastic characters and a very interesting world built here.

I have decided after much thought and consideration to pull my review of this title for personal reasons.

Riveting historical fiction!
Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Wednesday Books for the opportunity to read and review Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young!  Eelyn goes to battle with her fellow clansmen and is saved by Iri, her brother that died five years ago. Iri fell in battle and everyone thought he had died. He fell into a ravine that his clan couldn’t get down into, but the Riki clan that they were fighting managed to get to him, save his life and help him heal. Eelyn discovers this after she followed Iri and was captured by Fiske from the Riki clan. Now she’s facing being sold to a different clan because the clan she’s with doesn’t know what to do with her. Fiske ends up buying her so no harm comes to Eelyn. Fiske and his family are the people who saved Iri, who has become part of their family and has vowed himself to the Riki clan. A world opens up to Eelyn as she sees that the two clans are alike and they both have an extremely dangerous, terrorizing common enemy. Sky in the Deep brings the lifestyle of Vikings up close and personal and allows the reader to see and feel their thoughts, reasoning and family bonds that made the Vikings formidable. 5 stars for the insightful story of love, loyalty and beliefs of the Vikings!

My Review
Raw, vivid, gritty and beautiful — SKY IN THE DEEP is Amazing!
Brutal, vivid and filled with gritty action, Adrienne Young's debut novel SKY IN THE DEEP is a Viking fantasy featuring one of the fiercest female warriors I have come across recently in young adult literature. Eelyn is not your average heroine. Friends, you are going to fall hard for her. 

From the very first pages, the setting comes alive with its richly crafted world.
Viking enthusiast will feel like they are transported to Evelyn's world. From the deep valley fjords to the forested mountains, you can smell the pine and smoke, feel the crunch of snow and taste the cooper of battle and bloodshed. 

“Every five years, we lost those we loved. And we spent five years counting the days to the moment we could make the Riki pay for our pain.”

The writing is simply amazing. Well paced and with a straightforward plot, the novel does waste time on a convoluted story. 

Instead, it steadily builds delicious tension; this is a book you will not want to put down due to the page-turning addiction it creates. I love the sharp contrast between the lyrical way Young describes the landscape with the gritty and brutal moments of battle. There are moments of stabbing and bloodshed and beautiful moments of ritual, and everyday life of the Aska and Riki—painting a vivid picture for readers.

Eelyn is a protagonist that completely steals the show—sweeping the reader along her heart-rendering journey.

Rarely do we really get such a layered and well-written heroine in a YA novel, let alone a debut. She is a warrior of honor, strength, and heart. I loved just how fierce she is mentally and physically. She can strategize with the best of the warriors, her fellow fighting mates.

Young creates this tough yet vulnerable character in Eelyn.

We see the hurt and betrayal she feels towards her brother after she discovers he is not dead but instead living with the enemy, and the heavy burden it creates, causing her to take up his mantle in order to protect her father. I also enjoyed seeing the strong love Eelyn shares with her father. And, Mýra—her friend and fighting mate, is a great example of positive female friendship. I want her in my life!

“I TRIED TO REMEMBER WHO I WAS.
STRONG. BRAVE. FIERCE. SURE.

I tried to summon her to me—that Eelyn who would choose her people over anything else. I searched for her within myself, but she was different now. I was different. And it was something already done. Something I couldn’t change.”

Get ready for the feels!

When taken by the Riki, Eelyn is made a slave but gradually gains trust, sometimes the hard way, of its clan members. She also begins to see that their people share many commonalities. She also sees the losses they share. This causes so many conflicting emotions in Eelyn that are so palpable. 

There is this terrific, slow-build, romantic tension that made me swoon several times.
For all its fierceness, SKY IN THE DEEP felt especially romantic at times. Even though its slow-to-build, and remains a secondary focus, when on the page together, Fiske and Eelyn just made me swoon. Their changing emotions, complex relationship, it all had me tied in knots. It felt realistic and I loved how Young portrayed them together.

In the End

Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young is a fantastic addition to the YA genre. The best compliment I can give (one that might age me) is the fact Eelyn reminded me a bit of Ayla from Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel. I remember how fierce she was and how much I'd admired her as a teen. Eelyn is sure to bring similar feelings out in today's YA readers. Highly recommended.

*I received this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

OND ELDR. BREATHE FIRE.
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. 

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Vikings vibe is strong in this one and I am all about it. Any book with badass female warriors is something I am going to devour, and this was no exception, having stayed up until 2am reading until I finally forced myself to go to bed and finish it in the morning. 

I’ve read this story so many times before (Flame in the Mist or The Continent, anyone???) where a girl from a different tribe is captured by an opposing group and kept as prisoner and some grumpy but incredibly hot dude doesn’t trust her but eventually they come to understand one another and their different cultures and they fall in love and try to unite the two groups and ooh boy wasn’t that the exact plot of the two aforementioned novels as well as 100% this one also??

Do you think I care??? 
NOPE I LOVE IT. Honestly, I could read the same story line with differently names characters and a vaguely different setting a dozen times and would still obsess over it each and every time because I know what I am about and I’ll freely admit I am trash. 

Eelyn is such a god damn badass and I love it, she can take care of herself but beneath her hard exterior she is fragile and hurting and Fiske is just like waaaaiting for her to sort herself out and deal with her emotions and figure out that everything she once thought is wrong and BOOM I ship it two badass warriors who are passionate but tender as heck are the type of pairing I live for. 

I both love and hate that this appears to be a standalone because I mean I’d love to spend more time in this world with these characters (the side characters were really well written and whole and full and good yes) but at the same time this is such a complete and whole story and the ending was lovely. 

Keen as for whatever else the author comes up with because this is a great start.

Absolutely perfect. I can't believe that we live in a time where kickass ladies come in so many forms. Including Vikings.

Vegr yfir fjor. Honor above life. Living for your clan, dying for your clan and bringing honor to it. That is what young Viking warrior Eelyn has been brought up to believe. From a young age, she has been taught to fight, to kill, and to live in a world in which death was not a possibility but a probability. Every time the fighting season starts, the Aska march against their archenemy, the Riki, and make their clan proud or die trying. Seventeen-year-old Eelyn lost her mother to the ruthlessness of enemy clans when she was only a child, and then five years ago, her beloved brother Iri was slain by a Riki warrior. Now she finds herself on the battlefield again to Riki herself, when she is suddenly faced with the impossible: her brother Iri. She follows her brother and is instantly taken captive by the Riki and sold into servitude. How can her brother be alive? And how can she flee and restore her honor with her own clan, when she seems to have found a new home and family with the enemy?

I am positively surprised by this ambitious and well-executed debut. Although it is far from being perfect, it entertains with a well-paced plot and tender romance. Eelyn is a strong female protagonist who still remains relatable, and, even more importantly, likable. While I enjoy strong warrior-like female characters, they often seem to be cast into a very static mold in which they are restricted in their development. I have read numerous examples of heroines that are too perfect to be true. Their strength makes them appealing but at the same time a little flat. Not Eelyn - she is self-aware and loving, and develops from fierce warrior to caring woman without compromising any of her strength. Moreover, she does not behave in an anachronistic way. With a different historical setting, there is always the danger of pressing the characters into a modern mindset and behavior pattern. At first, I was a bit skeptical about whether Viking women actually fought in battles. After some research, it turns out they very well might have. Another benefit of this novel is its subjects, the Vikings. Popularised by current films and TV series, this particular era is certainly interesting for a wide readership. Maybe it's also the mystery surrounding the Vikings as there are still so many things we do not know about them. Therefore, this little book might create a fascination with this epoch and raise young readers' interest in history.

However, there are also some flaws. The romance part was utterly predictable and although Young paced it slowly and carefully, this slow burn just didn't burn. What's more, there could have been more of a plot for my taste. The alternations between battles and the protagonist learning to come to terms with the challenges that come with the job of being a Viking are told in a coherent way, but I would have wished for more gripping plot devices.

Overall, the author did a very good job of telling an entertaining story about intriguing characters set in an era that has not been much explored yet by YA literature. For this novelty alone the author should be applauded, particularly considering the fact that this is her first novel. Moreover, she dresses this story in pretty words, too, which is always a bonus. The rich descriptions of this harsh world are juxtaposed with those of the inner workings of a girl's mind slowly thawing to new feelings, and thus make for a real page-turner. In short, the language, Eelyn's introspection, and her path to redefining the meaning of family are what makes this book a very pleasurable reading experience. I would, therefore, recommend this book to teenage girls from the age of 14 as there is a considerable amount of violence - as can be expected from a novel about Vikings.


"And that was the way of it. Things belonging where they didn't. Like two night skies on a frozen lake. One looking down from above and one looking up from the deep."

(Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with this digital galley in exchange for an honest review.)

I was pleasantly surprised by SKY IN THE DEEP. When I started reading, and especially when it got to the part where Eelyn was captured, I was really leery this was going to turn into an I Love My Captor story, but I think Young approached that whole topic delicately and resolved it in a way that effectively avoided that whole disastrous trope.

SKY IN THE DEEP is brutal. It’s probably the least young adult novel I’ve ever read in that regard. I don’t know a whole lot about Vikings, but Young sticks to the basics of what I think Vikings are: brutal, unapologetic fighters. Their reasons for fighting were kind of hard to swallow, so firmly rooted in superstition that it was hard to suspend my logic for it, but it’s something I can believe having happened within that time. I didn’t doubt it. It just didn’t make a ton of sense as a modern day person reading the reasons why these two tribes fought.

As for the brutality, it’s bad. You get full view of Eelyn popping out a guy’s eyeball with her thumb. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. But I didn’t feel any of it was gratuitous. It fit with the characters and their way of life. There’s this hardness to them built from generations of training. But there’s also an unapologetic softness there too. Men aren’t afraid to cry when the situation calls for it and the timing is right. Emotion is okay, but the overwhelming emotion usually involves some kind of fighting, at least in this story.

As for the love story portion of the story, I believed it. I don’t want to spoil anything, but Young takes care to develop the relationship slowly and you get every ounce of emotion that Eelyn is feeling about it. The outright hatred, the loathing, and slowly it develops into something less than that. Something tamer, something mellow. And then it slowly starts to ascend with her reluctant admittance to herself that hey maybe something might be there after all. It’s my kind of love story.

If you’re looking for a bloody, brutal story about warriors with a sprinkling of a love story thrown in, SKY IN THE DEEP is your book. But don’t dismiss the book’s loyalty, its blood ties, its torn emotions, its confusion about itself and its future, and everything else in between. There’s a lot going on here and it’s so much deeper than simply a viking story with some love thrown in. I think you’ll love it a little.

This is one of those book that is a “It’s me, not you” kind of circumstances.

Sky in the Deep is about about two fighting Viking clans that every 5 years (because a feud between their gods) fight to the death and it’s about Eeyln a girl from the Aska clan.

She discovers her brother is alive (after thinking he died in the fighting season) and is living with the enemy clan, the Riki.

What I expected: honestly I expected a very different book which could be a reason this book wasn’t for me. There were some action scenes but most of the book was in the villages talking. The first 50% of the book was really slow.

The main character started off as this strong warrior but then cried for most of the book. And while her circumstances could call for tears, it was almost too much.

The writing was well done, can’t argue with that but the story was very predictable and cliche. I understand many stories flesh out the same but at least the journey getting there is more entertaining.

The romance was good. I enjoyed the chemistry.

I did love the family dynamic.

The true enemy was hollow for me and didn’t have enough explanation.

There wasn’t any fantasy!! I expected magic and other than some dreams, nothing magical. To me, fantasy is more than a setting. It’s kind of like how people categorize The Winner’s Curse as fantasy. This is a story set in a Viking world but no magic.

Overall, the book was well written but it wasn’t for me. I think many will enjoy it.