Queen B’s Decree: I don’t know why, but I anticipated this being cozy. No reason I had that preconception, the synopsis even mentions a war between the humans and merfolk. But I saw this angsty cover and my brain goes “yes little mermaid I need this.”
Welp, this was actually intense with an angsty enemies-to-lovers trope. Angie and Kaden are on both sides of a literal war, where humans and killing merfolk, and merfolk are killing humans. I kept reading thinking ‘okay, all the death is done’ and then boom…more characters would die. And yet I constantly felt hopeful, like Angie and Kaden would prevail and get their sides to choose peace.
I did feel like both Angie and Kaden were more passive in this war than two lead characters ought to have been. It kind of reminded me of that Simpsons meme “we’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas.” So in that case, they do appear to be made for each other. I wish their romance had been fleshed out more, but the central plot of the human/merfolk war took up so much of the story.
Overall, despite some issues, I still really enjoyed Oceansong and it was absolutely not like something I expected to read and like.
Book: Oceansong by CW Rose
Series: Oceansong #1
Genre: Fantasy
Plot Devices/Tropes: enemies-to-lovers