In Deeper Waters

This is a very uneven book for me.

I love the characters and think they are all well written. I would love if all the siblings would get their own story and I would totally read them. (Kest and Garrett and Isa and I don't know who I adore more.) I love the real affection that these siblings have for each other. It's gorgeous stuff.

I don't like the whole ‘magic is evil' stuff in the story. I am thoroughly sick of it and the only reason I didn't drop the book the second it cropped up was that I liked Tal enough to stay interested. The magic problem only improves a little at the end of the book - and even then, it will be a long time before this society/world views magic as anything other than inherently evil. (I am so tired of this. Cheap, crappy copout, magic is evil, yeah, okay, we get it, you played Dragon Age.) (I'm bitter. Move on.)

I discovered while reading the acknowledgments at the end: the author conceived the idea as a ‘high fantasy fairy tale' and that's what it feels like. (This knowledge would have at least tempered my excitement for the story.)

The pacing of this story feels like it's at high speed once the second third starts (the prince-napping) and little through the story is expounded.

(But the siblings and their dynamic and how awesome they all are! And, yeah, that's what gives it an extra star.) (Yes, I said an extra star, because the whole ‘evil magic is evil' thing single-handedly knocked the rating down to two stars. Yay for evil magic.)