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Ranking:
Title: The Midnight Sea
Series: The Fourth Element, #1
Author: Kat Ross
Expected Publication: May 10, 2016
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They are the light against the darkness.
The steel against the necromancy of the Druj.
And they use demons to hunt demons….
Nazafareen lives for revenge. A girl of the isolated Four-Legs Clan, all she knows about the King's elite Water Dogs is that they bind wicked creatures called daevas to protect the empire from the Undead. But when scouts arrive to recruit young people with the gift, she leaps at the chance to join their ranks. To hunt the monsters that killed her sister.
Scarred by grief, she's willing to pay any price, even if it requires linking with a daeva named Darius. Human in body, he's possessed of a terrifying power, one that Nazafareen controls. But the golden cuffs that join them have an unwanted side effect. Each experiences the other's emotions, and human and daeva start to grow dangerously close.
As they pursue a deadly foe across the arid waste of the Great Salt Plain to the glittering capital of Persepolae, unearthing the secrets of Darius's past along the way, Nazafareen is forced to question his slavery—and her own loyalty to the empire. But with an ancient evil stirring in the north, and a young conqueror sweeping in from the west, the fate of an entire civilization may be at stake…
I don't know any other way to describe this book. I was compelled on giving it a 4 stars but had a second thought after I finished making the review. Don't get me wrong. I actually liked the story but the it just didn't give the hype I was actually looking for.
The first thing you will notice (and I think some will agree) when reading this book is how confusing and hard it is for me to remember the places and the full name of the characters. I sometimes caught myself pronouncing it out loud and wondering if I did said it correctly. Again, I was thinking why some authors choose a very complicated name for some of their characters. But hey, I totally respect them but, I am just really not into books with many complicated names and places in it that it makes it hard for me to distinguish who from who.
Second. The first 6 chapters are a total bore. I was actually starting to feel the dread of not finishing this book because of this (But still I am happy I did). Because when Darius entered the story, I was suddenly delighted that something might happen after all. Yes. I totally loved the "BONDING" thing. And not to mention that the 2 main protagonists are actually bonded. There is a cliche of having a boy and girl being bonded, I know even a young reader may see it coming that they will fall in love with each other later on but still, I LOVE the idea nonetheless. It was still a GREEN LIGHT for me.
Third. I love the characters in this story. All are very strong and have the originality of their own. I wouldn't specify the characters here, but what I can only say is that they are storng and weak in their own way what makes the characters so real.
Fourth. The world building was good enough and well thought but confusing and very hard to understand at some point. The history, political issues and regimes are so unfamiliar to me until I finished the book. My mind was actually chaotic in this aspect.
Fifth. The Plot is okay but nothing special -- its actually interesting in terms of the romance side between Nazafareen and Darius. The idea of Nazafareen bonding with Victor at the same time she was bonded with Darius was actually exciting I wanted to know what will happen next in the next sequel.
There might be some things I didn't find interesting in this book, but I will definitely read the second sequel if given the chance to have it. I still want to know how the story and pace of the story will develop on the next sequel.
Kat Ross worked as a journalist at the United Nations for ten years before happily falling back into what she likes best: making stuff up. She lives in Westchester with her kid and a few sleepy cats. Kat is also the author of the dystopian thriller Some Fine Day (Skyscape, 2014), about a world where the sea levels have risen sixty meters. She loves magic, monsters and doomsday scenarios. Preferably with mutants.
