Review: Song of the Current by Sarah Tolcser
SYNOPSIS:
Caroline Oresteia is destined for the river. For generations, her family has been called by the river god, who has guided their wherries on countless voyages throughout the Riverlands. At seventeen, Caro has spent years listening to the water, ready to meet her fate. But the river god hasn’t spoken her name yet—and if he hasn’t by now, there’s a chance he never will.
Caro decides to take her future into her own hands when her father is arrested for refusing to transport a mysterious crate. By agreeing to deliver it in exchange for his release, Caro finds herself caught in a web of politics and lies, with dangerous pirates after the cargo—an arrogant courier with a secret—and without the river god to help her. With so much at stake, Caro must choose between the life she always wanted and the one she never could have imagined for herself.
REVIEW:
*Book Received in Exchange for Honest Opinion/Review*
Working my way through some of my backlog of ARCs and finally decided to dive into this series. I mean where can you go wrong with pirates, they are practically a guarantee of a good time. And for a debut novel, I enjoyed it. There could have been a little more refinement to the pacing, especially in the balance between plot and romance but it was action-packed from start to finish.
So lets start off with the plot; which was endlessly entertaining once the story got going, just power through the first several chapters. I enjoyed the lingo of the wherrymen and how the crews are small and tight knit. It had a familiar, family vibe that made you instantly feel at home aboard the ship. Caro seals her fate by agreeing to transport cargo that results in her almost getting killed on multiple occasions. I really liked how this story was so much more than it seemed. The politics, civil unrest, complex family dynamics, and meddlesome gods had me constantly wondering what was going to happen next. But at times, this got lost in irrelevant scenes that contributed nothing to the story and didn’t enhance Caro’s journey.
There is a lot of drama and general chaos in Caro’s life, as a result, the budding romance is a backburn afterthought. This itself isn’t an issue for me, the issue is when the relationship finally did get a little attention, things went from zero to 100 real fast. There was no fluidity to it. Caro and her courier went from tentative truces to one kiss to jumping into bed and I was just left here like ‘welp, that happened’.
Overall I thought it was a good debut, good enough that I definitely started the sequel. The world-building and lore were fun and top notch. Now hopefully, the pacing and balance will be better. I can’t wait to see what kinds of chaos Caro gets into next.
LINKS:
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
