Review – On These Wicked Shores (The Azantian Trilogy, Book 2) by Katherine Quinn (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 392 pages
Publisher: City Owl Press
Release Date: May 31, 2022
ASIN: B09WD31W6M
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Azantian trilogy
Source: Bought ebook for Kindle
Rating: 4/5 stars
“It’s been three months since Margrete Wood defeated her depraved father and saved the mystical island of Azantian. But the monstrous creatures released that night have hidden themselves in the human realm, and Margrete and her king set sail to hunt them down.
When disaster strikes on the high seas, Margrete and the crew find themselves stranded on the shores of a new and dangerous island. It’s there that they come across an ancient coin, one that legend claims belonged to a powerful goddess. It signifies the first of three deadly trials that must be completed. If they fail these tests, they forfeit their lives to the very place that traps them.
As Margrete and Bash struggle to survive gruesome horrors lurking around every turn, a mighty god watches. He’s waited centuries for this moment, and in Margrete, he sees the queen he’s been searching for.
Once the third and final coin is found, Margrete and Bash will discover if their love can conquer all… even death itself.”
Series Info/Source: This is the second book in the Azantian Trilogy. I bought this book for my Kindle.
Thoughts: This book picks up a short time after the last book finished. Margrete is in Azantian with Bash. Margrete continues to try to learn to control her newfound abilities, while Bash’s struggles with his darkness are worsening. When they receive news that monsters are rising from the seas and attacking the human lands, Bash, Margrete and crew leave on a quest to stop them.
The crew find themselves on a dangerous island where they are forced through a series of trials. The trials will help Magrete to unlock her full potential while revealing a number of secrets from Bash’s past.
I enjoyed this book but not quite as much as the first book. This book does have a lot of wonderful adventure, action and magic. I enjoyed the characters’ trials on the island and the way the story around the Gods is developing. There are a lot of romantic (very adult) love scenes between Bash and Margrete. This felt odd to me because this book is very young adult in tone but had these very adult parts to it.
I struggled a bit with how much time was spent in Margrete and Bash’s heads with them thinking how wonderful the other is. There was a lot of “I love you”, “No, I love you more” back and forth between them. Yes, we get it…they find each other fascinating and love each other a lot. I just felt that there was way too much of this and it distracted from more exciting parts of the story. I am all for some sweet and loving romance but it got sooo prevalent I felt like it was weighing down the rest of the story. I kept imagining how the characters traveling with them must have felt….
The story ends at a cliffhanger and with a number of new issues presented. I normally don’t like cliffhanger endings but in this case it felt appropriate because Margrete and Bash were kind of entering a new phase in their lives as well.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this. The writing flows well, there is good world-building, an intriguing plot, fun adventure, and a lot of action. I did think the lovey dovey gooiness between Margrete and Bash overwhelmed the story at times and would have liked a little less time spent on these two rehashing how much they love each other in their heads. However, I enjoyed everything else about this and am curious to see how the third book wraps up this series. I would recommend this to those who enjoy adult fantasy romance with some adventure.
