Review – The Cursed Sea (The Glass Spare, Book 2) by Lauren DeStefano (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 394 pages
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: December 18th 2018
ISBN-13: 9780062491350
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Glass Spare series
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Wilhemina Heidle, the exiled princess of Northern Arrod, the girl thought dead by her family and friends, must return home. The only way to save Loom, the cursed prince of the Southern Isles, is to revisit the castle and discover the origins of her own curse.

But home is very different from how she left it—Wil’s unstable elder brother is now king, leading a war against the Southern Isles. And the rest of her family must reckon with the truth of what happened to lead to Wil’s exile. With time running out, Wil must navigate the dangerous secrets within her family if she’s going to find the truth and save the boy she loves.

When she’s finally able to reach Pahn, nothing goes as planned, and suddenly Wil and her allies are fighting for their lives, again and again, as the Southern King is out to punish his children for all they’ve done. Traveling across cursed seas and treacherous kingdoms, Wil, Loom—and his ruthless sister Espel—have to work to make peace with their own struggles if they hope to secure the future of their kingdoms.

But when their plans lead them right back to evil marveler Pahn, and to Baren—who is more dangerous than ever—can Wil and her friends outsmart their enemies, this time, for good?”

This is the second book in DeStafano’s Glass Spare duology. I really loved the beautiful writing style of this novel and continued to enjoy the unique magic and curses in this book. Although, I didn’t like this book as much as the first book it was still very well done.

For some reason the story felt a bit simple, thin, and predictable to me. This is one of those books where I felt more like events were just playing out rather than anything really amazing happening. I also felt like the relationship between Wil and Loom was a bit forced, it kind of lost momentum because of how often they were apart. Last complaint is that the ending also felt a bit rushed and unfinished.

Overall I really enjoyed this duology, I just thought this book was the weaker of the two. I thought the writing style was amazing and easy to read but felt like the story didn’t have the momentum and wasn’t as engaging as the first book. I do plan on picking up more of DeStefano’s books in the future.