A Review of Waters of Salt & Sin
To save her sister from starvation and hold on to her relationship with Calev--the high-caste friend she secretly loves--Kinneret sets out for a lost island of silver. But when a madman enslaves her sister, Kinneret must make a deal with the local ruler: Help the leader find the island and secure the ruler's place in history. In return, the leader's fighting sailors will help rescue her sister. Using Salt Magic to navigate cursed waters, Kinneret and Calev struggle to hide their taboo, caste-breaking feelings for one another, knowing if the ruler witnesses the attraction, she'll cancel the agreement. But when Calev makes a terrible mistake, Kinneret must choose between the life of her only remaining family member and saving the boy she loves from a traitor's death.
I received an audiobook version of this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review. I’m always happy to help independent and small-press authors promote their books through honest reviews and author interviews. Go to my Publicity Request page to learn more information and fill out the form to contact me. All slots for reviews and interviews are full through the end of 2019, but I am open for 2020 dates starting in January.
The world created in this novel was one of the most unique and engaging that I’ve read this year. The author did a great job of fleshing out every detail of the politics, economics and social structure, down to the caste-system, which plays an important role in the story. I appreciated how the world-building even expanded out of the country Kinneret is from to the surround countries and the relationships between the governments, which is a detail I don’t usually see in Young Adult Fantasy novels. I had a couple of questions about the magic system by the end of the story that weren’t answered, but was able to overlook those specifics as they weren’t essential to the story.
This book has a large cast of characters for a standalone novel of this length. However, each character does play an essential role in the story. Most of the characters, including the antagonist and supporting characters, were well developed and had intriguing backstories to learn. The chemistry between Kinneret and her love interest was organic and enjoyable. The only character I struggled to connect with was Kinneret’s sister, as she is only in a small part of the book, so is less developed and seemed to act much younger than her age in the scenes she was in.
The plot in this book is fast paced and tension filled from the start. There are multiple obstacles put in Kinneret’s way and for a long time, they seem to just pile on with no solution in sight. I appreciated the complexity and interwoven storylines, however, with so much going on in a somewhat short novel, the conclusion of the book seemed to drag on. The author did a good job tying up all the loose ends, but it still took a while to get to that final last page after the majority of the conflicts had been resolved.
Waters of Salt & Sin is the first in the Uncommon World series of standalone novels, written by Alisha Klapheke. The world of this book is beautifully developed and well thought out. There are a lot of characters to meet, but I was impressed with their level of development. The plot is complex and fast paced, but stalls out near the end, as the author tried to wrap up all the subplots she had started earlier on.