Review – Sky in the Deep (Sky in the Deep, Book 1) by Adrienne Young (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN-13: 978-1250168450
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Sky in the Deep series
Source: Owlcrate
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient, rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: fight and survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield―her brother, fighting with the enemy―the brother she watched die five years ago.

Faced with her brother’s betrayal, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan thought to be a legend, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved family.

She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother’s friend, who sees her as a threat. They must do the impossible: unite the clans to fight together, or risk being slaughtered one by one. Driven by a love for her clan and her growing love for Fiske, Eelyn must confront her own definition of loyalty and family while daring to put her faith in the people she’s spent her life hating.”

This was a well done historical fantasy set in a Viking-like society. The story stands alone well but is supposed to have at least one companion novel which is scheduled to release in 2019. I enjoyed this quite a bit; there’s a lot of action and I loved the setting and characters. I read this whole book in just a couple sittings and had lots of trouble putting it down.

The main story is about a young warrior woman who finds out that her brother (who is supposed to be dead) is fighting with her tribe’s mortal enemy. When a third enemy attacks the two enemy tribes are forced to join forces in order to survive.

The story is fairly simple but I enjoyed the setting and characters. There are some great action scenes in here; although occasionally the action could have been described a bit better. This was an easy and fun read and the story is tied up pretty well in this book.

I loved the historical Viking like setting and the descriptions of day to day life of these people. The main heroine, Eelyn, is forced to grow and change a lot throughout this book.

Overall I enjoyed it a lot and will definitely plan on reading any companion novels that are released. This was a fun and easy historical fantasy read that was simple but engaging and entertaining.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– New Release Reading Challenge
– Goodreads Reading Challenge