Loved this dive back into the Sky in the Deep world! New and old characters give this book such a refreshing, yet nostalgic feel. The writing was so action filled I could barely put this one down. Any time I had a spare minute I was turning pages! Highly recommended if you enjoyed Sky in the Deep, and if you didn’t then give this one a try anyways!

Depois que comecei a ler este livro, foi difícil não resistir a vontade de deixá-lo de lado porque eu não estava gostando do que estava lendo, e os personagens também não ajudavam. Durante boa parte do livro nada significativo acontecia para prender a minha atenção.
O ponto de vista da Tova é o mais interessante, claro, pois o livro é sobre ela. Mas quase não acontecia algo que fizesse com que eu gostasse ou sentisse simpatia por ela (no final, eu acabei criando um pouco de simpatia) durante a leitura, deixando a história cozinhando em banho-maria e nunca chegando ao ponto. A caracterização da personagem é muito boa, porém para por ai. Quando vamos ter um vislumbre de uma nova Tova, o livro acaba. Ainda tô procurando e descobrindo o que sentir por Halvard - não é um personagem ruim, no entanto, não é AQUELE personagem que te deixa, sei la, com os olhos brilhando(?) por ele ser um peça chave para o livro.
O livro não é ruim, porém faltaram muitas coisas que fizessem eu gostar dele e dizer "por favor, leiam esse livro!"

The Girl the Sea Gave Back takes place ten years after the end of Sky in the Deep and most of the characters from the first book make an appearance in this one, so it's a sequel and not a companion novel as I initially thought. Although if you read this first you can skip reading the first one because they are the Exact. Same. Book. A good chunk of the story involves recapping the events of the first book and the rest is a rehash of bland and interchangeable characters, fight scenes and minimal to non-existent predictable plot. Besides it takes the concept of insta-love to a whole other level and I can't believe that, once again, all the MC's close family and friends survive while all around them the rest of their clans are dropping like flies.

I was not Sky in the Deep's biggest fan but still I was entertained and minimally invested. Here I couldn't care less. Major dissapointment :(

1.5/5

Set 10 years after the events of Sky in the Deep, the combined clan Aska, and the Riki, the Nādhir, and the Svell continue their ragged peace. Spurned by the cast of the runes, the truce is broken and the two sides seem thrust towards war. But two young people must do everything in the power to try to stop the bloodshed.

Tova is a Kyrr soothsayer who has been cautiously adopted into the Svell clan. Her mentor, Jorrund, found her on a beach when she was six.. The ways of the runes come back to her and she remembers how to thrown the bones and predict the future. Jorrund sees the use of this practice, but the rest of the clan see her as some sort of witch to be feared.

Halvard whom you may remember from Sky in the Deep (yes, Eelyn does make a small cameo in this book) is picked to be the next leader of the Nādhir. He is very reluctant to take on this role because he doesn’t think he is ready nor able to lead the men into war.

This book is everything you could want from a Viking story. The conflicts of the clans, forbidden attraction, and the ax and bow battles in the dark forests. The pacing is perfect as the story shifts back and forth between Halvard and Tova with a couple shifts back in time to help with the backstory. It may not be necessary to have read Sky in the Deep, but it helped to have read it to understand the culture that these people are living in. The gods, the blood feuds, and the rites of war.

Frankly, I loved this book. It had the feels, the right touch of internal vs external struggles that brought me close to these characters. And the reveals were placed so well that I kept on reading and reading to find out how these peoples would end up.

An amazing novel that could fit into any genre: coming of age, realistic battle scenes, and family drama. I was captivated. An escape that touches you.

5 out of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for an advanced copy for review.

I am pretty disappointed with this read. I really liked The Sky in the Deep so I was looking forward to reading this one for quite a while. Unfortunately I didn't care for this one nearly as much. This book was confusing and slow from the get-go and it didn't get that much better. There were some battle scenes and a few interesting scenes as well, but overall I just didn't care about the characters or what was going to happen. And the "romance" was pretty non-existent.

I truly enjoyed this book. I didnt love it like I loved Sky in the Deep but still liked it. It just felt like it was lacking something.

Disclaimer: I was given an advance reading copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Wednesday Books for the opportunity.

When I found out that my wish to receive an e-ARC of this book was granted, I couldn't help but gush over it. I haven't read Adrienne Young's debut novel (Sky in the Deep) yet, but I know the hype that surrounded it.

All I know was this book was a standalone and is still connected to the world in Sky in the Deep. And maybe that's why it felt short for me. I couldn't connect and relate to the characters. I had an on and off relationship with them, but that doesn't mean the plot was at stake.

The plot was intriguing and the writing style was good. However, it didn't really glue me to the book that well. Maybe it would've helped if I read Sky in the Deep before reading this. But maybe it's just not my cup of tea.

nevertheless, I'd still be happy to read Adrienne Young's future works, Who knows? Maybe after reading her debut novel, I'll give this book another chance and end up liking it.

Please do grab a copy of the book when it comes out.

First of all, this cover is beautiful. I was so excited to get the ARC since Sky in the Deep was a great story. This book was such an amazing story and I didn't connect with the characters as much as I would have liked, but I didn't think that took anything away from the story.

Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I haven’t read any of Adrienne’s books before, but even still II had high expectations for this one due to the popularity surrounding it as well as Adrienne, 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 exactly clear.

There are two main characters from rival clans: Tova, who comes from another clan and is hated in the clan she is now because she is a fortune teller and they basically fear the use of fortune tellers and hate it; and Halvard, someone from the Rikki clan who I hear is from the previous book who is now all an adult.

They find themselves in the middle of a war between their clans but they also refuse to kill each other because there is something going on between them. Tolva felt it more than Halvard did, certainly, but by the time things progressed it fell flat. So basically nothing happened there.

I truly did want to love this book and I’m sad that it wasn’t for me, though I’m sure many out there will love it!

Opening line:
""Give me the child.""

Tova is a special person marked as a sort of 'seer' in the world she lives in. She rolls the 'stones' and tells the fate of those who ask her to roll them.
Halvard is from another tribe or clan who becomes the chieftain within minutes of a devastating battle.
Both Tova and Halvard blame Tova for the deaths that happen. How can they right the wrongs? How can they both escape death? Why do they need the stupid stones (that was my interjection).
The opening chapter was intense and I couldn't wait to read more about this child and her people. But I didn't get to meet her people until later, and that was a little underwhelming.
The whole, overall story was intriguing and written with beautiful words and sentences. But those words and sentences didn't always flow together in a readable story, or one that kept my attention. I skimmed almost the whole middle of the story. Then the ending came and uh, ended.
I'll still try another one of Ms. Young's books.
Thanks to netgalley for the early read.

The Girl The Sea Gave Back is a standalone novel set in the world introduced in Sky In The Deep. The story follows the character Halvard 10 years later. The reader is introduced to the character Tova, a Truthtongue stranded in a land not her own. Halvard’s
and Tova’s path intertwines and we revisit familiar characters from Sky in The Deep along the way. War is imminent again in this beautiful but brutal world.

I enjoyed this solid standalone story; there was a good balance in the revisiting of old characters and the introduction of new characters to connect with, as they battle for their lives and a new future.

3.75 STARS
To some extent, this book has some awesome elements, but under other aspects The Girl the Sea Gave Back lacks of something compared to the greatness of Sky in the Deep (which I absolutely love and adore).

PRO:
* I love that Adrienne writes her books based on the Northern world. It's not something common and I love that the story is full of ancient mystical elements and legends.
* The story is very interesting: Tova, the protagonist, is a Truthtongue that lives with the Svell, the people that found her as a baby but that are hostile to her and keep her alive just to use her gifts. When war breaks out, following one of her stones castings, she has to decide if loyalty or betrayal is the right answer for her and all the people of the mainland.
* The story contains its fair share of political intrigues, and everybody knows I love them.
* I've really appreciated that romance is not the focus of the story, but themes like family, loyalty, religion, and war are very much present.
* In the book, we find Fiske and Eelyn again (fangirling moment). Do I have to add more?

CONS:
* I think the story could have been built better, at some point it felt like it was dragging and I couldn't find its purpose. Moreover, this novel lacks the amazing word-building that we had in Sky in the Deep, so I still feel like I absolutely don't know anything about the setting of the story (I know this is a Sky in the Deep companion novel, but it can also be read as a stand-alone, so the world-building is necessary). It's not a very long book, and I firmly believe that if Young had written just about 10/20 more pages throughout the book with a little bit more of descriptions on the setting, populations and historical context, my rating of this novel would have been much higher.
* I liked the characters, but they are not characterized as much as they could have been. At the beginning, it felt like they were thrown in the book without purpose, I didn't know who they were and why they were there. Throughout the book, there are some flashbacks that help us but, at the beginning, it is all very confusing. Moreover, the two protagonists meet after too much time and their relationship is not explored much, they're basically two strangers until the last 20 pages of the book.

All in all, I like Adrienne Young's writing really much and even though Sky in the Deep is a much better book entirely, I think The Girl the Sea Gave Back deserves to be read.

This was so good much better than i thought it would be i cant wait to pick it for book of the month so i can annotate all my favorite parts

(Goodreads review) I would like to thank Adrienne Young, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for the ARC edition of The Girl The Sea Gave Back to read in exchange for an honest review of the book:)

Another gripping story found in one of my favorite fantasy worlds. If I was to ever travel inside a book, it would be here into this world among the Nādhir.

This story is told from two points-of-views. The main characters, Tova and Halvard, tell their stories in alternating chapters. We already know Halvard from Sky in the Deep, but in The Girl The Sea Gave Back Halvard is older. Ten years have passed since Eelyn's story and now Halvard lived among the Nādhir.

There are many layers to this story, but in the end, this is a story about a conflict between clans. How the conflict is initiated, validated, and executed weigh heavily on one of the main characters. But because there are so many layers involving the characters and their backstory, it was easy to get distracted or pulled from the main story.

Beside the narration and dialect, the imagery of this harsh and primal world where technology is absent and there's a weapon next to every bed is well described. The clothing of the people, the weapons they use, their homes, and even their clan ranks are all appropriately described for the world Adrienne created.

The climax scene was exciting and movie worthy, and Adrienne Young did an amazing job with her description of the battle between blank and blank. (Not going to spoil it!) I felt right there in the middle of it all and the emotions that both Tova and Halvard felt were present in every swing and stretch of the bow.

I recommend reading Sky in the Deep prior to The Girl The Sea Gave Back mainly because of the time frames, but the order of which book you read isn't written in the stones.

For more, read my full review:

When I saw that Adrienne Young was publishing another book, I was ecstatic. I really enjoyed her debut novel, Sky in the Deep, which you can find my review for here: http://sarahjuneblog.com/sky-in-the-deep-book-review/.

The Girl the Sea Gave Back was written in the same style, switching between perspectives, and that is always something that makes a book more interesting.

The characters are interesting, the action is enticing, and this story makes you want to continue reading until you are on the very last page, and suddenly the story has come to an end.

I can't wait to see what Adrienne publishes next!

I started this book with high expectations. I loved Sky in the Deep, and I was excited for the companion novel. However, I was a little disappointed with The Girl the Sea Gave Back. I hate to compare both books, but this one seemed lacking. The first few chapters were a little hard to follow, and the very little world building left me feeling a little disconnected. I thought I was missing a chapter in-between the two novels to help bridge them together.

I didn't feel a strong connection with the main characters, and with the constant battle preparations, I couldn't get a good scope of Halvard and Tova's personalities. Once the plot started to get underway, it was easier to follow along. But I ultimately felt like underwhelmed through the book. I loved Adrienne Young's writing in The Sky in the Deep, but it didn't translate very well for me in her second novel.

after having just finished the author's first book, which paints events 12 years before the events in the girl the sea gave back, i can easily say that sky in the deep was better. i normally wouldn't compare the two books, but since one is technically considered a sequel to the other, i kind of feel inclined to. i began this book hoping that it would be enough of a stand-alone to read without having read sky in the deep, but i found that to not be true, so if you haven't read sky in the deep, i think you're going to be very confused. read that book first and then i think you can come to appreciate aspects of this novel. i think that's why i liked it, even though it wasn't the best.

it was just messy in my opinion compared to book one. i liked having one single point of view in book one and that isn't the case for the girl the sea gave back. you get halvard and tova's points of view and while i did enjoy being inside both characters heads from the perspective of someone who liked both characters, i don't think it fit the story. furthermore, there were additional flashback chapters that gave insight into past events. those definitely didn't fit with the rest of the story and i feel like they could have been incorporated into chapters that took place in the current timeline. it took me out of the story completely.

what worked for me was basically just halvard. i loved him in sky in the deep and i wanted to love this book just because of him solely. did i find tova's story interesting? yes, but i didn't feel any major attachment to her. she seemed to fall flat. in some ways, so did halvard when you look at his characterization from the first book to this one. i think in a lot of ways, this novel wasn't fleshed out like it could have been. i know that the author was probably trying to go for a shorter book like the first one was, but there just felt like so much was missing.

First, thank you SO much to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for granting me an ARC of this book! I'm definitely very grateful for the chance to read it! And isn't the cover a work of magic? 😍

Just like the cover hints, The Girl the Sea Gave Back is a wild, lush read set in a world inspired by ancient Scandinavia with clans similar to the Viking clans we know about today. I thought Adrienne portrayed the setting perfectly, with the right amount of detail and evocative language. I think I can imagine the wind brushing across my skin and the thickets and the tension in the air. Isn't imagination paired with gorgeous prose a wonder?

I've marked out so many quotes here because they're all just so stunningly beautiful and just appropriate for this book.

The story is set in a tense moment between two clans, the Nadhir and the Svell, who are teetering on the brink of war. Our mysterious MC, a truth-teller named Tova, is called upon by the Svell to cast the runes to predict the future. However, the future is more complicated than that....Since it's an ARC, that's all I'll say ;)

It sounds incredibly fascinating and it is. Adrienne does a fantastic job exploring the theme of fate and destiny and how we handle it. Can we change fate or does our very act of trying to prevent it strengthens that end? Or is it possible that our very knowing of the future will change it? What changes the future? Is it the big things we decide on or the little things we don't even give a second thought to?

That being said, I must admit that the first one-third of the book was a bit of a struggle to get through. I suspect that it's entirely possible ebooks and I aren't quite compatible, but at the same time the story didn't hook me as much as I'd hoped. Another thing that contributed to me having to restart at one point was the amount of names here. It felt a bit like "character soup" because I kept getting confused on who was who. Luckily, though, my admiration of the writing and my fascination with the leads, mainly Tova, kept me going! And once the initial hurdle got past...oh, I finished it (quickly) in one sitting.

One other small issue I had is with the almost nonexistent romance. To me, it felt like the attraction of people who know their fates are entwined, not necessarily actual romantic attraction. The romance seemed to pop out of nowhere and I wasn't a particular fan. It's entirely possible I just missed all the hints (like I said, two-thirds flew past and I don't pick up on subtle cues easily). But! I wish the signs were more obvious other than a more platonic attraction. I only guessed it would be romantic because two leads falling in love is something that happens most of the time.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed it! If you don't mind a slow development (in the beginning!) and if you love lyrical prose lush with atmospheric details, The Girl the Sea Gave Back is a book for you. Oh, in the meantime, you bet I'll be snatching up Sky in the Deep.

I really enjoyed this story. It's well-researched and fascinating.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

Definitely enjoyed this one more than Sky in the Deep.

Another Norse tale from Adrienne Young and it begins with the funeral ceremony of a young girl child who is given to the sea- believed dead and given over to the Fates. Miles away, a Svell man comes upon the young child and takes her back to his village. They recognize her tattoos and use her as a Kyrr "Truthtongue." As Tova grows, the villagers fear what the gods might be playing at and what it means for their survival. Meanwhile, a warrior and chief in training named Halvard and his tribe grow closer to war. Both Tova and Halvard tell the tale and their various flashbacks that fill in their backstories.

I definitely enjoyed the buildup and revelations more in this book and the cinematic scope of the battle scenes definitely kept me invested. Although their is attraction between Tova and Halvard, I am so glad that it didn't descend into a mere YA love story. I look forward to the next installment. I have nominated this book for breathtaking cover of 2019.


Goodreads review published 25/08/19
Publication Date 03/09/19

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for a digital galley in exchange for an honest review.