[Review] Given to the Sea - Mindy McGinnis

Titel:Given to the Sea

Series: Given Duet

Author/Autor: Mindy McGinnis

Publisher/Verlag: Putnam's Children

First Released/Erstmals erschienen:  11.04.2017
Format:Kindle, 352

Synopsis: GoodReads

Review: 3*, Blog, GoodReads, Firsttoread

TBR/Leseliste: -

Buy: amazon

 

Khosa is Given to the Sea, a girl born to be fed to the water, her flesh preventing a wave like the one that destroyed the Kingdom of Stille in days of old. But before she’s allowed to dance – an uncontrollable twitching of the limbs that will carry her to the shore in a frenzy – she must produce an heir. Yet the thought of human touch sends shudders down her spine that not even the sound of the tide can match.

Vincent is third in line to inherit his throne, royalty in a kingdom where the old linger and the young inherit only boredom. When Khosa arrives without an heir he knows his father will ensure she fulfills her duty, at whatever cost. Torn between protecting the throne he will someday fill, and the girl whose fate is tied to its very existence, Vincent’s loyalty is at odds with his heart.

Dara and Donil are the last of the Indiri, a native race whose dwindling magic grows weaker as the island country fades. Animals cease to bear young, creatures of the sea take to the land, and the Pietra – fierce fighters who destroyed the Indiri a generation before – are now marching from their stony shores for the twin’s adopted homeland, Stille.

Witt leads the Pietra, their army the only family he has ever known. The stone shores harbor a secret, a growing threat that will envelop the entire land – and he will conquer every speck of soil to ensure the survival of his people.

The tides are turning in Stille, where royals scheme, Pietrans march, and the rising sea calls for its Given.
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I got this book from ‘first to read’ in exchange for an honest review and I was really excited to read it. Sadly I didn’t like this book as much as I thought, but I still enjoyed it and rated it three stars.

The first thing that threw me off were the many points of view. I got used to this after a while and actually appreciated it, but in the beginning it was very confusing, as I didn’t know any of the characters yet. The fact that some points of view were in first person, others in third person was also quite confusing to me.

I couldn’t really get behind this world as well, I just don’t like ‘worlds’ that are so very small and restricted. Reading this book I got the impression, that this world consisted of two bigger cities, one of which might have some more land outside of the city proper and a third region that was described more as a village. Other than that there was only the sea.

That’s just something that I do not like in books. Even if the rest of the world is in no way important for the blog and hardly ever mentioned I still want to know that there is something more.

The plot was interesting enough, but it seemed kinda drawn out to me.

There were five main characters, which in my opinion was a little to many, especially because I couldn’t connect with any of them. It was hard to make out distinct personalities or even follow their lines of thinking. Sometimes I couldn’t understand their actions at all.

The romance was just as confusing as the characters themselves, there were two overlapping love triangles that just complicated things way more than necessary.

All the negatives aside I’m still looking forward to the second and last book in this duology.