Sky in the Deep

This book was a great story of determination, strength, and family. While there was romance, I did not feel that it completely took over the book. There was still the focus on family and what it means to grow up in a divided world. This book did have the cliche warring societies where your main character is forced to live among the “enemy”. However, I felt like it was done in a unique way with this viking-like aspect. I really liked seeing aspects of Riki life through Eelyn's Askan viewpoint. I wish we would have been able to see more Askan life.

I also felt like the ending of the book was rushed with the major climax and battle being quickly resolved and minimal closure. I do however appreciate that this is a standalone novel. So many books lately have been series and I liked that Adrienne Young gave us a standalone where the story is complete. That being said, I think 20 or so more pages would have allowed for less of the feeling of rushing and allow for complete resolution.

This book is for the person who pours hot sauce on all their food without bothering to season the rest of the meal.

The story starts in the midst of a gripping battle. Slicing down this enemy tribe. Death comes face to face with our heroine, when suddenly... her brother that died 5 years earlier appears in the mists and saved her. But no. it's just a dream, or was it? Sounds exciting right? Well, it's all downhill from here.

Rather than giving us substance, character insight, or world building, the author continues the route of shock jock, blinding us with action (aka hot sauce), without focusing on the rest of the meal. Eventually, I gave up trying to care who was who and just envisioned characters from another book going rogue and playing out this storyline. Eventually, even that got boring. Since life is too short to waste on bad books, this is being hung up on the DNF shelf.

Sky in the Deep came out in April to a LOT of hype. It's mostly deserved. The plot is a little odd; the two clans come together every five years to fight in a blood feud between their gods. But they only fight every five years in a designated place - if you really hated each other, why wouldn't you try to wipe out the other tribe all the time, instead of letting them rebuild their strength for five years? And then this third, mysterious tribe shows up and is enough for you to set aside all your anger at each other? I don't know. It's a little weird.

That oddness aside, I loved this story! I loved Eelyn's fierceness, and also her willingness to see the Riki as people too. Eventually, of course. In Eelyn we have the definition of a strong female character. (She's not the only one, either!) She is admired for her fierceness and strength, but not seen as any less female. Women are warriors in her culture too.

It's a pretty straightforward book, with a few graphic scenes of violence in the fights. Everything happened pretty much as I expected it to, but I still enjoyed seeing Eelyn grow and change throughout the book. It's also very atmospheric; I could almost hear the snow crunching beneath boots, the rushing roar of the mountain river, the quiet creaking of the frozen lake. Young's writing style pulls you right into the book and doesn't let you go.

Set aside your questions about the plot's logic and just enjoy this book. It's wonderful.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

“Vegr yfir fjor.” Honor above life.”

I LOVED the Viking vibes in this books. It really explored the Viking culture in both Aska and Rika clans, which was AMAZING. While reading you can definitely tell that their beliefs and their religion influence their actions. These details really helped with the world building in my opinion. It really helped me imagine the world and the clans.

Storywise .. I liked it, but it also fell flat at moments. There were great moments, heartwarming moments that made me want to keep on reading until I finished the book. But sometimes I felt like I didn't have enough information about the mythology to really understand what was going on, which made me lose interest.

The thing I despised in this book was the romance. It was very unnecessary in my opinion and way too INSTA LOVEY DOVEY. I hate instalove with a passion, it feels fake.

Overall, I did enjoy Sky in the Deep and I really liked that it was so family-centered. I'm interested in reading more from this author.

Yo this book was actually really good! I came at it with somewhat low expectations because I've heard very different responses to it. Some people love it and some people hate it, and that made me a bit apprehensive coming into it.

I sat down to read it after work last night, and did not put it down until it was finished! This had an eye catching start and an even better finish!

Here are a few tropes I loved in this book:
- Enemies to lovers
- Solid action with a sprinkle of romance throughout the book
- Redemption and forgiveness
- Great character growth
- Likable main character
- Found family
- Bad-ass female main character
- An even bigger bad-ass male main character

3 Positives, 3 negatives. Let's do this.

3 Positives:
1) I liked that the female main character had a strong sense of self and didn't abandon her family because she met a man. Especially at the end, I loved how the man moved to her city rather than her moving with him.
2) That man is bomb. The male main character is amazing.
3) I love the little parts of historical tidbits that were thrown in there.

3 Negatives:
1) I would have preferred it if there were a strong historical aspect to this book as that is why I initially picked it up. Not only that but the cover gives you real historical vibes.
2) I think that the female main character is forgettable and by extension so is the book.
3) I think that their could have been a very interesting discussion on how they felt about killing back then and the emotional repercussions and how that is accepted in society

Eelyn is an Aska, raised from birth to be a warrior and to hate the Riki, a rival people whom the Aska battle every five years. She has never had a problem with this hatred until she discovers that her brother, thought to be dead for the last five years, is in fact alive and living with the Riki. In pursuing her brother she is captured and taken back to a Riki village, where she slowly discovers they are not so different from the Aska after all. When both the Riki and Aska are threatened by a larger tribe, Eelyn must try to overcome years of hate on both sides to convince them to fight together against the common enemy.
Sky in the Deep is an engrossing story of love and hate, and the damage that can be caused by passing on prejudice through generations. It is Viking-inspired, with equally fierce women and men. Some parts of the plot felt a bit rushed, and overall I think the book could have been longer to allow for more character development. However, I enjoyed the story and the characters, and would certainly read a sequel if one were to be written!

Spoiler-Free Review:

I have been feeling the holiday hangover, y'all, and I read so many amazing books in December that I hit a bit of a slump. Enter Sky in the Deep to save the day! I read this book as part of the Bibliovert Podcast's Sisterhood of the Traveling Books where we send our favorite books to a group and each person annotates it. I read this book for the first time at the beginning of 2021 after hearing Jacklyn from Bibliovert Pod talk about it on one of their episodes. It was a 5 star read then, and it is still a 5 star read! This is a YA enemies to lovers story that follows two young adults from enemy villages. The storytelling that Adrienne Young does in this book is phenomenal! The imagery is excellent and the plot so well thought out. Amazing world building without being terribly complex, which makes it a nice easy read. I am once again simping for Fiske, who is profoundly loyal. Eelyn, the female main character, has such amazing growth and revelations throughout the book. There's amazing friendships and found family! Overall such an amazing read, and so many of the themes could be applied to modern culture. This is very comfortably YA of any age. This was a reread for me but it felt like reading it for the first time. I picked up on so much more this time around, and I definitely this is going to be a comfort read for me from now on!

“Sky in the Deep” is a standalone novel written by Adrienne Young. The novel follows Eelyn a female Viking warrior, who while fighting alongside her Aska clansmen, sees her older brother (who died five years ago) fighting with her peoples rivals the Riki clan.

Eventually, she gets captured by the Riki clan and must live and survive the winter in the mountains with her enemy. She stay's as a ‘slave' with her brother and his new family, basically, the guy who nearly killed him five years ago, they became best friends and the guy, named Fiske, his family, was okay adopting someone, who tried to kill their kid.

I found the fighting scenes cool and bloody, most of the time. But most of the book was learning about the different cultures, mainly the Riki culture from Eelyn's point of view, which was interesting. Near the end of the novel the two clan's unit and fight together against a common foe, which means that these two clans create peace. The romance was was slow, but nice. We learn why someone would turn their back on their own clan. I really enjoyed this book, so I gave it 4/5 stars.