Sky in the Deep (Sky and Sea, #1)

by Adrienne Young

Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient, god-decreed rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: train to fight and fight to 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.

Eelyn loses her focus and is captured. Now, 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 settling in the valley, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved Aska clan, which is rumored to have been decimated by the same horde. She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother’s friend who tried to kill her the day she was captured. 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 find a way to forgive her brother while daring to put her faith in the people she’s spent her life killing.

• ISBN13: 9781789091274
• Publish Date: 26 March 2019 (first published 24 April 2018)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Titan Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Sky in the Deep was a phenomenal story with a great main character and love story and fighting scenes written to perfection, so it's an easy book to love.

It is a traditional tale of war turned to peace by the words of two young people who have proven that cultural differences can be overcome. It's a time-honored plot, and one I'm absolute trash for. Give me Romeo and Juliet where the young couple doesn't commit untimely suicide any day. Add in some norse mythology and an entwined sibling story AND adorable smol children and I am sold. But even beyond the tropes that I enjoy, Sky in the Deep is genuinely well-written. It has great pacing between the slow town scenes and the riveting action sequences. It has great character growth and a slow love story that is neither too cheesy nor painfully awkward. And this is a story about healing on many different levels, which pulls at your heartstrings.

I absolutely LOVE it when a debut book is so astounding, and I can't wait to see what else Adrienne Young has in store for us readers. In the meanwhile - trust the hype on this one. It's fantastic.

[inlibrisveritas]

Sky in the Deep was one that I have seen pretty much everywhere lately and with the Viking plot and the promise of badass young women I knew I had to give it a shot.

Eelyn is a seventeen-year-old Askar warrior, she protects her village and she is beyond fierce. This girl takes all manner of violence in stride, gritting her teeth to pain and standing her ground against those much larger than her. I could seriously read a series centered around young women like Eelyn, who hold up their village with both care and brute strength, and these sections of the book were absolute perfection. I loved the closeness between Eelyn and her father, as well as her friendship with her best friend. The fighting was awesome and the look at their way of life was really interesting, unfortunately, there was a downside of this one that sort of dampened my ability to immerse myself fully.

The romance in this one they tell you is coming the summary, but about halfway through the book I seriously didn’t see a need for it. Even after I finished it I thought that her relationship with Fisk was the weakest part of the book. I wouldn’t have minded a friendship that could be built up more, but I just didn’t find myself enthused by the somewhat ‘convenient’ romance between them. The fight between their clans was really interesting and I was super curious to see how and if they could find a way to unite them as allies, but the fact that Fisk and Eelyn were also building a relationship during all this felt a bit too Romeo and Juliet.

Khristine Hvam does a fantastic job with this one and really gets to gruffness of the characters, even bringing through the surprising softness in each of them.

Overall I enjoyed it but I don’t think this will be one that sticks with me for long. The action and fierce nature of the book are fantastic, but it just seemed to be missing something vital to making it truly standout for me. Despite that, I think Eelyn is definitely one of my favorite characters from this year’s reading.

[Kait ✨]

Was completely obsessed with this until things got a little too mushy for my taste about 70% through.

[leahrosereads]

My first YA viking story! Maybe my first viking story in general. I don't think I've ever read one before.

I liked it a lot! It was filled with violence and action and was super fast paced. The world was interesting, if slightly underdeveloped or not fully brought to life. The characters were what made this story though, and I though they were pretty fantastically written. I appreciate all of that and would've given this four stars if it wasn't for the romance.

Look, I get it. YA has romance. Usually. Not well done romance. But this one was just meh on top of blah on top of feeling completely unnecessary.

I don't get why we can't just have a bad ass heroine without the need of a love interest. Eelyn didn't need that plot development. I felt like it crippled her a bit, as most romances tend to do in YA.

All in all, I liked this story and will definitely read more by Young. I just wish the romance element was missing.

[alisoninbookland]

😮😵😮😵

I had very high hopes for this book. Many in the bookstagram community were calling it the best book of 2018. I don't know if *I* would call it the best book of the year but it was pretty darn good.

It was a quickly paced, non-magical fantasy book which I always enjoy. I've never read a Viking-esque book I fell into the story easily enough. I appreciated the words in phrases in the characters native tongue (was that a real language?). I didn't appreciate that there wasn't a glossary of terms. Using interesting new words and phrases is awesome BUT translations are also awesome.

The conflicts between the clans were interesting. I did have a hard time really telling them apart. Maybe that was the point? They're really not so different. It was easy enough to grow fond of characters even if you weren't supposed to like them

I didn't even hate the romance going on. I loved that it wasn't a "You're so attractive, clearly we're in love" type of love. It was more of a "I trust you, respect you, and know that I want you fighting by my side" type of love. It makes it easier to believe and accept so quickly.

Definitely worth picking up!

For more reviews and bookish adventures, stop by Alison In Bookland.

[Laurie]

3.5 stars.

[lauriesbookshelf]

3.5 stars.

[cornerfolds]

Read more of my reviews at Cornerfolds.com!

Sky in the Deep was easily one of my most anticipated books of 2018 and probably the one the most people told me to read. I was SO excited to dive into this Viking world! The synopsis sounds incredible - a girl taken by the enemy and forced to live among them is totally a story I want to read! And I feel like literally every person other than me loved this book! So what went wrong? Well, kind of a lot.

Eelyn is such a fantastic protagonist and was actually one of the few things that actually went right in this book. I love a strong heroine who fights for what she believes in! I loved watching her relationships grow and sympathized with her whenever she found out she had been betrayed. I loved her determination to get back to her family and help them and I rooted for her to succeed. I also thought her brother was a decent character, although I still feel like his motives were a little questionable. Some secondary characters were pretty great also, but that's about where my enjoyment of the characters and story ended.

My main issue with this book is that it's all so predictable. The story has been done a thousand times before and it has been done better. A person is forced to live with the enemy and finds out they aren't that different after all. Maybe one of them could be her true love. Sound familiar? Pocahontas (the Disney movie) immediately comes to mind, but there are tons of other examples of the exact same premise. I know that next to nothing is truly original, but this story just didn't do anything for me.

One of my other problems with the story is that this idea of the other not being truly "other" only extended to the initial tribe mentioned. Eelyn goes to her enemy's village and learns to love them, but continues to see the Big Bad Tribe as 100% pure evil. They are never humanized in any way. Never mind that the entire book is focused on the idea that the other might not actually be evil. We never learn anything about their mutual enemy at all other than that they're Bad.

The romance in Sky in the Deep was also just okay for me. To be honest with you, I didn't even realize that Fiske was single until about halfway through the book. Eelyn's and Fiske's feelings seem to come basically out of nowhere overnight after a few half conversations. I know that some people are all about this ship, but I just didn't feel it.

Besides Eelyn herself, the other thing this book had going for it was the world building. I felt like I was watching an episode of Vikings while I was listening to this audiobook. I could picture the landscapes and villages and dangers. I just wish that the story had been as fantastic as the world this book painted.

I really, really wanted to love this book! I hate when a book I have such high expectations for lets me down in such a huge way. There was action and this book thankfully didn't drag, but the story is so overdone and predictable that I just couldn't find much enjoyment in it. If you enjoy this trope and don't mind a little instalove, then you may enjoy this book after all.

[Beth C.]

I really enjoyed this book - far more than I expected to. The writing style suited the storyline perfectly, the romance was (blessedly) not overdone, and I was even brought to tears a few times. It's been quite a while since a book has done that.

The characters were human, in all their flaws and strengths. The main character, Eelyn, was a badass warrior - but also someone who felt that showing weakness of any kind was a flaw. It definitely encapsulates the brutality of living - and dying - by the sword, particularly when she is captured by her people's enemy.

This book, looking back, has a whiff of Romeo and Juliet to it - but only a whiff, mind. And that's all I will say about that, as to avoid giving any spoilers ;)

Overall, I was so pleasantly surprised by this book - and glad that I gave it a chance. It really won me over.

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

4.5*

I found this book to be such an incredible breath of fresh air! I've been struggling a lot with fantasy lately, but Sky in the Deep proved a unique addition to the genre. It was definitely readable, too, as I was eager to know what would happen to the characters I so quickly grew to love. Let's talk about the reasons I enjoyed this one, shall we?

• The characters, and their growth. As I said above, I really enjoyed these characters, so now I'll explain why. Basically, they were realistically portrayed, totally flawed, and incredibly relatable. They always did what they thought was right for their people- as everyone always does- but they were faced with a lot of tough choices as the began to realize that looking out for their people may not actually be the right thing to do.



• Family was a huge focus of the book. Just like the clans were incredibly important to the characters, so too were their families, and I loved it. The theme of blood-family versus chosen-family was also prevalent. Which would the characters choose, if they were forced? Is one more meaningful than the other? What about when romantic love joined the mix? These were questions that human beings have dealt with throughout history, and are still dealing with. But asking them in such a dark, desperate setting made the stakes even higher.



• The world is dark and brutal. The characters who live in it are unapologetic badasses. This combination is pretty fabulous. They didn't make excuses,  they did what they needed to survive. There were quite a few battles waged during the course of the book, and even some smaller brutalities in between, but they made for a compelling story.



• Speaking of the world, it's pretty easy to follow. I think one of the things I've been struggling with in fantasy lately is super complex worlds and magic systems and such. This is a world that is fairly straightforward, and aside from struggling a bit with dialogue, I had no problems immersing myself in the world completely.



• The atmosphere was on point! So you want to feel like the world is dark, and this did. But it also didn't feel like a completely hellish nightmare, which I think was a good mix. There were some scenes that actually made the world seem quite beautiful despite its brutality, and I was pleased that the author captured that so well. Also, it's Viking inspired, and what could be more fun than that? (And yes, it does feel Viking-y which I was giddy about!)



• It's a standalone! Okay, look- I would gladly have taken more Eelyn & Friends, don't get me wrong. But... there's something really nice about reading a book, feeling a lot of love for it, being satisfied with the ending, and being able to say "awesome book!" and leave it at that. And I think that the author did a great job of indulging the readers's questions and curiosities, so that's a win. (After writing this, I did just see on Goodreads that there's a companion novel, and I won't lie, I am totally here for it. But my thoughts on how it wrapped still stand!)

Bottom Line: So fresh feeling, yet so awesomely brutal, this is a definite must for anyone who enjoys a dark character-driven fantasy!

*Copy provided for review