This was obviously slow for me. It's FAR too academic, told through an older style, Victorian feeling English. The conclusion of what happened to E and Henry was intriguing but also confusing. The 2 spend the first half of the book dancing around each other's affection constantly doubting that one would truly care for the other. Which was cute and awkward while they figure out what each wants from their relationship in person. They grew together and that was great to see. However I kind of wish the story had only focused on them. But that wouldn't be true to the first book. I found the struggle of reuniting with the group lead by Sophie and Vyren, and the record keeping by the Scholars of Sanctuary tedious. It was a lot of back and forth, not fully explained ideas, and half-explained science.

The interactions with the "Illogical Ones" were mysterious in an omnipotent way, and were much more helpful in the end than the "Scholars" of Sanctuary. The final conflict gave me Reaper vibes from Mass Effect but less insidious.

An absolutely delightful conclusion to the Sunken Archives duology! Gorgeous storytelling paired with an immersive underwater setting, Sylvie Cathrall has done it again. I so enjoyed the complexity of the dual timelines and I find that I'm left with an ending that is equal parts satisfying and mysterious. A beautiful conclusion to a beautiful story, I truly couldn't have asked for better!

Sometimes I wonder if Sylvie Cathrall and I would make really good friends just because she describes ideas that I have only ever had in my head and experiences that I have never found the right words to say. As someone who has OCD, I appreciate the way E. describes her experience because it can be mentally burdensome to constantly have to fight with your own thoughts. I think A Letter from the Lonesome Shore was the perfect book for me and I could not ask for a better book.

I absolutely adore the setting of this world. I loved that we had characters who were lovable paired with them having struggles that they had to help one another through. I really appreciate our main characters having real and hard to combat anxiety and other mental health issues. This portrayal felt authentic as did the help that the characters got from one another.

I did also love how magical and whimsical the setting was. Getting to experience and underwater world was fantastic. I enjoyed that there was an academic side to this story. This felt like it allowed us to explore this underwater world in new ways.

While this was a fun book, I did find that I preferred the first one. It was hard to root for our characters when the main finale felt short and just didn't feel like the ending we needed for this book.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the author for a copy of this lovely book!

This universe is so interesting and I adore our main characters. While this sequel didn't quite capture me as much as the first book, I still really enjoyed the journey and I liked the imperfect resolution.

I think the only real issue I had was the inclusion of some plot that the author still tried to write in the whimsical letter style and it fell a bit short. It would've been better for the book to be a blend of traditional writing plus the letters. Still absolutely worth the read!

I absolutely loved book one with my ENTIRE being but this fell a little short for me. I still very much enjoyed it but it felt that there was too much plot and not much character development

A delightful followup and conclusion to this duology, I forced myself to really savor and slowly read this book. I loved this work, and can't wait for more folks to get introduced to Cathralls work and also to the world she has built.

I love the concept but it just did not deliver for me quite how I wanted it to. I enjoyed the style it is written in but also sometimes just was over it. I know it sounds like I didn’t enjoy it but I was just expecting for a five star read. With that said I did enjoy it. The romance was sweet. The world building is like no other. And honestly this is the true definition of a cozy read.

A Letter from the Lonesome Shore is the second book in The Sunken Archives duology by Sylvie Cathrall. The events in this book pick up right where the first book left off. If you haven't read the first book (see my review of A Letter to the Luminous Deep here), then go do that before you read this review. It will be impossible to avoid spoilers for the first book while discussing the second book. So, go read the book first unless you like spoilers, then read on!

At the end of A Letter to the Luminous Deep, E. and Henerey managed to go through the Entry in the Deep House's undergarden using a small depth craft. To be fair, they didn't mean to go through it. It was a complete surprise to them to find themselves in a totally new place and in unfamiliar waters. Before long, they are rescued by the inhabitants of this new place. At first, they are both somewhat excited to find these new people, but before long they become frustrated with their new situation due to a lack of information and the new scholars' extreme unwillingness to provide it.

As the reader, I shared in E. and Henerey's frustration. First of all, they aren't allowed to learn anything about where they are or who the people are. The scholars in this new place fear knowledge. There is something dangerous about increasing their knowledge, and they refuse to share the source of this danger with E. and Henerey. Naturally, that means the reader doesn't know what it is until E. and Henerey know. The answer to this conundrum takes roughly 75% of the book to be resolved.

This negatively affected the pacing of the book, in my opinion. I had to take a break from it for a few weeks because I kept getting tired of the back and forth of "oh it's dangerous, but we can't tell you why for your own safety" between these new scholars and the main characters. It was a welcome break when the story transitioned to the perspective of Sophy and Vyerin on their voyages to find another Entry.

This was one of my favorite parts of the book because it meant something was finally happening. Plus, I really enjoyed the friendship that Sophy and Vyerin forged in the first book, and I'm happy to report it continues in this one. I also really enjoyed that all the characters had some extra growth in this book. Henerey had some new anxiety issues with being in dept crafts that E.'s long experience with such feelings meant she could help him cope.

I felt like this really helped E.'s confidence, and it made certain events later in the book all the more frustrating. E. is a grown woman. Just because she has a "malady of the mind" does not mean she can't make her own decisions or have her own thoughts. So, during a certain part of the last quarter of the book when everyone is ignoring her, I became frustrated on E.'s behalf. However, I still have to say this means the writing was well-done. I felt what E. must have been feeling in that situation.

Now, one other thing that bothered me about this book was the big twist of what the danger turned out to be. I won't spoil it here, but suffice it to say, the ending and the danger felt unresolved and abrupt. I can see that the author was trying to do a tricky blend of fantasy and sci-fi elements, but I'm not sure it totally worked. Overall, I enjoyed the first book more than the second book, but A Letter from the Lonesome Shore was still a mostly enjoyable read.

I gave A Letter from the Lonesome Shore by Sylvie Cathrall three out of five stars. Unfortunately, the biggest reason for a lower rating was the pacing in the first half of the book. It was slow and frustrating to read. Additionally, I did not feel like the ending resolved anything. On the other hand, I really enjoyed one of the new characters and the characterization and character growth in this book. I would still recommend this duology to anyone looking for a fantasy with sweet romance in an epistolary style.

This is a delightful follow-up to A Letter to the Luminous Deep, and a fairly satisfying conclusion to the duology. E. and Henerey find themselves in a mysterious underwater city inhabited by Scholars, and must adjust to a new life as they hope to return home. Meanwhile, Sophy and Vyerin embark on their own expedition to rescue their lost siblings.

This is a bit less epistolary in form than book one, as most of the characters find themselves in close proximity to each other. Instead, the book is framed as more of a “document exchange” between two new characters, and the text is made up mainly of journal entries and unsent letters. While this framing did make the story a bit confusing at first (I had no idea if I was supposed to remember the new characters from the first book), everything unfolds in a manner that makes sense and I don’t think it changed much about how the story was told.

I liked how the world was expanded, although I found some of the world-building and history a bit hard to grasp. E. and Henerey’s romance is utterly charming, and at times I found myself surprised by some of the unexpected humor. The ending to me was slightly unsatisfying, but I suppose it was fitting for the characters.

I can’t wait to see what Sylvie Cathrall writes next!

dnf'd at 11%. honestly idk how i made it through the first book of this, but the writing is SO long and unnecessary. It's like the author is getting paid by the word rather than actually moving the story along.

A Letter from the Lonesome Shore is book 2 in the Sunken Archives duology. If you've read A Letter from the Luminous Deep and loved it, go ahead and jump into the continuation! If not, but you like atmospheric, slow builds of complex worlds and characters and mysteries, start there!

3.25

I had a surprisingly good time with Cathrall’s debut A Letter to the Luminous Deep when I read it earlier this year. I remember thinking that the conclusion to the duology might fix some of my critiques of the book, especially if I read it with my eyes rather than via audio, but unfortunately I did not find that to be the case. I still really struggled keeping the characters and their various plot threads straight even though I read this sequel with my eyes. Though that may be due to the increase in character perspectives here while still maintaining the epistolary format. I also think the epistolary format slowed the pacing down way too much in this one, which made it hard for me to focus enough to buy into and care about the plot. While I liked the characters, I’d often finish a section and stop because as the reader it was just really hard to tell where we were going with the story and why I should care about it.

I did really like the queernormative world and the focus on different types of love. Two of our main characters read to me at least as somewhere on the asexual spectrum and I am forever looking for more good ace representation in fiction. I also love the focus on E’s anxiety disorder and other mental health representations. Which honestly just makes me more mad that I didn’t love this.

All that to say, I think this is an interesting concept, but I definitely think it would have worked better for me as a single book and not as a duology.

A great sequel that really built upon the events of the first book! With the first book ending in such a cliffhanger, I was so excited to see what was up with the civilization Henerey and E. discovered, as well as what Sophy and Vyerin were going to do to get their siblings back. In some ways, I think that the epistolary format of this series worked against itself in the second book. There's a lot of descriptions that I wish I would've gotten that just didn't make sense to put into letters. This led to me feeling just a little disconnected from the plot. However, I love the formal way everyone speaks and writes: it made me feel like I was reading an Austen novel set in a fantasy world. I was very satisfied by the bittersweet ending that wrapped everything up very well, and I look forward to Cathrall's next book!

I was so happy to received an ARC for this book. I loved the first book in this duology, so I was really excited to be along for the ride for the conclusion!

While I didn't connect well with E. or Henerey, I adored them together. They balanced each other out in this really beautiful way that gave them life and excitement, while being a calming presence for each other. I also really loved having their families be included in the narrative.

The format of the narration can take a little getting used to, but I actually really love that both books in the series were narrated by letters. I think that lent itself really well to not only E. and Henerey, but it gave a really nice pacing to answering the questions from the first book,

I think this is a wonderful book for people that are looking for a fantasy/sci-fi that has a teeny bit of romance and is very, very cozy.

If you have read A Letter to the Luminous Deep beforehand, which I presume you have, than you were just as eager to see what had become of E. and Henerey! I thoroughly enjoyed this story and getting to see how the characters developed from the first one to now. I also appreciate such detailed and descriptive writing because I need to be able to envision what is going on and Sylvie did just that! This is a whimsical, thrilling journey through an oceanic fantasy world that you won't want to miss! If you were fans of Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries, this may be just up your alley. Definitely would recommend, and with the ending, I am hoping there is more to come!

I really enjoyed the first book. This book took a bit of a weird turn and I had a very hard time engaging with it. The first half was good and comparable to the first book but the second half was hard for me to stay interested. Was nice to see how E and Henerey’s relationship develop more.

Sophy & Vyerin have come together to search for their missing siblings. While E & Henery are acclimating to the new world they find themselves in. All of them will need to work together in the face of a threat to their entire world.

A fantastic conclusion to this duology! All of the characters I loved from one return, and we get amazing depth to them. And we get a few new characters too, although this did result in a few too many characters sometimes. Really getting to know E, and seeing her anxiety and her intrusive thoughts was so validating. I could see myself so clearly in her catastrophizing, and seeing Henery still love her and respect her was wonderful. Which resulted in a really lovely ace romance.

I was really curious on how this duology would get resolved, and I really wasn’t expecting a world ending threat. I kept guessing how that would play out, and the ending really surprised me.

A small downside of the epistolary style is that the pacing was a little slow at times and a little info dump heavy occasionally, but still a fantastic read.

My thanks to both NetGalley and Orbit Books for this arc.

I thought I’d give this series another shot just because the first book had me intrigued and I’m glad I came back. It was nice hearing familiar voices and connecting with the characters. Thanks.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for the chance to read and review.

I’ve been looking forward to A Letter from the Lonesome Shore since I read A Letter to the Luminous Deep as an ARC. Unfortunately it just didn’t hit for me as well as the first one did.

A Letter from the Lonesome Shore picks up after the first one with Sophy and Vyerin searching for an entry to find Henerey and E. Once they find them, they find out that they are in far more danger than they ever thought possible.

A Letter from the Lonesome Shore had a great ending to this duology, but it had a serious pacing issue. Cozy fantasy in general is a slower paced read, which I was expecting, however this read felt almost too slow. The first 80% of the book seemed to drag, and then the ending felt almost rushed to a conclusion. There was such a buildup to the return of the predator and then it was over and done in a handful of pages. It also felt like the ending left some loose strings that didn’t wrap up which was disappointing. I loved the ending for Henerey and E., but the rest of it felt ambiguous. I think this book could’ve been better if 100 pages were cut and the ending for the other characters a little more fleshed out.

Overall I gave A Letter from the Lonesome Shore 2.75⭐️ rounded up to 3