I just finished Daughter of Water, and honestly—it was fine. The pacing felt a bit slow in parts, and I didn’t always feel super connected to the main character. I kept hoping for a bit more tension or emotional payoff, but it mostly stayed pretty mellow. That said, if you’re into soft, slower-paced fantasy with a dreamy vibe, this could be your thing. This is definitely what I would consider a “cozy fantasy” so if those are your jam, I would give this book a shot. For me personally, I like my characters a bit more toxic 😂

Thank you so much to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC opportunity,

I really enjoyed this book! Super cool world building, a well written fantasy with potential to do more!

ARC Review of Daughter of Water by A.S. Dampt

First, thank you to the authors and publishers at NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC. The premise of Daughter of Water immediately intrigued me—there’s a clear effort toward world-building, and the setting, especially the Verdélian theatre scenes, offers a whimsical and detailed fantasy backdrop.

That said, I struggled with the writing style, particularly the dialogue. Much of it felt overly polished, stiff, and lacking in emotional depth. Characters often spoke in a very formal, overly polite way that didn’t feel natural, even in a fantasy setting. Conversations tended to tell rather than reveal, with characters saying exactly what they meant, leaving little room for subtext, tension, or emotional complexity. As a result, interactions came off as scripted, and I had difficulty connecting with the characters.

Another challenge was that most of the characters spoke in a similar tone, making their voices hard to distinguish. The stakes also felt muted in scenes where I expected more emotional grit or spontaneity.

It’s clear the author put thought into crafting the world and lore, and I think the story will appeal to readers who enjoy elegant, courtly-style fantasy. I was hoping for more narrative friction, layered dialogue, and deeper emotional resonance.

I think the book has a lot of potential, and with some refinement in character voice and dialogue pacing, it could become a standout in its genre.

This book could be marketed towards families with children from 12 years old who would like to read clean and well-mannered fantasy books.

I loved the idea behind the book—a group of four known as the Firstborn that are born every 200 years to rule the land of Verdélys. It's a prompt that has so much potential if done right. Personally, I think the authors did it right. The plot and its progression, the portrayal of the Firstborn—both as individuals and as a group—and the obstacles faced by them while trying to maintain peace in their lands. With this type of context, the book was easily a 4★ read for me.

However, as with any other book, there were things that didn't bode well for me. As many other reviewers have mentioned, the pacing was terribly slow. For me, it was quite slow for most of the book and a bit rushed for the parts where it wasn't required. So much of the plot revolves around Sylvie's day-to-day activities around Verdélys to the point where you'd think you're reading a journal. But when we get to the tension and supposed fight scenes, it goes on for 2 paragraphs and that's it. Not only is there no buildup to such scenes, but the scenes themselves are not written particularly well.

All in all, it was actually a good book. I think I would've enjoyed it more if the pacing was better.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC.

I Really enjoyed this one — it had such a unique blend of fantasy and dystopian vibes without feeling too heavy. The world was super vivid (Verdélys felt like something out of a dream) and I loved the whole elemental royalty concept. Heidi was a really easy character to root for, and I liked watching her figure everything out in this unfamiliar world. The pacing was a bit slow at times, but I didn’t mind it too much because the characters had space to grow, especially Loic and Margot, who were both really intriguing in their own ways.


That said, there were moments where I wanted just a bit more from the story — like some of the emotional parts could’ve hit harder if there was more backstory or internal conflict.  Definitely one to check out if you’re into slower-paced fantasy with a strong focus on identity and found family ( this is a YA).

Thanks to NetGalley for the copy!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.
I researched the authors a bit, and found out one of their purposes in writing this book was to build something that could be shared “without feeling embarassed” - which is why you won’t find explicit scenes of any kind in it. I’m perfectly fine with this: I’m not keen on the recent tendency to advertise a book as fantasy only to sketch a superficial fantasy worldbuilding where characters can do stuff in bed.
I’m also, unfortunately, not keen on generic descriptions and plain characters, and, guess what, action, suspense and plot twists don’t need violence or spice to have impact. They need a good pen behind the words.
This was not the case for this book. When entering the fantastic kingdom the MC comes from, you find nothing’s really different from the rest of the world - except the buildings are pretty, there’s lots of flowers everywhere and people can use elemental magic. A palace made of crystal, magical creatures that are made up and not taken from existing folklore, a menace coming from something different that a good guy turned bad: instead of this or other interesting novelties to the fae tradition (because, let’s face it, Verdèlyans are faes who don’t copulate as one imagines living beings do), Daughter of water is a diluted experience, that tries to please prude parents and give kids and teens something that’s right up their alley, that won’t make them think, object nor mature.
Little tip from a reader who doesn’t know better: roasting and mocking readers’ reviews on social media is kind of cringe.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

The Daughter of Water follows Heidi, one of four firstborn Verdélian children destined to become royalty and learn to lead the people of Verdélys. Heidi has the gift of mind reading and has been living under the impression that she is human. But one day, a stranger named Ancelin arrives at Heidi’s cottage to reveal the truth of her origins and initiate her journey to Verdélys and into her journey as a leader.

I DNF’ed the book at about 13% due to two related factors.

The first factor is the writing style/prose: it’s too blatant and lacks good use of subtext. Every thought, feeling, sensation, and interaction is very blatantly described and leaves little to the imagination. There’s nothing left to the reader’s imagination, there’s no opportunity to read between the lines or explore different interpretations of the text. As a result of not being able to exercise your imagination and use critical thinking skills, the reading experience is dull.

The next factor is secondary to the hyper-literal writing. In addition to lack of subtext, there is also lack of nuance in the characters and their behaviors/dialogue/relationships. Every aspect of every character is so straightforward; there’s no sense of complexity or multiple layers to any of the characters. Heidi herself is also a rather bland protagonist. She lacks strong display of emotion, she lacks a strong sense of agency or personal desire, she lacks a strong sense of direction and aspiration. She feels mostly like a generic, stock protagonist who the plot happens to rather than a protagonist that is actively shaping the plot and triggering the events of the story. Even when this stranger comes to her house to inform her that everything she ever knew was a lie, her reaction, along with her parents, is so lackluster and doesn’t display any sense of depth or complexity in emotion aside from the basic surface-level reaction. When it became clear to me that the protagonist wasn’t going to have strong, memorable characterization, I decided to DNF.

To end things on a positive note, I think the premise of the novel is very interesting, and the opening epilogue sequence had me intrigued. I just wish that the writing and characters were equally intriguing.

I enjoyed the story a lot. I feel like there may have been some plot holes, although I suppose they may be filled in later. However I did have some issues with the writing. There were times when what was happening was extremely written out and detailed, and yet other where it was just "this happened." I feel like having these other things more detailed and written out to match the other scenarios, or finding a balance between the two, would have been really good and made things flow better. There were some time jumps that were done this way, and they felt a bit jarring because, for example, you're reading about the characters traveling and it gives things that happened in the first 3 days, and then it jumps to something else without saying anything about the time spent traveling until after you're already like wait, what happened. Or when one character travels alone, a trip that should take "a moon," and the other characters go about their lives. It details a couple days, and then suddenly the traveling character is knocking on her door. The time jumps like this are plentiful, and i found myself reading it, then having to stop and read back to be like okay did i miss something? I also found that some things gotmore detailed descriptions than other things did, and I found that sometimes info was given where i was like okay I kind of dont care what this guy looks like, and other times I wanted more details. I also felt that there would be other/more questions that Heidi/Sylvie would ask. As an example, the first time ethera is mentioned, she doesnt ask what it is, what that word is. Growing up in the small village she did i feel like she would question way more things than she does. I sometimes thought 'Why did you ask that question and not...?' There were some grammatical errors that I feel like should have been fixed before sending the story out into the world, and even a moment where a character is mentioned as Meredith. Using context clues, you can deduce that they actually meant to say Margot, but maybe her name was Meredith before Margot and they forgot to change it. There are some sentences that just sound weird to put it plainly. For instance, there's a sentence that uses the word "arches" twice. There's one fairly short sentence that uses the characters name three times. Things like that. Some sentences sounded short and clipped, while others felt like run ons. I found myself wishing that things flowed a bit better, with better sentences. Some sentences also dont feel natural. It kind of felt like maybe a first draft. When I read the synopsis, I thought that Heidi and Sylvie might have been different characters, although maybe that was intentional to draw readers in. Th first bit after she went to the palace, I felt like the other Firstborn were kind of one note characters. They weren't, but their personalities that are given in the beginning definitely ring true and seem to be something the Heidi/Sylvie brings up frequently and throughout the book. I felt that Heidi/Sylive's character development had some holes. From the first part of the book, I got the vibe that she's very family oriented, and I find that hard to see in the later part. For instance, it takes until towards the end of the book for her to call Nadine her friend and to treat her like one, and I feel like she would have been more open and want a friend in the palace rather than just a handmaiden. I also felt like not mentioning her parents her Hull ever again until the end was unrealistic. If she loved them so much, wouldn't she have thought about them, perhaps missed them at meals, in a large room with people she barely knows and people serving her and catering to her every while, instead of in their small home, warm and cozy with her family? Would she have missed them at night, when the chaos of a day settled and she was left alone with her own thoughts? I also found her relationship with death was odd. In one scene she condoms two men to their death and is prepared to stand and eatch them die, and in another she's reeling and rendered useless when attacked and someone's death results from what she did. I feel like some difference is normal, it's different seeing someone killed and doing it yourself, but it just felt like she should have handled the second scenario better, or had some sort of feelings in the first scenario. It seemed like she stepped into the role easily and fully on the day of the first trial, but then kind of back tracks and tends to not act as quickly or forcefully. Included in the time jumping was the story overall. The way it seems, she's been at the palace for months, and yet at the end when they leave it's mentioned that two months have passed. It felt so much longer, given the circumstances, actions, and events. While I had a lot of issues with the book, I did enjoy it. I was interested in the story, and as it went on I found myself having more questions than answers. Especially for how people are born! I found it very intriguing and from the first moment it was mentioned I was questioning and looking for more info and answers about it, which did eventually come. The weirdness of the time jumps excluded, the book itself felt like a good length, and the things happened at a good pace. I was compelled to continue reading by the characters and the plot. I really enjoyed how everything came together. I had questions throughout the whole thing, and sometime that I questioned on page 45 would be answered on page 150. Like, I feel like it all matched up well, the lore is good and detailed. I got disappointed at the ending, just in the way you do when you want more before it just stops. I wanted them to get to Hull and see her parents, or maybe just like walk into the house and opening the door is the end. This was when I wondered if Heidi/Sylvie would explain more about the people of Hull to the others. If she doesn't, they have no clue what they're getting into, and at the first sign of anything magical or nefarious they would have been branded witches and burned at the stake probably. So I hope that the beginning of the next book has her explain things to them. The only other thing I had against the book was the naming. The handmaiden name, Nadine, is fairly normal by our standards, but it seems that everyone else has a very Verdalian name, and I feel it makes Margot and Sylvie seem a bit plain in comparison. Regardless of the issues I had, I enjoyed the story itself, and will be reading the sequel. As a side note, I enjoyed the cover of the copy I got from Netgalley, with the pond, better than the one on goodreads with the flowers.

Unfortunately, Daughter of Water was not for me. While the premise is very intriguing, the execution was a bit lackluster, and I found myself bored for a majority of the book. I would be interested in giving A.S. Dampt another try but sadly, this one was not for me.

#daughterofwater #NetGalley

The world building is nice described and unique. You can picture all colors, flowers and love every time Sylvie interacts with water. I also liked how the magic is wielded and the nice connection between female characters. I loved the way the feeling of hope, a double-edged sword, is described and felt by Margot and Nadine.

However, this is not my favourite book and it took me some time to finish it:
1. The book is slow until you reach the 20% of the book. The main issue is the lengthy descriptions that could be voidable. For instance, the first fight training between Sylvie and Loïc takes too many pages as well as the description of the forests, rooms and architecture of the city. Also, many times Sylvie was explained why imps do not wield magic and it became repetitive.
2. I would have sent this book for a second review and make the structure more readable. For example, Heidi's name appears tree times in only 5 sentences. Titles of the chapters give too much information and I knew what was about to happens before starting reading it. Sometimes authors explains things in advance killing all for surprises for the reader.
3. I barely know the characters and I really do not feel the love connections were well developed in this novel.

I will not continue with the series but I felt entertained reading this novel.

This is such an incredibly unique world! I loved the world building. It follows Heidi who is raised by humans and keeps her magical powers secret. One day, she learns she is one of four reincarnated souls destined to lead Verdelys Kingdom. The setting was so cool! The magic system, the politics, the history and lore. It was very well done.

However, the pacing was a bit to slow for me, I struggled to get into this book due to how long it took to get going,

Heidi was a likeable character. Predictable, in that she is good and wants to be good. Yet, she fell a bit flat for me.

Overall, I liked this book! I think the author has a great concept here and I look forward to the next book.

The world building in this title was rich and immersive, and the cover art drew me to request this title. However, the pacing was very slow, and there is a lot of info-dumping. This made it very difficult to want to pick this up and continue reading. It would have benefitted from more showing and less telling the reader. The characters could have also been more developed, and chemistry between the leads fell a little flat. I don't think I'll be picking up any follow up novels.

Can I just say WOW. I couldn’t come up with a better, more fun read than Daughter of Water. It has effortlessly becomes one of my new favourites 🌸
I laughed. I cried. & I was shook.
The story provoked a whirlwind of emotions and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. There is magic, action, self-discovery, loss, friendship, & last but not least, romance (which is subtle and isn’t necessary to be the main focus because of how content heavy the book is, but our patience is rewarded 🧜‍♀️🐉)

Sylvie, our FMC, is the most empathetic & intelligent person in any which room; she is determined and never fails to overcome prejudice & underestimation. And you know what? she has my heart ❤️

The world of the Verdelia is one of wonder and magic…what I wouldn’t give to be apart of it. I loved learning the lore of their world and the intricacies of Sylvie mastering her talents. I loved the diversity in each characters personalities and how they are all different but end up complementing each other and making the perfect quad.

The fact that it ended on a cliff-hanger is rude, but it can be rectified by releasing the next book 😊 hehe

As the first book in a fantasy series, Daughter of Water introduces a new world with new lore. The FMC, Heidi, was raised by humans in a small village, but learns of her real identity - she's not human but Verdélia, a magical race strongly connected to plantlife. Whilst learning how to navigate this new life, she must also assume a position of leadership and royalty, as she comes to learn she is one of the four Firstborn who rule over the country.
The characters are likeable, and I enjoy that Heidi, although in a strange new world, still feels she is able to stand up for what she thinks, and gets a little bit sassy when it was necessary. The French influence throughout was interesting and felt unique to other stories I've read.
With this being the first book, I did expect lots of world building, particularly with how the readers learn the world alongside the FMC. However, I did feel as though most of the book was purely world building and understanding the lore. While I'm sure there is more action and plot progression in the next books, I think I would have preferred something to have happened earlier in the first book. I did also feel as though the end was quite abrupt - no big cliffhanger, but no solid endpoint either.

I'll be looking out for the next in the series - Thank you to A. S. Dampt and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book!

The book has a lot of potential and the story line was really good. But the storyline was not as fast as expected, and therefor a lot of questions about the world where the storyline is in are still there. This book didn't hooked me on as many others do, while reading I was fast distracted, which is a shame.

The world has a lot of different magical aspects, with creatures which were fictional, this is always nice. At this way we get to know more of the world. But the slow pace (again) has withheld me to really get to now the creatures and the other people in the book. At the beginning I thought there would be more on the four firstborns but the story mainly focusses on one, or the development. Maybe it is because of the next book and in there we will see more development of the others?

Although i' somewhat critical about this book, I really wanna now the rest of the story thus will also definitely read book 2!

Thank you for the ARC!

There were some truly standout moments in the story! The world-building was imaginative, and the intricate political landscape really drew me in. When Heidi steps into Verdélys, she’s clueless about both the world around her and her own identity, making her journey of self-discovery feel genuine and relatable. I found her curiosity and exploration of the Firstborns and their incredible powers, like mind reading, really fascinating.

However, I did struggle to get through parts of the book. It sometimes felt too lengthy and not always engaging enough. A lot of chapters were dedicated to Heidi’s academic experiences or the Firstborns attending opera performances, which slowed the pace down considerably. By the time I was about a third through, only her move to Verdélys felt like a significant development. I really wished we could have explored the other Firstborns more alongside Heidi instead of only focusing on her studies. Because of that, I had a hard time connecting with her, and the other characters seemed more like tools for the plot rather than real people we could invest in. Plus, the climax just didn’t deliver the suspense I was hoping for, leaving me a bit underwhelmed.
Overall I did enjoy the writing and the story, I just think it needed to be a bit more concise!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Unfortunately a DNF @ 20%.

The world building seemed really interesting and held a lot of potential but unfortunately the pacing was a little slow for me and the overall feel was just a little too young. Don't shy away if you don’t mind some time investment to build a really cool world! It just wasn’t for me.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for giving me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I overall thought that this book was ok, the magic was interesting, but I didn't really connect with the characters. The middle of the book had a lot of background information, but none of it was really plot relevant leading the ending to feel very rushed and sudden. Not sure if I will continue with this series or not.

This book was a solid 3.5 stars. I loved Hedis (later known as Sylvia’s) journey to uncover her identity. This book is the story of a girl who has lived and been raised by humans and whilst hiding her magical gifts. She soon descovers she is one of four heirs to a mysterious kingdom she only believed to be a fable. The best part of this book is the immersive worldbuilding and the world of Verdelys is explored in depth with unique and amazing powers and creatures. I would only say that the pacing of this book was a little slow, I felt some aspects didn’t need to be drawn out - the walking and walking and some of Hedis training lessons. I think Heidis personality and character development could have been explored more if less time was spent on her day to day lessons etc.

I LOVED this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The book starts with the FMC Heidi and how she is going about her day to day life until an unexpected visitor arrives and she gets thrown into a world she didn’t think existed!

The pacing and details of her story and how her life changes is just perfect,
The world building is amazing, doesn’t feel rushed and you really get a sense of how the world works. The magic system is unique and interesting.
I enjoyed the relationship between the main characters and how their relationships evolved. The time was taken to delve into each relationship which is refreshing.

I can’t wait for the next book! Would highly recommend to read if you are wanting more of a high fantasy style read.