The Black Dog of the Sea by Natasha Ruhwald

 

I tried really hard to get into this book but I just couldn't. I know it's supposed to be a series and we'll find out more about the world the book introduces at a later date but I felt like there was just too much background information missing for it to keep my interest. 

Corvin is a faeble, a creature not trusted by humanity at all, and for what it's worth he doesn't trust them much either. So when he finds himself acting as a navigator on board a human ship taking both himself and Lady Laia Hexton to a ritual where the Inner Circle, a mysterious group of human and faeble magic users, will use Corvin and Laia as sacrifices he knows that he'll have to trust at least one human if he wants to live. As fear of Corvin grows among the ship's crew and Richard a marine with a reputation as being a faeble killer instigates a mutiny so he can kill Corvin, Corvin and Laia see their opportunity and escape. Corvin just hopes they can trust each other enough to keep themselves alive. 

Like I said it felt like I was missing so much information while reading this almost from the beginning to the point where I'd end up going back to see if I maybe missed something. Important characters like Corvin's Dad are just kind of dropped into the story. And the book just doesn't flow well. We leave one scene to go to the next without much of a segway so I felt lost a lot of the time while I was reading it, honestly, it almost felt episodic at some points. 

That being said, when this book was going smoothly it was great. Individual chapters were fantastic they just didn't flow into the next one very well all the time. The dialogue was wonderful and I did for the most part enjoy the two main characters. I hated Richard with a passion and since he's a hateful bastard I think Ruhwald hit the mark with him. 

Overall, it just wasn't my cup of tea, but it really isn't a half-bad fantasy adventure book. The action is well done and it does keep you are your toes for most of the book trying to see if Corvin and Laia are actually going to getaway. However, when there was no action I felt a little confused and like I had missed an important plot point only to go back and realize I hadn't. 

And thanks to BookSirens for the eArc of this book!