Tides of War

"CW: violence, some gore, some others<br/><br/>Thank you to the author for the ARC! “Tides of War” releases January 10, 2025!<br/><br/>My first note for this review was written at roughly 20% and was just “oh no, I love it.” After that it was all incoherent feral screeching, so do with that what you will.<br/><br/>Two months after that fateful encounter with Agenor and Belus on the beach, Cassia wakes up to find herself in Atlantis. With a tail. Reeling in the aftermath, Cassia struggles to come to terms with her new reality. Gods, war, and broken engagements loom overhead, and Cassia is not the only piece on the board.<br/><br/>If you’ve never seen a grown woman react viscerally to a work of fiction, you really should have been a fly on the wall while I was reading this book. I laughed, I cried, I cringed, I raged. I even kicked my feet and giggled a little bit. All the things, the entire way through the story.<br/><br/>We started out strong in book 1 when we had Little Mermaid X Greek mythology vibes; book 2 said ‘hold my beer’ and went *hard* into the emotional whiplash. We still have all the crossover goodness of the fairytale/mythos hybrid (a new favorite genre that I already need more of), just with more trauma for both the reader and the MCs.<br/><br/>Speaking of MCs, I still love all of them. We see a lot less of Louie in this book, but we get a lot more of our other two MMCs. I still love all of them. Cassia is, naturally, still fierce and incredible and actually holding it all together really well considering she’s barely an adult and got dumped into a lot of problems in literally all areas of her life. I loved watching the dynamics between her, Belus, and Agenor play out here because we got to see each of them and their respective relationships develop and change as the situation changed. Our other characters were every bit as fun to read about, and though they were noticeably less directly involved with the other three they’ve all been positioned just so in terms of the overall outcome. <br/><br/>On the note of overall outcome, the plot here is simply incredible. Tiny breadcrumbs are sprinkled throughout leading up to a whole series of perception-altering occurrences, and by the end everything you thought you knew has changed. And it’s *amazing*. No spoilers, of course, but the writing? The execution? The build up?! 10/10; delightfully well done. <br/><br/>When I tell you this book was a joy to read, I don’t strictly mean that it gave me all the warm and fuzzy feelings and it left me super happy and not at all concerned for our characters’ well-beings. What I mean is that it was a solidly enjoyable book that I would unreservedly recommend to almost anyone who likes fantasy books. What I mean is that I would (and will) reread this book multiple times, that I sat completely entranced by the story that the author was telling from beginning to end, that I was completely invested in what happened to those characters because the story itself was incredible. I don’t think I have the right words to describe how much I loved this book simply because there’s no good way to explain the book itself. All the mythology, all the fairytale, all the creativity that was poured into this story makes it uniquely fantastic in a way that defies explanation. You need to read this book.<br/>"