I enjoyed Sky in the Deep, but it wasn’t my favorite book ever. I do however, love Norse Mythology and the history of Vikings, so I was exciting to give Adrianne Young’s second book a chance.

The book follows Tova, a Truthtongue living among the Svell. She can cast the rune stones to read the future. When the Svell leaders become divided, Tova’s Chieftain asks her to use the stones, but then ends up setting into motion a a set of events that would change the world she knows.

Just like Sky in the Deep, the writing was great. I did find the beginning of the book slow, but I enjoyed the pulls from history and the magical touches. I also enjoyed the switch in POVs throughout the book. The new characters we see in this story, I loved more as well. I felt more connected to them and enjoyed following them through this tale.

Ohhhhh boy that ending. Of all of the books to have an open ending WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE THIS ONE?!?! Even though it actually makes perfect sense with how the rest of the book was set up, that doesn’t mean I have to like it!!!

Okay, soooo I only recently, and yes, finally, got around to reading Sky in the Deep. I obviously LOVED it and immediately ran to request this ARC. The cover is SO gorgeous and I was so excited to read anything else that this woman had to offer, especially if I was able to get any kind of glimpse at my other babies. I was a little skeptical when I saw quite a few so/so reviews and wondered how that could be. Now that I’ve finished, I get it.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a very solid 4 stars for me. Like a few of the other reviewers out there, the actual story didn’t grab me like the previous one did. As I mentioned in that review, I waited to read SITD so for long because Viking stuff makes me nervous. I do NOT like reading about excessive, gory violence at all. When that story was more about two groups forming a peace and two people from each side slowly falling in love, I couldn’t have been happier. This on the other hand, had allllll kinds of blood, violence, and gore. It hurt. It was hard to read. And while you could tell that the story would probably end with Tova and Halvard getting together, it was not a main thread of this story.

No, this story, even though it had viewpoints from both Tova and Halvard, was about Tova. It was about fate, and her past, and their future. I thought that the way Young set up Tova’s Truthtongue heritage and abilities was super interesting and well done. I have always loved reading about Fate and how different people thing it rules their life. Look at this quote:

“Why did you help me?” I asked, my voice softening.
She looked surprised at the question, studying my face before she answered.
“Because you’re not supposed to die.”
“If I’m not supposed to die, then I won’t.”
She searched my eyes, making me feel unsteady on my feet again. “That’s not how fate works.”

I love that in Tova’s world, even if something is supposed to happen, or fated to happen, there are a million different forces at work based on people’s decisions that could change how a certain event could take place or change a person’s life. It’s delicious to wrap your mind around.

Other than kind of being bummed about the romance and also being kind of emotionally burned out by the violence and the way in which Tova was treated by the Svell I was a little…thrown off by the flashbacks. I really felt like I was missing something when I was reading them. I get that Tova’s set up her past and showed some big events but I felt like I was confused about why we also got a glimpse into Halvard’s past at that same point in time. I couldn’t make any connections, personally. Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention? But I really just felt like I was missing something big.

Either way, even though I was a tad disappointed by the plot of this book, it was still GOOD. Young’s writing is phenomenal and I will continue to read anything she puts out.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday books for allowing me to read this eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.♥

The Girl the Sea Gave Back is an interesting new novel from Adrienne Young. It is set in the same world as The Sky is Deep, but is not a sequel- which is good because I haven’t read The Sky is Deep. I wish that I had, because I think the world building probably was a bit more involved than The Girl the Sea Gave Back. The setting is very elaborate- a fantasy Nordic land full of fjords and warring tribal clans. The set up felt a bit rushed and I had some difficulty at first keeping straight all of the different clans- Kyrr, Svell, Nadhir, Aska, Riki, Herji, etc. There’s also a large cast of characters with foreign names that were challenging to tie in, especially in the flashbacks to Halvard’s family. I still don’t really know how Myra was related to him...at first I thought she was a potential love interest for him until it became obvious that Tova is his insta-love soulmate. And the line about her many lovers, which was an odd and very personal side note to mention about her...

My love for Tova almost made the instalove ok. She is a Kyrr Truthtongue, who after being believed dead by her clan and laid to rest at sea in a funeral boat, was “given back” by the gods when her boat washes up in Svell territory and she’s found very much alive. They raise her there and by that, I mean, they abuse her, are horrible to her, and use her skills for their own purposes. As a Truthtongue, she can read ancient runes and accurately predict the future. Of course, this leads to many issues for the Svell, with the age old question of, if you knew the future, would you be able to change it? Or does trying to change it turn it into the future that was predicted?

There weren’t a lot of major plot twists or unexpected turns, but I still enjoyed the novel. Readers of young adult fantasy should definitely check this book out.

This book was really hard to get into. I found that I had to force myself to pick this up. The characters fell flat to me and there was so much information at the beginning that it was hard to keep track of and nothing was really happening. I'm really sad to have to put this down... it was one of my most anticipated books this year but I just couldn't connect with the story or the characters. DNF

"From Adrienne Young, New York Times bestselling author of Sky in the Deep, comes her new gut-wrenching epic The Girl the Sea Gave Back.

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."

Tattoos and runes? Yes please!

This story wraps fingers of fate around your heart and pulls you down a path so fast and with so much emotion that it’s as if you become a character in the book yourself. Absolutely loved it and highly recommend! Reminiscent of the Vikings of history but with a whole new spin.

Tova is a Truthtongue, she can read into pieces of the future by using rune stones. She is of the Kyrr people, but through a twist of fate, ends up a captive among the cruel Svell people and is forced to read the rune stones for them. Enter Halvard, next in line as Chieftan of the Nadhir, a new clan of two combined clans that had been warring for decades. The Svell and Nadhir are neighbors and tensions are rising. Fast-paced, vivid imagery, great action, strong emotions. Battle. Love. Family. Loyalty.

Warning: This review and book contain spoilers for Sky in the Deep!

Once again, I loved the writing and the setting. This book is set in the same world as Sky in the Deep but with more world-building. Or, better put, a "bigger" world and different settings! It added a lot to my reading experience since I already knew the world, was already familiar with it. That way Adrienne was able to put more depth into everything and go further than she had in the previous book. [Although it's a companion novel, I still recommend reading Sky in the Deep first since The Girl the Sea Gave Back contains spoilers! It's set ten years after the events in Sky in the Deep so.. yeah.]

I absolutely loved the cast of characters Adrienne chose for this book. One of the main characters is one I was curious about at the ending of Sky in the Deep so I was very, very excited when I found out they'd be featured in this book. I just had to know how they turned out and what happened in their life afterwards! I also loved the presence - although sporadically - of other known and loved characters.

Although I do have some issues with this book - more about it in the next part of my review - I still liked the ending because it.. weirdly left me with questions and I didn't mind? Not my usual thing, but apparantly it can be a thing of mine? Mindblowing, I know!

An issue I had with this book, that I hadn't with Sky in the Deep, is definitely predictability. There weren't any twists or turns I didn't see coming a mile off. There were one or two exceptions with smaller twists, but.. it's the big ones I like being surprised with. It all felt a bit too.. easy, I guess?

And the main character, Tova.. Unfortunately I didn't like her all that much and I think it's due to her character not being as firm and fleshed-out as I expected and wanted it to be. I often felt like she did things out of character. Can you imagine not having murdered anyone before and then going on a full-on killing spree? Yeah, me neither.

3 / 5!

I liked Sky in the Deep better, that's for sure. But I didn't dislike this one? I just didn't overly love it either and since I gave the first one four cupcakes, I can't give this one equally as much, right? In any case, the ending left me with some questions and I'm eager to.. find out more? I'd definitely read a third book if there's one coming! No doubt about it!

Rate: 3.5/5 stars, rounded up.

My synopsis:

The Girl the Sea Gave Back falls around two warring clans in what appears to be a an Icelandic-like place (only guessing based on the names of people and the villages), This book is told from two perspectives, Tova and Halvard to give you their perspectives from their clans of the growing battle tensions. Tova's perspective narrates her clan, the Svell, whereas Halvard's is the Nadhir clan. Both clans have been at odds for centuries. The Nadhir were once made of two separate clans, the Aska and the Riki, until they put their qualms aside and chose to unite to form a stronger clan, the Nadhir, against the Svell. The Svell had remained in their territory, trying to avoid war with the new Nadhir clan as both recognized a battle against each other would result in massive blood shed and loss due to their military's strength. But when 40 Nadhir are found slaughtered by the Svell, the Nadhir prepare to go to war. The leader of the Svell had not sent out men to kill the Nadhir, believing that some of his people had acted on their own will behind his back. He arranges a meeting with the Nadhir's leader, only to have his right hand and brother, Vigdis, betray him. Vigdis leads a group of rebels within the Svell that slaughter the Nadhir's leader at this meeting to start a war between their clans, believing that they are guaranteed to win and take the Nadhir's lands. When Halvard, the new leader of the Nadhir, and a few of the Nadhir men escape to alert the rest of the Nadhir, Vigdis sets off in a blind rage and wants him dead. Only Tova, a Kyrr girl that is basically forced to help Vigdis or he will kill her, can find Halvard with a few Svell men at her side to kill him before he succeeds in alerting the rest of the Nadhir.
As Tova travels through the land on her search, we are given flashbacks as to how she came into the Svell's arms and why she has stayed with them so long. What is the significance of the sea giving her back? The Kyrr are believed to be bad omens to the Svell because the Kyrr are covered in tattoos that tell a story of who they are and what they have seen, but also because they can "cast stones" to predict the future, which in poor Tova's case has been the death of Bekan, the former Svell leader, daughter, and the future demise of the Svell. It would appear Bekan kept her around just because her ability was still of use to him. But Vigdis despises her very existence and one wrong move by Tova could result in Vigdis ordering her head. Tova's caretaker, Jorrund the clan's Tala, responsible for "interpreting their god Eydis' will, is a vindictive and controlling man that tries to play off that he cares for Tova's best intentions but really only sees her for who she is, a Kyrr. He only tolerates Tova because he relies on her stone predictions to answer what he can't or won't to the Svell leader.
Halvard is conflicted with the looming war. After having succeeded the former leader, Espen, he is afraid to bring his people into a battle after they have enjoyed a long break of peace. He saw his older brothers go off to war before the Nadhir clan was made in a peace treaty, and he fears not only losing her brothers and friends to another war, but also of forcing his people to go to war.
Tova feels a strange connection to Halvard, but she keeps it to herself. When she finally finds him, in a split second she chooses to help him against few Svell that were trailing her, and Halvard lives. She chooses to lie bring back the severed head of a random body to Vigdis to lie of Halvard's death. This buys Halvard time to set up an army in waiting of the Svell's arrival to the Nadhir's main village. Upon the beginning of the main battle, Tova sets off to help Halvard, having seen that the Svell are doomed to defeat from her stone casting and visions - that Vigdis blatantly ignored - that the Svell are doomed to die. The Svell are officially defeated when the surprising arrival of the Kyrr arrive on the Nadhir's shores and fight alongside them. It is here that all flashbacks are brought to a close: Tova had drowned as a young child while still living with her Kyrr family. As was their tradition, they set her off in an ablaze boat at sea. However, the boat washes ashore in Svell territory only partially burned, and Jorrund takes her in as sign from Eydis. When Kjeld, a cast out Kyrr who befriended Halvard and became a part of the Nadhir years ago, discovered who Tova was, he returned to the Kyrr to inform them of her living. The Kyrr's leader, Svanhild, is Tova's mother and Kjeld's sister. Tova is finally reunited with her people. Also, let's not forget that she exacted revenge against Jorrund for basically being a POS. The sea gave her back to be something much bigger in her future. To help the Nadhir win against the Svell. To perhaps further help them in the future (?)

I had been so excited to get an ARC of this book! It was one of my top 10 anticipated novels for the second half of 2019 ( https://akacelaenarenee.wordpress.com/?p=373 ). Prior to reading, I had put so much faith and anticipation for the book that I wanted to rate it a 5/5. It was not that the book was bad. But here is why I could not give it a 5 star rating...

Problem #1:
There was so much going on with the conflict. The flashbacks were helpful in providing back story of Tova and Halvard, but their connection to each other made little sense. The story felt more focused on the battle, which I am totally for, but this romantic connection between Tova and Halvard felt really rushed and thrown in, like Young had forgotten to include romance and chose to just shuffle it into the chapters where she could find room.
Problem #2:
Besides the 2 MCs, there are mainy other characters thrown in. It became hard to keep up with who was who, and what side they fought for, because there was little character development to them. Even Jorrund or Vigdis could have been better developed/described. I prefer to read books where the characters are described so well that I can picture them exactly as written in my head. I was left creating my own image of them just off of what little I had known about the Icelandic clans. The scenery was well described, in fact quite beautifully, but the people were lacking.
Problem #3:
The scenes following the battle felt hurried. This also includes the romance, but Tova finally meeting her mother and people was rushed. Answers are given to the immediate questions the reader has, but if I was in Tova's shoes and had been living among the horrible Svell basically my whole life, I would have had a plethora of questions for my mother.

But besides these 3 problems, it really was a good read! The battle scenes were written so vividly. The movements of battle and fighting were able to be followed like watching a scene in a movie. The overall plot line of the story was great! The only real twist in the story was the initial betrayal prior to the war. The rest flowed just about how I had imagined it would.
I will definitely buy a copy of this upon its release! I hope that perhaps my problems are just because it was an ARC and that they had been fine tuned between the ARC and the final copy.

There is something so whimsical about Adrienne Young's writing that lures you in and before you know it, the spells been cast, and you're head over heels in love!

Not to mention you get so swept up, two days have passed and you are finished with the book! I crave more with every book she writes. The Girl the Sea Gave Back was lyrical, magical, and adventurous and extremely unputdownable!!

Bring on the viking lore, love, battle, and the stories told, all of which took my breath away!!

Thank you Wednesday Books and NetGalley for granting my wish and allowing me to read this book early in exchange for an honest review!

This was an interesting follow up to Sky in the Deep, although it did have a completely different feel.

I had a difficult time getting into it and was confused by all the names and flashbacks until I was about 25% of the way in. Once the story got going, however, I really enjoyed it. There was a good twist during the climax. I do wish the ending was a bit more developed as it feels like I'm missing the last chapter.

I wasn't quite as connected with this book as I was with SitD. I'm not sure if it was the changing between 1st person and 3rd person? The main characters do a lot of "wondering" which I think pulled me out of the story a bit. I did appreciate the flashbacks once I understood what was happening and I remembered all the names. I really liked the way the author sprinkled Tova's backstory throughout.

A solid read for anyone who is a big SitD fan but know that it is a different read, going into it, so don't have specific expectations.

This was an interesting follow up to Sky in the Deep. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but I still found myself drawn into the story

I was lost when I first began the book, I hadn't realized it was 10 years later.

I love that it's the same community with growing characters, I would have loved to see more of their growth through out the years.

The characters are well developed and I am hoping we will see a future with Halvard and Tova! I would love to see where thwir future leads.

The Girl the Sea Gave Back is the story of Tova, a Svell girl living with the people who hate her kind. Not only do they hate her because of the clan she's from, but also because she is a Truthtongue. She lives among this rival clan and casts her rune stones to predict the future, which is not always good news. When the threat of war becomes very real, Tova is called upon to cast her stones, revealing the fate of what is to come.
Honestly, I couldn't finish the book. I tried my best to get half way and couldn't. There are so many names and places that are thrown in without any explanation that I was confused and frustrated trying to figure out what was going on. There was the threat of war but I didn't know anything at all about the clans or lands around them to know or care what happened. Sometimes I didn't know if a name was referring to a person, god, clan, or area of land. I skipped chapters hoping I'd come to a section that gripped me enough to read, but this held true throughout the book. There was absolutely ZERO world building. I typically love books in settings like this, but I just couldn't grasp this story. I know this is a stand alone in the world of the author's first novel Sky in the Deep, but I feel like I would need to read that book to figure out anything about this world. I was looking forward to this book because Sky in the Deep has been on my "to read" list for a while, but now I'm second guessing myself.

I received an advanced copy of The Girl the Sea Gave Back from Netgalley, so that I could share my thoughts with all you lovely people!

The Girl the Sea Gave Back is told in dual perspectives, from the points of view of Tova and Halvard. Tova, the titular character, is a girl separated from her nation and from any knowledge of who she used to be. She was taken in at a young age by a neighboring tribe, The Svell, after being found seemingly abandoned on the shore. However, her ability to use magic to see the future prevents her from getting too close to any of her fellow tribe members. Halvard has been chosen to be the future chieftain of his tribe, The Nādhir, an honor which he feels unsuited for. When tensions begin to rise between the two groups Halvard and Tova find their destinies intertwined as both fight to find who they are and where they belong.

Author Adrienne Young creates a fascinating world in The Girl the Sea Gave Back, and fills it with interesting characters you will love rooting for! The cover of this book is also so stunning (I mean just look at the water!) that it will definitely be a must-own for your collection of beautiful books!

You can get your copy of The Girl the Sea Gave Back on September 3rd!

My Recommendation
I would recommend this book to people who enjoy high fantasy, particularly stories with a lot of imagery. The tribes of this book and it’s watery scenery are described beautifully, and will entrance any reader.

Beautifully rendered and rich in descriptive text. Shades of Young's previous work and the same style of writing makes The Girl the Sea Gave Back a familiar tale while providing enough new material to make the novel stand out on its own. I would definitely recommend this novel to my teen and adult readers at the library!

The Girl the Sea Gave Back by Adrienne Young 3 Stars

I like the book, but was confused by the change in narrator every other chapter. The time switches were also disorienting. Tova, once a child rescued by a member of the Svell tribe is a seer that uses runes to tell the future. She is feared and barely tolerated by the tribe. Some of the Svell want to go to war for more territory and some just want peace. The chieftain wants answers and ask Tova to cast the runes. The other narrator is Halvard, a member of a newly formed clan comprised of two former enemy clans. They are the ones that will suffer if the Svell are bent on conquest.

This world appears to be based on a Norse type religion and people who are like Vikings. I did like the fact that there are men and women fighting in battles - that implies equality in society.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for this ARC.

This book did not disappoint. And I mean that in ‘I didn’t expect it to be any better than the first’ disappoint. The Girl The Sea Gave Back started out okay, with a prologue full of mystery, but I wasn’t really drawn into the story. It was a struggle getting past the beginning, especially since most of the characters seemed a little flat, with hardly any arc or personality.
But the thing that gets me about this book and the first one is the historical inaccuracy. Call me a hater if you will, but even if it is fantasy, the author has based her world off of a real culture. And it would be appreciated if she would actually research that culture before creating something that sounds like the Vikings TV show instead of real, wild, beautiful, and ancient Scandinavia.
Vikings, while it can be accurate in some areas, is totally inaccurate. If it makes a language professor well versed in the history of the Norsemen (they didn’t call themselves Vikings. The word “Viking” was considered an insult) cry, then I think it would be a bad idea to base your fantasy world off it.
Then there’s the language. I’m pretty sure Young is using Old Norse in her books, but it was obvious she knew nothing about how the language worked in her first book, so I really don’t trust her bits of Old Norse in the second book. Or the first. I’m not an expert, but I have learned a lot about the language.
My point is, her book is sadly lacking in historical accuracy, which would have leant her novel even more attraction. And it would have saved me the effort of throwing the book across the room.
There’s not really much else to say except that while yes, Adrienne Young is good at writing, and some of her descriptions are beautiful, her books are lacking something that would have made them better.

NOTE: I was given a copy from the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is my first novel by the author (I haven't read Sky in the Deep) and I was pleasantly suprised by how enjoyable it was. The cover is what initiatlly drew me in, but I didn't know that this was a companion novel to Young's other book set in this world.

I appreciate that readers are given information as to the background of the first book going into The Girl the Sea Gave Back. I do feel, however, that it might be beneficial to have read that one before tackling this book, just in case there are any easter eggs or references that are easily missed otherwise. I think I would have gotten even more enjoyment out of some of the characters if I'd read about them before.

The author has a solid writing style which reads easily and fluently and manages to immerse the reader in the story and experience the story alongside the characters. There was not too much magic in this installment, but there is definitely a supernatural element to the story.

I liked the protagonist, Tova, and her adventure and character development, as well as her personal inner struggle to come to terms with her identity and place in the world. Tova is definitely a sympathetic character to read about. Halvard is also such an interesting character whose POV I enjoyed. I do wish, however, that the relationship between these two was a little more fleshed out than it was.

The story itself is quite to the point and not overly complex, and the worldbuilding, while solid, could have been fleshed out more for my liking. The action scenes are solidly done with enough detail to paint a good picture, but without becoming messy and confusing.

Together with the somewhat open end, it stands to hope that there may be another book in this companion series in the future, for readers who crave more. I'm interested to see what the author comes up with next.

Best Enjoyed at Night by Firelight

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader copy in exchange for a fair and honest review–I had seriously been looking forward to this one and I could not wait. I absolutely loved Adrienne Young’s Sky in the Deep, so when I found out she was writing another in the same universe, I was stoked (to put it mildly).

The Girl the Sea Gave Back takes place 10 years after Sky in the Deep and focuses mainly on two people. The first is Halvard, the next chief in line to rule the Nādhir, the new tribe formed after the events in the previous book. The second is Tova, a young woman and Truthtongue (a type of seer) who washed up on the shores of a rival tribe, the Svell, to live in hostility and isolation outside of the chief’s village and protected only thinly by Jorrund, the Svell’s Tala (priest) and the brusque warrior, Gunther.

When the Svell chief’s brother decides to take it upon himself to enact war against the Nadhir against the wishes of the chief, they decide to ask the gods how to proceed. Hated by the Svell and seen only as a tool of inquiry into the future, Tova is brought in to cast her stones to and help determine what waging this war against the Nādhir would mean for them. Her cast reveals a dark future for the Svell if they decide to continue down this path…and the stones never lie. But will this prophecy be enough to stop the Svell from marching into Nadhir territory?

The book bounces not only jarringly between Halvard and Tova, but also back and forth in time. For roughly half the book, each alternating perspective rehashes what was shown in the last perspective, only from a different angle. Unfortunately, this drag was a huge downfall for the book. Eventually, it gets better and there is a ton of great information, but the best parts come far too late for this reader. There is also a massive cliffhanger that very clearly establishes this book as the first in a series. Given that, it does set a pretty strong precedence for the series itself. Unfortunately, for me, it wasn’t great as a standalone given all of the good stuff was concentrated near the end and although we get the story on Tova’s origins, we are left with massive and overarching questions.

Honestly, I had really been looking forward to this after reading Young’s debut. Although it was a bit of a let-down for me, that does not in any way mean that I will not be strongly anticipating the next book, nor that I do not recommend reading ALL OF HER WORK. Young is a very talented author and has definitely left me with some burning questions and has set us up for what I can only conclude will be a fantastic sequel.

Since she could remember, Tova had always been an outcast. Growing up among the Svell she was shunned and feared for her ability. When an innocent move led her to Halvard, a young man from a rival clan, she never thought it would take her to a path that would change the course of their lives and the people around them.

I liked how Tova’s past was shrouded in secrets and revealed slowly throughout the book. I enjoyed seeing Halvard’s growth but I felt he didn’t reach his full potential. Both of them had individual appeal. However, the connection between them needed to be stronger because it felt a little detached.

One of the most interesting things about this book is how both of them were underdogs with heavy responsibilities. I love reluctant heroes kind of characters and watch them learn to embrace it. I also loved a few secondary characters from both sides.

The Girl the Sea Gave Back is a story of rising up and righting the wrong. It would appeal to readers who enjoy Viking influenced YA Fantasy.