Wednesday, September 11, 2019

[Review] Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young


Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young

Rating: 3.5 stars
Published: April 4th 2018

Goodreads Synopsis:
Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: fight and survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield—her brother, fighting with the enemy—the brother she watched die five years ago.
Faced with her brother's betrayal, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan thought to be a legend, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved family.
She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother’s friend, who sees her as a threat. They must do the impossible: unite the clans to fight together, or risk being slaughtered one by one. Driven by a love for her clan and her growing love for Fiske, Eelyn must confront her own definition of loyalty and family while daring to put her faith in the people she’s spent her life hating.
Part Wonder Woman, part Vikings—and all heart.

Eeyln is part of the Aska clan, and has been taught since birth to hate the Riki clan, especially since she's lost her brother in a fight with them all those years ago. However, she ends up a captive of the rival tribe, and discovers the truth behind her brother's supposed death. But when a enemy much bigger than the Riki comes to destroy everything precious to Eelyn, she bands together with the Riki, with growing feelings for her brother's friend, Fiske.


I did enjoy the strength of Eelyn's character and the inner turmoil she experiences living with the enemy, as she grows to care for them. Her relationship with her brother is also a complication that she frequently vocalizes. 

Iri was a traitor.
But we were bound together in a way that even I didn't understand. And the worst part had been realizing that there was maybe nothing he could do to change that. I wanted to forget him, but maybe I never would. I wanted to let him go, but I might never be able to.   - p. 149

I feel like everyone loved this book and gushed about it on Twitter. And admittedly, I haven't really seen that many Viking/Norse period settings, so it was an interesting story to read in that regard. I just couldn't LOVE it the way everyone else did. 

It makes sense that this book is a standalone, because it ended on such a definitive note. And I myself enjoy a good standalone, but there wasn't that much to pull me through. The plot is a pretty basic one, in which rivals band together to stop the common enemy, with a favorite trope of mine (enemies to friends to lovers), but I just wasn't enthralled by it all. I wish there was more of a buildup to the enemies to lovers trope between Eelyn and Fiske, because Eelyn came off as such a steadfast, stubborn character, that I would have expected her to even deny her feelings for Fiske for even longer. I wish there were more complications, more to entrench me, than the basicity of a generic plot line. I suppose that was why I found this book unremarkable. 

It didn't stand out to me in the way other books did, and I really wish I enjoyed this more. 

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