This review is for those who have read or are familiar with the previous book, Stars of Fortune, or don't mind knowing spoilers for it.
SPOILER ALERT
Mermaid Annika is from the sea, and it is there she must return after her quest to find the stars. New to this world, her purity and beauty are nothing less than breathtaking, along with her graceful athleticism, as her five new friends discovered when they retrieved the fire star.
Now, through space and time, traveler Sawyer King has brought the guardians to the island of Capri, where the water star is hidden. And as he watches Annika in her element, he finds himself drawn to her joyful spirit. But Sawyer knows that if he allows her into his heart, no compass could ever guide him back to solid ground...
And in the darkness, their enemy broods. She lost one star to the guardians, but there is still time for blood to be spilled—the mermaid’s in the water and the traveler’s on the land. For she has forged a dangerous new weapon. Something deadly and unpredictable. Something human.
Knowing the characters from the last book, I admit I wasn't too excited going into this one. The ditzy, child-like mermaid as the main romantic lead? Not really my idea of a great time. Still, I was at least interested in how the group as a whole would progress, and I didn't mind spending more time with Sawyer, so I went ahead and dove in.
Good news is it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Annika was inexperienced, yes, and unfamiliar with many of the mannerisms, vocabulary, and idioms common to many of us in Western Culture, but it was played more like an alien or foreign language speaker than a child. Honestly, she reminded me of Starfire from the Teen Titans cartoon, putting "the" in front of some verbs and feelings (to the bemusement of others, at times) or mixing up "sorry" and "apology" when speaking. Combine her less-than-fluent mastery of English, her child-like wonder at all things new, and a bubbly personality, and it's understandable that she'd come off as a bit of a child. But spend some time in her head and you quickly find out that she's not only well aware of what sex is, but that she wants it bad with Sawyer.
This made Annika's romance with Sawyer much less squicky for me. Sawyer, like me, assumed Annika's maturity was at the level of her language, and so is trying hard to be the gentleman and not take advantage of her, no matter how attracted he is to her. Annika, meanwhile, wants to jump him but is held back by her own set of rules. It's your standard multi-cultural mixed-signals scenario, but I dug it. There wasn't as bit a power imbalance as I saw in the first book, and both parties were cute to see in their frustration and joy when they finally hook up.
Sawyer was my kind of guy. A bit of an Indiana Jones type—adventurer, gunslinger—into pop culture, and a bit snarky when the situation called for it—especially if Riley was involved. I loved his banter with her. But having him as cocky and comfortable around the others made it all the more fun to see him squirm when it came to romance. He was attracted to Annika, turned on more than once, but was resolute in not forcing her into something she didn't want. It was downright gentlemanly, and remained so through the rest of the book.
We were warned that the adventure would get darker, and in some ways we got what we were promised. I think the group as a whole still gets a lot of luxury-travel-playtime for being on a life-or-death time-specific quest, with consistent breaks for cooking, healing, training, shopping, and sex, but I'll admit that the darkness did go up a notch. With a new/familiar human foe brought in, more bloodshed, and a torture scene to round things out, yeah, I'd say that the stakes were raised.
Though that didn't carry over to the ending all that well. There's an idea introduced in the last couple chapters that one of the characters will have to take a huge risk in order to help the others and their quest as a whole. This comes at the same time as their relationship has gone to the next step, so obviously we're all on edge about what'll happen, how things will go. And so the battle comes, the risk is taken, and...nothing happens. Like, I don't know if this is supposed to be some sort of fake-out that'll come back around in the 3rd book, but that whole last-minute build-up of suspense just fizzled out like no big deal.
The ending left me underwhelmed in the romance department as well. The whole book built Annika and Sawyer as star-crossed lovers, meant to be together but, because they're from two different worlds, only fleetingly. Yet we're given hints that maybe things will work out, maybe love will conquer all—I mean, there are actual gods involved here. But after all this anticipation, the (literal) fairytale romance, the ending we're given for the two is rather melancholy. I get that the series/quest isn't over yet, and you don't want to give them a reward before the big finale, but then maybe don't have the fairytale come second? I know the immortal and the werewolf is obviously the blockbuster romance that everyone is dying to read, so you want to save it for last, but it just seemed inconsistent and somewhat cruel to have the first couple get together no problem, but the second be left in the lurch.
But I guess that just leaves me more incentive to finish out the series.
Overall, I liked this book for what it gave me. As a sequel it does exactly what it needs to—ramping up the drama and stakes from the first book, further fleshing out the world and characters, and pushing readers ahead to the finale—but it doesn't quite stick the landing as well as I might have hoped. Still, it successfully transformed what could have been an uncomfortable romance with a child-coded character into a sweet and enthusiastic culture-clash romance instead, which is a huge win in my book. Now all that's left is to dive into the finale with the werewolf and the immortal—I can't wait!
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