**Disclaimer, I was given a free e-ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Also, please note, there are spoilers below for Sky in the Deep.**

Title The Girl the Sea Gave Back

Author Adrienne Young

Description from Amazon

For as long as she can remember, Tova has lived among the Svell, the people who found her washed ashore as a child and use her for her gift as a Truthtongue. Her own home and clan are long-faded memories, but the sacred symbols and staves inked over every inch of her skin mark her as one who can cast the rune stones and see into the future. She has found a fragile place among those who fear her, but when two clans to the east bury their age-old blood feud and join together as one, her world is dangerously close to collapse.

For the first time in generations, the leaders of the Svell are divided. Should they maintain peace or go to war with the allied clans to protect their newfound power? And when their chieftain looks to Tova to cast the stones, she sets into motion a series of events that will not only change the landscape of the mainland forever but will give her something she believed she could never have again―a home.

Cover Art

I love the colors of the cover of this book. The ocean gives a richness to the color scheme that contrasts nicely with the black of Sky in the Deep. This is definitely a book I would purchase for my shelves at home.

Initial Thoughts

I am obsessed with Sky in the Deep. It is in my top five of 2019 and was an amazing story. I love Adrienne Young’s writing style and was so excited when I found out that The Girl the Sea Gave Back is an indirect sequel. I was so bummed when I missed the initial wave of ARCs on Instagram and I couldn’t find any at Book Con. I was ready to settle and wait like everyone else for this title when the publisher approved my wish on NetGalley!

Series Value

I think this setting and these characters have a lot of promise. I love the viking inspired stories and the fact that The Girl the Sea Gave Back is filled with familiar characters and concepts from Sky in the Deep. I hope Adrienne Young continues with the series.

Also, I’d like to mention that I found a certain element missing from this story so I would like to see it play out in another book. But, more on that later.

Some Things I Loved

References to Sky in the Deep — I was so pleased to see not only the familiar tribes, but the actual characters that I grew to love in the first book. They are older and wiser now but still just as lovable as they were in Sky in the Deep. Similarly, I was glad to see the concepts, places, and tribes were familiar and also, expanded upon. We are introducted to two (three if you count the Riki/Aska hybrid tribe) new tribes in this book, and their connection to the rest of the world gives the entire story a fullness and balance that only enhanced the first book’s setting.
Alternating POV — I love alternating POV writing. I can’t say that enough. Sky in the Deep was all about Eelyn but The Girl the Sea Gave Back takes us back and forth between Tova and Halvard, often when they are not together. There is so much story happening and I loved that I, as the reader, could experienced it from both sides.
HALVARD — I always thought he was an underutilized character in Sky in the Deep. I’m glad Adrienne Young agreed. He was meant for greatness and he finally had his chance to shine in The Girl the Sea Gave Back.
Some Things I Wasn’t Crazy About

Plot speed — I thought the entire story was a bit rushed. Eelyn’s story took place over the course of months while this book was over what seemed like a matter of days. I wanted more character and plot development.
Lack of romance — one of my favorite parts of Sky in the Deep was Eelyn and Fiske’s story. I felt like that was somewhat lacking here. We get a tiny bit at the end, but not enough for my liking. However, I can forgive this if there is going to be another book continuing Halvard and Tova’s stories.
Final Thoughts

This book gave me some much wanted updates of some of my favorite literary characters of 2019 and also prompted so many more questions. Adrienne Young took an already excellently built world and expanded on it, making it richer and more abundant (which, I think, is a very difficult task). She has a story line with tons of potential and I would be thrilled to see many more books take place in this world.

Overall, this story was really only missing one thing for me, which is why I can only give it four stars. Fantastically written, but it came up just short of perfection for me.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Recommendations for Further Reading

Beasts of the Frozen Sun by Jill Criswell – this book is not released yet, but if you liked Sky in the Deep, you will love Beasts of the Frozen Sun. Both stories feature a similar setting (Viking-esque times) and similar character development. Also, from what I’ve read, Beasts of the Frozen Sun is the start of a series.
Warrior of the Wild by Tricia Levenseller – this is another viking-inspired story with an awesome female protagonist.
Onyx & Ivory and Shadow & Flame by Mindee Arnett – this series might not be viking-inspired, but the writing style is quite similar (both are told in alternating POV). There is also magic, political intrigue, and romance.

First thought after finishing it:
This read had some highlights, small ones, but overall it's not really impressive *sad face*

Okay, this was a really difficult review to write and it pained me to give this book a 3 star rating because I really hoped it would be a solid 4 star. And it’s a 3 star rating that I feel like is more of a 2,5 star rather than 3. But rating it 2 stars is too less though < I really need those half star rating options on GR pff. Okay, I’ll get on with the rest of my review now.

The first 70% really didn’t really do anything for me to be fair. I really wish it was different. Overall, I really missed depth and development on basically every front. The story remained really superficial in my opinion. At the same time though, there were some really interesting elements present like the settings and the bits and pieces we got of the ‘fortune telling’ and the Gods of these lands and I really want to highlight those as well.

At first, I thought that I maybe didn’t really like a huge part of the book, because I just couldn’t really concentrate due to the heat over here. But when I got to 70-75% things got much better and then it was so fast-paced that I finished it within no time.

I couldn’t hide behind the ‘no concentration thing’ then anymore, the first 70% of the book just wasn’t really to my liking was my only conclusion. So I guess that overall, in the end, I’ll just have to stick with my initial thoughts and think this book is ‘just okay’ to me. It wasn’t anything special to me and it’s not a story I’d want to re-read someday.

I couldn’t really connect to these characters like I hoped I would. That really bothered me because loving the characters is a huge part of what makes my reading experiences great. Tova especially, just wasn’t doing it for me as a main character. I can’t really pinpoint exactly what it is because she definitely has moments in which she’s kickass but overall I just feel ‘meh’ about her. Harvard was a male protagonist I really wanted to fall in love with but I just couldn’t completely fall for because somehow I couldn’t fully connect with him. Despite him having his own POV, I still felt like his character was quite superficially written? And on top of that the story itself was quite ‘bland’ to me. It wasn’t original and it held no true twists for me, so in combination with characters I couldn’t connect with, the parts I thought that were good couldn’t really make up for it in the end.

I hate writing reviews in which I don’t have more positive things to say, but I like to stay true to myself and be honest. I’m really thankful the publisher granted me with this ARC and I’m sad I couldn’t write a more positive review.

I know that the overall feel of this review is negative so why did I still give it 3 stars? Because of the things I mentioned earlier; the settings were great, the fortune telling was interesting and I liked reading about the Gods/mythology parts. I also thought the writing was really good to read. I know this contradicts everything I’ve said about the book not being impressive and all that, but I love the author’s way with words, so her way of writing is definitely something I like. I really hope she’ll continue developing her writing skills in the upcoming years because I still very much like to read more by her.

I’ve read different reviews on the book; some liked it Even More than the first book, or loved this one and didn’t like the first book. For me it’s the other way around haha. So I guess, you’ll just have to find out for yourself if you’re going to like it or not because a reading experience is so personal and I’m sure lots of readers are going to love this one.

2.5

“They didn’t understand that there was no such thing as a secret. The truth was everywhere. It was in everything. You only had to open your eyes to see it.”*

I read Sky In The Deep earlier this year despite seeing very mixed reviews for it, and ended up really enjoying it. Sadly, this one was not nearly as good of a fit for me.

Honestly, the bare bones of the plot of this story actually had potential, and the writing style is lovely, but the pacing is so, so problematic. There are a lot of scenes that happen that seem like they would’ve worked better had they been used as dramatic reveals. This way, the story would have packed a bigger emotional punch than how things actually played out. I will say though, that the atmosphere in this book is very nice, and was probably my favorite part.

For me it’s usually hard to buy into a romance in a stand-alone story, and in this one the romance doesn’t really appear until around 80% (or 95%, depending on how you look at it...). It’s very fated lovers, but without any build-up... I like the whole “red string of fate” thing when it’s used properly, but here I felt nothing. Although this book seems to be more of a character deep-dive with plenty of action, the romance still deserved to be better developed.

Although this story is unique and holds some promise, it’s under-developed and lacked proper pacing, so I’m not sure that I’d recommend it.

*Quote taken from an uncorrected galley.

I DNF this book at 30% I had high expectations because I loved Sky in the deep and loved the idea of the same type of story but with a “truthtongue” but I honestly felt confused reading this one and felt the story didnt build up very well.

The book follows two point of views from rival clans.

Tova the truthtongue who lives among her group feared and disliked because of what she is.

And Halvard, our favourite young boy from Sky in the deep. But he’s all grown now.

I may come back to this, Im sad its a dnf but I can not push through it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc

I was a little nervous to read this one as some of my favorite reviewers weren’t feeling this one as much as Sky in the Deep, but I have to say I think it’s my favorite between the two!

“The Girl the Sea Gave Back” finds peace between two clans on shaky ground as soldiers go rouge and the only justice is an equal amount of blood spilt amongst the enemy and Tova, a young women rescued from the sea believes she holds all the blame as she is the only one who can see what the future holds.

One of the my favorite things I love about sequels, and I’m probably in the minority here, is when they shift the narrative focus to new people so we get to see the characters we know and love while also expanding upon the world and this book played into that perfectly.

We are given new mythology and the culture of people who are very close to that of the Gods and to see that meet up with what we’ve already seen in Sky, it was interesting to see how those two worlds would meet and I was not disappointed.

I enjoyed seeing Halvard grown up and facing the world on his own and the responsibility that comes with age, especially as a new war looms on the horizon and it helped to see the flashbacks to how he came to be in the position he was in and what that meant for him moving forward. I really enjoyed Tova and unlike Sky in the Deep, I enjoyed this hunt of romance more even though it is played as far into the background as it could allowing Young to do what she does best which is writing some of the best fight scenes I’ve ever read.

This is a good read and rather quick once you get into it and I hope we get to see more of this world and what comes with the aftermath of this book and what it could mean for the future of all those we know and love.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review!**

Although I'm giving this three stars just like Young's previous book, I do think that her writing has improved.

Her world-building is so promising and I love the influence of Nordic lore. The premise of this book was super promising and it was well built.

However, just like with the last book, the pacing was off for me. The ending was rushed and due to the weird pacing, it made me hard to connect to the characters.

That all being said, I will definitely give her next book a read, because I think she's a very promising author.

I just didn't really connect with this book. The main characters seemed flat, and I was never able to really feel invested in them. The world building wasn't thorough enough for me to feel like I had a good grasp of the setting. Everything just felt dull. In the end, I was left wondering what the point of reading this was.

The Girl The Sea Gave Back is such a wonderful companion book to Sky in the Deep.

Adrienne Young wrote another beautiful, bloody, fragile, viking story that is again full with themes of family, roots and war. But this book is also full of superstition, rune casting, seers and gods.

The story returns to the harsh world of Sky in the Deep and is told alternating between Halvard, who we met before as a child and is now a young man, and Tova, the mysterious girl the sea gave back and who has to find her place in this world of different clans and brutal fights.

I love how the reader sees the events unfold, told from Halvard's and Tova's point of view and how we get to meet Eelyn, Fiske, Iri and some other beloved characters again briefly but in special moments.
There is also a new clan, the mysterious and superstitious people of the Kyrr, who will play an important role and who are so intriguing.

Adrienne Young has woven a tale of fate, belief and of how important it is to know ones heritage and that found family can be just as important as true family.

The Girl The Sea Gave Back is a book that's as strong and compelling as Sky in the Deep without relying too heavy on Adrienne's debut novel. There are some beloved characters returning but they never take away the spotlight from Tova or Halvard.
This is fully their story of coming into their own and taking fate into their own hands.
I hope there will be another book sometime in the future because I have a feeling that their story isn't over yet.

Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for granting my wish and sending me an eARC in exchange for a honest review!

*Spoiler free, 3.75 stars*

I enjoyed Sky In The Deep, though I didn't love it. I found myself craving another book by Adrienne Young. She's a fantastic writer and I was curious to see what she would do with this story. It intriuged me, that this would follow one of the minor characters of Sky and take place ten years later. And the new main character, Tova, sounded really awesome.

Young has such a way with words. I love her writing style. I find it really calming, even in the middle of a fight scene haha. She managed to weave a really great story. Even when I found myself getting bored at parts or wishing certain things would happen, I would still be entertained by the writing style. It was easy really easy to read and to keep reading. It made everything in the book a lot stronger.

I really, really liked Tova's character. She was awesome, I liked getting to know her story. It was cool to see and learn about a new clan in this world. I liked her backstory and how she can read the future and how she thinks about things. It was also cool to see Halvard ten years later! He felt like the same character, but older (I don't know but this seemed worth mentioning haha).

This book didn't progress at all like I thought it would. I almost wish more had happened. It seemed like a lot of build up, without a lot of payoff. Halvard and Tova are travelling to a certain place, both emotionally and physically, so they have their own journeys. I thought they would converge sooner than they did. I got sort of bored here and there waiting to see what would happen. I felt like there wasn't enough going on in between to make the end result worth it.

I also didn't connect emotionally fully to the characters or the story. I think it has to do with the fact that I was waiting for something for a lot of the book. There's an emphasis on getting there, but I wish there had been more of an emphasis on the emotional journey. I didn't feel Tova's emotional turmoil or her struggle. It's like she just walked through the story and let things happen to her. Halvard is a bit of the same way, but I felt his development a little bit more.

I felt like some of the major themes fell through the cracks. I didn't get the sense that Tova was fighting for and trying to find a home. It just felt like some things got lost in the shuffle.

There are also flashbacks throughout the book. The way they're spaced makes it a little hard to figure out the timeline. I found myself getting confused here and there about what happened and when.

Characters from Sky do make an appearance. I'm not sure how I feel about their presence. I felt like it was in the middle of too much and too little, not quite enough of either. That's weird, I know haha.

Overall, I did enjoy this book and I think a lot of people are going to love it! I just think a lot of the main aspects aren't for me. Though, it was still really interesting and the writing is gorgeous. And I am looking forward to reading whatever Young writes next!

There’s something very particular about Adrienne Young’s books—an epic, eerie atmosphere—in the way she sets this Viking-like decor, the characters, and their entwined fates. The Girl the Sea Gave Back is set along the same fjords that we once visited with her debut Sky in the Deep. Although we met again with some characters from the first book, I believe it reads easily as a stand-alone, but be warned that the clans and characters’ names are fairly complicated, especially to remember.

Nevertheless, the writing, rich and sharp, engages with the reader every step of the way and you know that you’re in for a journey again. The battle descriptions are especially brutal, fast-paced, and cinematic, as if Young was a stuntwoman in a previous life—who knows? It feels like you’re at the movie, it’s really amazing—unfathomable?—how Young manages to do that. The only thing I can regret is that I feel I’ve been cheated out of a few answers, mainly about the mysteries surrounding Tova, the first one of them being, why did the sea give the girl back? The abrupt ending left me thirsty for more.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for this ARC!

I really wanted to like this book. I had been excited since I read Sky in the Deep, but something just didn’t work. Sky in the Deep did so well I understand the authors intention unfortunately it just didn’t work. I feel like if they wanted to make a sequel even years later it should have connected more. I felt like I was reading a solo novel that was written by a different author trying to connect to sky in the deep. I got through it because I was excited about it but I don’t think it was as close to Sky in the Deep.

I received a copy of The Girl the Sea Gave back from Wednesday Books through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. It's the second in the series but I honestly didn't feel I missed anything by not reading the first one.

I loved the short flashback to Halvard and Tova's pasts.

I saw in some reviews that people thought there was too much romance but honestly I didn't get that at all.

What a thrilling ride. With intricate writing, multilayered worldbuilding, and characters that live in your heart, The Girl the Sea Gave Back is a triumph.

E-ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I loved Sky in the Deep so much and I was a bit scared to go into this because I might've not liked it.
Luckily enough that was not the case! Despite this uncorrected proof being full of errors I deeply enjoyed the book and took as it was: a companion novel.
I am super positive that the final copy of the book will be perfect on my shelf!

So it took me awhile to get into this book. I loved Sky in the Deep so much so I persisted but if it was a book I knew nothing about I probably would have quit. It was just a bit slow paced and jumbled. It would jump between the past and present but it wasn't always in chronological order. Some chapters would be 10 years ago and some would be more but they would alternate. To make it clearer I think it should have started from 20 years ago and than 10 years, etc.

It did get really good towards the last third of it though. Then it leaves a lot unanswered so now I’m wishing there would be a second one. I think the ending is more for the readers to decide how it ends, but I think definite closure. All in all, I did enjoy the read, just was confused at times.

At 50% I DNF the book. I loved "Sky in the Deep", so I had high expectatives for liking this one... but it wasn't to be. I didn't connect to the characters, the writing got me lost sometimes with the time jumps and I felt like the plot wasn't all clear or for me...

We follow two main characters from rival clans: Tova, who comes from another clan and is hated on the clan she is now because she is a fortune teller and they kinda fear/hate it; and Halvard, the kid from the Rikki clan from the previous book who is now all grown up.
They find themselves in the middle of a war between their clans but they sort of refuse to kill each other because there is something going on between them. Tolva feels it more mystically at thr beginning, like Halvard is sth else, and he is kinda attracted to her, but to me it fall flat.
The presence of a character from the same clan as Tolva withvHalvard felt forced and I didn't know why they didn't make him to tell who she is (at least not before I DNFed the book) and why he recognizes her...
To me it was a very confusing lecture, with no clear stand points and with charactera that didn't caught my attention not hold it.

The Girl the Sea Gave Back includes alternating chapters between Tova and Halvard as we learn their perspectives about an impending war between clans. Characters from Sky in the Deep are included in this one so it was nice to see how they fared many years down the line. I wish the book would have been written from Tova’s point of view instead of split with Halvard because there was so much information I would have liked to learn about Tova. We get glimpses of Tova and Halvard’s pasts, but I would have preferred a fresh story on Tova since the audience doesn’t know much about her despite that she is hated for being a Kyr in her clan. Her story was cut in half to include Halvard’s perscpective, and so much more about her could have been included if the author had detached this from Sky in the Deep and focused solely on Tova.

I wasn’t as enamored with this one as I was with Sky in the Deep which I believe was because of the two points of views. I have nothing against Halvard, but the story could have been much stronger without his half.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

As an avid fan of YA fantasy, I read a lot of books. And because of this, sometimes the story gets a little repetitive. However, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that this story had a very fresh and new feel to it. Tova is tossed into the water by her family, dead, at the age of six. She then mysteriously washes up alive on the faraway shores of the Svell, another class. She is a TruthTeller, a seer of the future, and though she is useful in her new home, she is also hated.

This story has a Viking feel to it, as well as something a little reminiscent of Greek mythology in the form of the mysterious Spinners of Fate. I like the characters, the changing points of view, the mystery, and the world the author has created. I quickly read through this one, eager (and sad!) to get to the end.

A big thanks to NetGalley for my copy of this book I exchange for review. I am so conflicted on this one. I really enjoyed Sky in the Deep and was excited for my ARC of The Girl the Sea Gave Back. The author's writing and pace is wonderful. However, the clans, gods and characters were very confusing in the beginning. I reread Sky in the Deep and it did help some, but it really needs a clan tree and map to give some clarity. The main problem for me was immersion. I was confused in the beginning so that made it hard to get into and once I was, I found I wasn't that interested. The book seemed to lack something, possible emotion? There was so much action, but little emotion or character growth. And so little meaningful character interactions. I really wanted to care about Tova, but it just wasn't in the cards. She was flat. I felt nothing. I felt more for Halvard and Aghi, as well as old characters from the first book, but even then I flew through this one waiting for the moment I became engrossed. It almost happened, right at the end, but the book ended so suddenly and abruptly that it didn't end up happening at all. If you liked the first one then you might like this, just to see old characters. If you like a fast paced action book, then this one has that in spades. Personally the lack of...substance made it hard to like this one.

Such an epic follow up by Adrienne Young. Set in the same unique, viking-inspired world as her first novel- the plot, the characters, the setting- it was all perfect. Loved it!