I received an arc of this book by the publisher, via netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are truthful and my own.
I first read Fable as a physical arc many months ago, so I was ecstatic to be offered an e-arc of Namesake, the conclusion to this duology by author Adrienne Young.
Having never read any of Ms. Young’s previous books, I was surprised with how quickly her writing style appealed to me. She’s able to tell her stories in a minimal and simplistic way, while still being able to engage and keep the readers interest. An impressive feat indeed!
With Fable, and now with Namesake, I was quickly pulled into the story. Since Fable ended on a cliffhanger, Namesake picks up right at that point. We’re introduced to new characters like Saint’s (Fable’s Father) former crew mate and best friend Clove, and Holland, the most powerful trader in the Unnamed Sea. We also get to finally understand what Zola wants from Fable and get a brief glimpse of the kind of man he is.
I enjoyed revisiting beloved characters like Saint, and the crew of the Marigold, of course. But what really surprised me, was seeing Koy again! He’s another Jevali dredger and Fable’s arch nemesis (sorta speak), from the first book, Fable.
Namesake was definitely more of an intense book than Fable was - filled with sabotage, betrayals, scheming and treasure hunting.
And let’s not forget about the romantic relationships aboard the Marigold, which adds an emotional depth to these well loved characters. But it was the relationship between Fable and Saint that gave me what I was looking for....the final piece of the puzzle that answers the obvious question of ”why?”, that satisfied my need for understanding.
All in all, Namesake is a beautifully written conclusion, to a story of characters I’ve come to love getting to know. I enjoyed this book so much that my hope is that the Author will revisit this World and one day take us all back to the Narrows for more adventures and mayhem!

This was amazing!
It was everything I had hoped for!❤️
I’m so so satisfied with the ending as well and loved all the characters growth.
I can’t wait for it to be released so I can have both of them in my bookshelf! These covers are just so so Amazing!👌🔥

Fable, the first book in this duology, was one of my favorite reads last year, and I kept my fingers crossed that Namesake wouldn’t let me down. It didn’t.

Again, I have to mention both stunning covers in this series. The designer deserves a commendation. As with Fable, much of this book is also spent on the high seas, and I’m wondering why I haven’t read more books with that setting. I could just imagine the smell of the salt air and feel the wind in my face along with Fable. During the course of this story she’s proven herself a cunning, resourceful survivor several times over, but I have to admit she started to annoy me a bit in this book. The stakes are high, she learns a shocking secret about her family, and is forced into some difficult situations, but comes across as selfish at times and forgets about how her actions affect others. She’s not the only one with something to lose. I was happy to see a couple of characters call her on it and get her to see the bigger picture. West surprised me. He holds his cards close to the vest and has a dark side he’s not proud of, but he has some profound moments of honesty that didn’t come easy for him. Made me like him even more. Saint also has some unanticipated but much needed moments.

I adore Fable’s found family of the crew of the Marigold and was happy to learn more about Paj’s and Auster’s backstory. I also liked the way the author clevered weaved it into the story and turned it into an important part of the plot. A character I didn’t expect to see again makes it back for a quasi-redemption story and turns out to be a nice addition to the crew.

The final scenes are nailbiters and tension-filled. Intricately layered plans are built upon the word of pirates – but can you really trust them? With several surprises that blindsided me, I was worried about how things would play out until the very end. When all was said and done, Namesake is a fitting end for these characters that I’m sad to say goodbye to.

High seas adventure, gem mages, pirates, secrets, backstabbing – this is a thrilling YA fantasy series and one of my favorites I’ve come across recently. I’m now a confirmed pirate fan.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

It became apparent to me while reading this book just how difficult it must be for an author to immerse his/her reader in a world the reader has never been in and likely never will be. @adrienneyoungbooks achieves this beautifully in this book just as well as she did in Fable.

While I read I could feel everything. I could smell the salty air, hear the wooden boards of the trade ship creak as the waves crashed and the wind howled. I felt the intensity of each moment and could imagine Fable digging her fingernails into her palms every time she faced a challenge. I was afraid for her, I encouraged her and was empathetic to the complex feelings she had toward her parents. The dynamic between father and daughter in this book is both heartbreaking and redemptive. The love story between Fable and West is one of shared strength and leadership. Though all the characters are flawed they’re also deeply genuine.

Fable became very real to me as I read and reading Namesake was an incredible adventure.

Bravo.
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4.5/5 ⭐️ - I loved it! Pick this one up March 16!

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

At the end of Fable, the title character thought she had finally gotten what she wanted. She had a boat, a crew that was beginning to become family and growing feelings for West.

But of course Saint’s daughter wasn’t going to go free so easily. Fable quickly finds herself kidnapped and caught up in a plot with new and powerful forces fighting for control of the Narrows. And Fable’s bloodline becomes more important than she ever dreamed.

Oh, Fable. She’s headstrong, tough and willing to take risks and wheel and deal to get the future she wants. She refuses to be the pawn in anyone’s game, even though everyone tries to use her in theirs. She’s willing to risk love - both familial love with Saint and romantic love with West - even knowing how much it can hurt. She’s a character you love to cheer on through the twists and turns of her story.

And then there’s West, who wants to love Fable with his whole heart, even as he struggles with the darkness within and without. He’s the perfect fantasy bad boy turning good again. And his crew finds their bonds tested throughout this book.

The sequel to Fable is thrilling and action-packed, with the twists and turns coming so fast that sometimes it’s hard to keep up. Each new reveal surprised me, and nothing about this book was what I’d thought it would be going in. My only complaint is that I want a third book so I can spend more time with Fable and West.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Namesake brings the duology to a beautiful finish, going into this book you start right where you left of from Fable. Questions were answered, loose ends were tied and yet it still held a few twists along the journey that blew me away. If you enjoyed Fabled or any of Adrienne Young's work, you will definitely enjoy this.

Nakesame was a beautiful finish to a fantastic duology. Not sure where the ending of Fable is leading so the world building and expansion of characters in Namesake is shocking and mesmerizing. The twists and turns that Young folds into the story kept me going until the end.

Namesake not only lived up to my expectations, but blew them out of the water. I really enjoyed getting to learn more about the characters we met in Fable, and also loved the addition of new characters as well. My opinion about some past characters even changed significantly in unexpected ways. Another aspect of this novel that I enjoyed was the continued focus on family whether it’s your blood family or your chosen family. There was definitely a good amount of suspense built up throughout the story, and plenty of adventure and high stakes. If you loved Fable you definitely will not be disappointed by the conclusion to this duology. I even cried some while reading this, but you’ll have to read it yourself to find out whether it was happy or sad tears.

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing me with a digital ARC to review.

After the first book, Fable, this sequel throws you right back in the story after last books' cliffhanger. Although I do prefer the first book, this was still a very good read with a satisfying ending.

With the writing of Adrienne Young it's easy to slip into the adventurous story of Fable, and it was a quick and fun read for me. In this book we also get further introduced to new characters and more relationships to explore. I wish we got a bit more on the relationship development part, and I felt the plot getting a little slower towards the middle of the book, which is why I end up rating this a solid 4 star book. I would definitely read more from this author!

This book was a great sequel to the first. It left me wanting to know more about the other characters in the book and their backstories. Young does a magnificent job at maintaining energy throughout the book while continuing the plot. This second book has everything you want out of a sequel!

Namesake could have benefited from some more pages and I'm not just saying that because I didn't want Fables story to end. In this book we get to dive deeper in Fables family history and her relationship between the crew on board the Marigold and Saint but the bonds didn't feel as strong as they did in the first book. We got introduced to some new characters that really tied the plot together. Fable really came out as a major player in the trading game. As always Young managed to bring the ocean to life and at times made my heart stop with the stakes being raised with every character having their own personal motivations. Not much more was added about Fable being a gem sage but we get to know more about her mother through her relationship between saint and her mother. I am pretty satisfied with the conclusion of this duology. 4/5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Pleasantly surprised by this YA book. I enjoyed it very much and would definitely recommend it for young readers.

I received a copy of this book via Netgalley.

I am sad to say that I really didn't care for it all that much. Book 1 ends on a cliffhanger, and this book picks right up from that point. <i>Fable</i> was a fascinating book, driven by survival. <i>Namesake</i>, sadly, doesn't have the same drive. Instead, it's focused on solving mysteries. Some of them were very easy to solve for anyone with a careful eye for what they read. What was more frustrating though, for a long-time reader of fantasy fiction, was the absolute failure of world-building.

The entire story takes place in a relatively small area--the Unnamed Sea, the trading city Bastian, and the Narrows (a loosely governed waterway). This must be a small portion of the world that Young created, but that's never addressed. Instead, we're left with seeing a small portion of a world that has no interior logic and doesn't attempt to create interior logic. The idea that the sea is called the "Unnamed Sea" indicates that other seas do have names, but we never hear of them. Traders are focused on the gem trade, and movement of staples like grain are rarely addressed. Gems are retrieved from coral reefs. (In reality, gems are mined from earthen mines.) The divers that retrieve these gems are called "delvers," and they can apparently hold their breath for an unrealistic amount of time. (Admittedly, real pearl divers train themselves to do something similar, but that's never mentioned here.) There is magic in this world, but only a little. A small group of people are considered "gem sages"--they can sense and identify the nature of various stones and gems.

I'm happy to read fantasy fiction. I've been reading it for longer than the target audience of this book has been alive. (I'm 44 as of writing this review.) As a long-time reader of fantasy fiction, I expect some kind of internal consistency in the world-building. We readers don't have to see everything. For instance, we don't have to have a detour of an oat farm to recognize that oats exist. But the world that Young presents is so unrealistic that I would have really liked to take a tour of an oat farm if only to recognize that agriculture actually occurred in this world.

I don't think I would have minded these problems so much if this had been packaged as one book. I didn't care all that much about the inconsistent worldbuilding in book 1, in part because I knew there was a book 2, and the story was not complete. The pace of book 1 was so fast that I didn't really question anything. However, having months off between books gave me a chance to think, and this book was not helped by that.

Some readers may enjoy this book, but I don't recommend it for anyone familiar with fantasy worldbuilding.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Adrienne Young could write a 500 page book that is just descriptions of water and I would still thank her profusely for it.

I was obsessed with Fable, and that obsession carries on with a burning passion in Namesake. The conclusion to this sea-faring duology resumes almost immediately after the last cliffhanger. The unclaimed daughter of the biggest gem-trader in the Narrows, Fable is kidnapped by someone who holds that knowledge and intends to use it. First, for her ability as a gem sage dredger by pulling in a huge cache of gems in two days. Second, as leverage in getting his name cleared to trade in Bastian once more. All the while, Fable is struggling with the betrayal of someone she once thought dead, and desperately wondering if her father or the crew of the Marigold and her beloved West are coming to get her ... if they even know where she is.

Without a doubt, this book has solidified for me that Adrienne Young writes beautiful, wonderful stories full of so much heart and adventure. I am always so impressed and fulfilled whenever I finish one of her books, and I've read all four. There is just something so soothing and simple about her writing that makes me look at my own stories and want to toss them out. Every description, every thought and piece of dialogue written shares exactly what the reader needs to know to create a crisp image in their head. The Fable duo is definitely my favourite of her work, and that is because it is an absolute delight from start to finish and so satisfying.

This second book was as swashbuckling and sea-worthy as the first. It is so easy to picture and follow along with, and I had half a mind to throw on the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack while reading. I was surprised by how twisty this story was. Not once did I guess how this would all unfold, and things got steadily bleak for Fable and her crew. Holland, the notorious and ridiculously successful gem trader in Bastian, was an excellent addition to the cast. She is charming and confident and you absolutely love to hate her. Her conniving was the source of most of Fable's pain in this book, as their connection is one that brings up some serious implications. And for a story centred around trading, Holland's grand scheme had some danger to it.

Fable is a character left somewhat adrift by her parents. Her mother died several years ago, and her father abandoned her on that godforsaken island to fend for herself. And when she found him in the first book, he was not kind or proud in the way she'd hoped. The role that both parents played in this story was so touching. She is shaped by both of them, and each had a strong influence on the story that worked really well. And of course, there is the family she found with the Marigold, the love she has with West.

Bring on the next book from Adrienne. My body is ready.

This was a lovely follow up to Fable.

It picks up almost immediately after that book ends, which is appreciated after that cliffhanger. And it ends pretty much perfectly, exactly as I wanted it to end.

I just think this is such a fun little duology that satisfies my need for a pirate tale. I almost want to go start singing some sea shanties now just for the heck of it.

I think if you liked the first book then you will be so very pleased with how this book plays out.

This book was a really good companion/ending to Fable. It answered questions as Fable was left with a cliff hanger.. If you enjoy Fantasy and enjoyed fable you will enjoy this one.

I loved Fable and enjoyed the finale/sequel quite a bit.

Namesake explored Fable’s family a lot more and I think it led to her having to make choices about her future/destiny. I loved how it began and ended and really everything between, but I kind of wished this was a trilogy, which isn’t something I normally say. I feel like so much happened in book two and I would’ve loved to have it stretched out so I could spend more time in the various stages/settings as Fable’s journey led her all around the Narrows.

So much was revealed about Fable and all of it felt so surprising. I loved that characters we kind of didn’t get to see much of in book one made more appearances in book two. Since this is a duology, the best part about those is that you don’t have to wait forever for conclusions, so I’m definitely satisfied at the end of the day with this story and I loved the adventure. I highly recommend this one!

I was ridiculously excited to get a chance to read Namesake, the second half of Adrienne Young’s Fable duology (especially since she left her readers hanging at the end of Fable!), and I’m so, so glad that it met all my expectations! 😀

It is amazingly easy to get caught up and swept away in Young’s writing. I’ve never sailed (let alone on a pirate-like ship), but reading this story made me feel as if I was there (without getting wet or seasick — yay!). And her evocative writing made me almost feel my chest pinch along with her characters as they dredged the depths for gems. Absolutely wonderful!

I’d probably have to give this a PG-13 rating, mostly for some violence and treachery and a bit of not-exactly-chaste romance. But I’d definitely give it five out of five stars for a book I would read again (and maybe even again…)!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the digital ARC of this novel for review purposes. I was not required to give a positive review. All opinions are my very own! 🙂

Unfortunately this one didn't work for me. I think it's possible it was more me and the timing of reading it than the book. I think most readers will enjoy this one as a companion to Fable.

The cover is just as gorgeous as the first one and will be quite captivating during the marketing campaign and bookstagram posts!

Adventure, Excitement, Intrigue. Namesake completes the Fable duology and does not disappoint. Fable is thrust into another adventure on the high seas, where she uncovers some long held secrets.