Song of the Current by Sarah Tolcser – Spoiler Free Review

Title: Song of the Current
Author: Sarah Tolcser
Series Name: Song of the Current
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publication Date: June 6th, 2017
Pages: 372 (Paperback)
Publishers: Bloomsbury
Rating:

Caroline Oresteia has always been destined for the river. Her father is a wherryman, as was her grandmother. All Caro needs is for the river god to whisper her name, and her fate is sealed. But at seventeen, Caro may be too late.

So when pirates burn ships and her father is arrested, Caro volunteers to transport a dangerous cargo in exchange for his release. Secretly, Caro hopes that by piloting her own wherry, the river god will finally speak her name.

But when the cargo becomes more than Caro expected, she finds herself caught in a web of politics and lies. With much more than her father’s life at stake, Caro must choose between the future she knows, and the one she never could have imagined.

This was the book that came in the June The YA Chronicles box and I’m so glad that it did as I haven’t seen this book anywhere so I probably never would have seen it or purchased it and I would have missed out on this amazing book!

I really like the cover of this book! I love the swirl design on the front and the ship with the moon behind it are gorgeous! I don’t like that the ship on the cover doesn’t resemble either the Cormorant or Vix especially seen as there are images of both boats on the page of the map. I also like the vibrant blue of the cover, the image above doesn’t show the proper colouring of the book.

I really enjoy the writing of this book! Especially considering this is a debut author! The writing was beautiful and flowed really well. The pacing was also really good in this book, there were a few slower parts but they worked well, overall the book was fairly fast paced though! I love that there were very unique names of people, places, and boats in this book and even though they were a little hard to read the first time, once you spelled them out they were fairly easy and I didn’t have any extreme trouble with any of them I don’t think. There were some terms in the book when it came to sailing & the boat itself that I didn’t really understand and I kinda wish they were explained a little bit as I have no experience with boats so they didn’t make sense to me but it wasn’t bad enough to be a problem, they were usually just things mentioned in passing.

I also loved that there was a map! I kept checking back with the map throughout this book as there is a lot of moving around happening and I don’t think the traveling would have quite made sense without the map. Especially with all the twists and turns of the rivers, it would have been really hard to visualise without the map.

This next bit is a little spoilery. As many of you may know I don’t love romances in books but I actually enjoyed the one in this book. It was a slow development and I think it was done really well. I also really liked that it never over took the plot of the book, not once. And I also enjoyed that in the end, one person didn’t give up their life to be with the other, they had an understanding that they are two different people and they still had to go their own way in life.

The plot of this book was interesting and action packed. Like I said earlier there were only a few slower parts but most of the time there was something going on! Even though the plot, in general, was kinda similar to other YA fantasy novels there was still something unique about it and it never felt like ‘every other YA book’.

I really like Caro as a character! She is an independent, intelligent and badass female character. I loved seeing her develop and find out who she really is! I love how she was always loyal to her people and both sides of her family even though she didn’t get along that well with one parent.

I also really enjoyed that the parents played a part in this book! It’s fairly rare to have the parents present in YA books. This next bit is a bit spoilery. Even though in the beginning Caro and her mother didn’t get on too well in the middle and her father was absent thanks to being locked up they still came through and tried to protect her in the end.

Tarquin was an interesting character. At the beginning, he was stuck up but he developed well as he actually saw the world around him and started to understand what life was like outside of Akhaia.

I have already spoken about Caro’s parents a little but I also really liked Pa’s character. He never treated Caro like a child and he believed in her! I loved that we actually got an awesome caring parent in this book!

I liked Fee too even though we don’t really know her as the Frogmen don’t really talk much. I would like to learn a bit more about their race in the next book as even though we find out a little bit their race is still a bit of a mystery.

I really enjoyed Kenté too. She is another badass female in this book! It was good to have 2 awesome females in a YA book as it’s generally just one. Kenté was an intelligent and fun character.

I also really enjoyed that there was no girl hate in this book. Kenté, Caro, Fee & Daria mostly all got along. Daria was a bit dubious of Caro for the most part but there was never direct hate going on. And also with the other Wherrywomen there was always a kinda feeling that they were one big family and would do anything to help each other out.

I really enjoyed this book. The plot was enjoyable and full of things going on! The characters and relationships between them all were really good! I loved that we had a pretty good family as it’s rare in YA books. I also really enjoyed the writing and the map in the book. I can’t wait till June next year to get a hold of the sequel and last book in the duology!

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HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON IT?!
IF YOU ARE GOING TO SHARE SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS THEN PLEASE WARN IT SO OTHERS DON’T GET SPOILED!

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