Oceanborn

Oceanborn
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: ARC Courtesy of NetGalley

Check out my review of Waterfell, the first book in the series!

EEEEEEEEEE It's finally here! I was majorly excited to get to review Oceanborn, and the excitement is still lingering long after I've finished reading, I've got to say! I LOVED Waterfell, it pleasantly surprised me and I couldn't get enough, I've been waiting for Oceanborn for what seems like years! I believe I coined the term "mermaliens" when reviewing Waterfell, and as I said, Waterfell was incredibly unique, and Oceanborn has continued this on. In fact Oceanborn has topped Waterfell I think!

As we enter in to Oceanborn, picking up where Waterfell left off, the stakes are way higher, the romance is continuing and getting more serious and the characters have not only developed more, but they've kinda made you love them more too!

Nerissa was a bit of a toss up fro me in Waterfell. At times I thought she was selfish and I kinda didn't like her all too much BUT she redeemed herself and I felt became a better person, and as I said in my review of Waterfell, while I did dislike her slightly, having a flawed protagonist made her more realistic and it was a nice change from all the perfect people. In Oceanborn, I finally managed to fully love her instead of the whole "I like you.....no I don't..." thing. I 100% loved her this time round.

In Oceanborn we see Nerissa being a fantastic Queen, a Queen that is truly worthy of the word. You can really look up to her and admire her and how she's acting and what she's doing. She does what is best for her people, no matter what they are, who they are or what it costs her. She's more selfless than selfish this time round, and I love it!

Lo. Lo and his memory loss. DAMMIT AMALIE HOW COULD YOU?! Nerissa sends Lo off to keep him safe and look what the hell happens! Lo was still a sweetheart though, and he is fast approaching joining my list of fictional characters I'm a little bit in love with. Oh dear. He's a tad different, but as I said, still sweet. The whole memory loss and people moving in on him was a great cause of outrage when reading though!

"BUT THE ROMANCE" I hear you shriek in agony. Never fear. While Lo has no memory, he and Nerissa have a bond that pretty much doesn't give a crap about any memory loss and is determined to keep things going. It continued to be as sweet, cute and balanced as it was in Waterfell, and I love the fact they're loyal to each other and have each other's backs, it's the kind of romance that feels believable and is really great to read.

I didn't say much about Speio in my review for Waterfell, mostly cause he really needed to be punched in the face and I kinda hated him. HOWEVER, in this book he's back to being friend of the year or whatever. He cares about Nerissa's safety and wants to be loyal buuuuuttt his character flaw, aka his naivety, well, let's just say things don't always go how we want shall we?

I continue to love Jenna and her relationship with Nerissa. I seriously love this friendship, it's one of my favourites! She continues to make me laugh to the ugly snort laughing stage of laughter! I also love how the frienship between the two continues to be important, in Waterfell the frienship was just as important as the romance and I enjoyed seeing it continue, and Jenna taking her BFF duties seriously. Cara.  Well. Her character development was intriguing. That is all.

In short, all the characters, including secondary characters, continue to be written with depth and multiple dimensions, and they continue to develop in to even more awesome and loveable characters!

The narrative was just as engaging as it was in Waterfell. The writing continued to be absolutely beautiful, and continued to weave a fantastically unique story and astounding world.  The descriptions and world building continues to be as vivid as it is in Waterfell, everything can so easily be pictured, and has been effortlessly created with lots of detail, without clogging up the narrative with pages of description. You really do feel like you're there sometimes!
Much like with Waterfell, I was hooked from the first page and I couldn't book the book down until I was done. Like, I was walking around the house and going up and downstairs with my eyes glued to the Kindle, and I had a near miss with a door! It's so fast paced with a fantastic flow, you pretty much zip through it unless, unlike me, you can exercise some self control and force yourself to read slower!

Waterfell for me had plenty of twists and turns but I guessed the huge reveal, this time..not so much. There's so many twists and turns and I never saw any of them coming, I never guessed where the book was going nor was I expecting it and I really enjoyed how Amalie kept you guessing and kept the mystery this time round!

Aaannndd Amalie...that cliffhanger....WHY DO YOU HAVE TO DO THIS TO ME?!  I can't even. You're gonna be left wanting more and with an agonized wait for the next book!

Oceanborn is the sequel fans where all hoping for, it surpasses Waterfell fantastically.
Oceanborn continues a fantastic series that really stands out from the crowd, that continues to be unique, continues to make you laugh and continues to give you one of the best written romances I've come across lately! Not to mention the totally unique premise and mythology that I loved so much about Waterfell! Fast paced and full of plot twists and with a nice little cliffhanger to make you scream, Oceanborn is going to leave you with the mother of all book hangovers! You have been warned!