The Girl the Sea Gave Back by Adrienne Young

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Title: The Girl the Sea Gave Back
Author: Adrienne Young
Series: Sky and Sea #2
Published by: Macmillan Audio
Release Date: September 3, 2019
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Caitlin Kelly, Dan Bittner
Length: 8 hours and 23 minutes
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Mythic Fiction
Source: Libby
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2020 Audiobook Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ IndieBound ✩ iTunes
My rating:

Blurb:

The new gut-wrenching epic from the New York Times bestselling author of Sky in the Deep.

For as long as she can remember, Tova has lived among the Svell, the people who found her washed ashore as a child and use her for her gift as a Truthtongue. Her own home and clan are long-faded memories, but the sacred symbols and staves inked over every inch of her skin mark her as one who can cast the rune stones and see into the future. She has found a fragile place among those who fear her, but when two clans to the east bury their age-old blood feud and join together as one, her world is dangerously close to collapse.

For the first time in generations, the leaders of the Svell are divided. Should they maintain peace or go to war with the allied clans to protect their newfound power? And when their chieftain looks to Tova to cast the stones, she sets into motion a series of events that will not only change the landscape of the mainland forever but will give her something she believed she could never have again—a home.

My Review:

4 stars — HAAAALLLLLVAAAAAAARRRRDDDD!!!!  Needless to say I was a wee bit excited when I figured out this was his story.  (especially since it’s not mentioned in the blurb)  I definitely enjoyed myself, and while I gave it the same rating, I would say I enjoyed the first book more…but I would almost bump that one up before bumping this one down.  So I’ll just leave it as is.

We got 2 narrators for this one since it was in dual POV, and I enjoyed them both.  I thought Mr. Bittner nailed the humility of Halvaard to a tee.  He showed great emotion, great pacing, and in general I enjoyed his voices (though I was thrown off by the super deep Iri voice — that is not at ALL how I pictured him sounding).  Ms. Kelly was solid as Tova as well.  She captured her feeling of not belonging, her confusion, her dismay.  And great pacing and voices as well.

Honestly, for this one I found it to be solid most of the way through, but I was super bummed with the ending.  I mean, I get it, but I wanted more interaction.  This was very much 2 separate stories that entwined to a certain degree, but we didn’t get much from the moments when they finally got together — mostly just the battle.  Which is fine…but I’m greedy.  I wanted more.

Halvaard was very much the man I expected him to grow into…I loved that that fit with how I knew him.  He was the same humble, endearing, kind man.  I loved the development of his story in general, and the decisions he struggled with as he found his place.

Tova had a very different journey, and I felt for the loneliness of her childhood — what a terrible way to grow up.  It was hard to watch her just go along, but I understood it.  She placed a pretty heavy burden on her own shoulders, and while I was disappointed in some of her choices, I felt like she gave herself more blame than she deserved.

It was nice to see some characters we had met in the previous book (though I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be lost if you didn’t read it).  There were definitely quite a few characters to dislike in this one.  Gunter was a nice surprise though — I appreciated the complication of his sort of relationship with Tova…wouldn’t have minded even more insight into him, but it is what it is.

All in all another solid intriguing adventure.  More introspection in this one I think, and Halvaard was still the star for me.