Review: Sweet Black Waves (Sweet Black Waves #1)

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Rating: ★★★★★

I received this book for free as part of BookSparks’ YA Summer Reading Challenge.

Omg this was so amazing! I don’t know why people aren’t talking about this book. This could have totally been one of those super hyped YA books. 

This is a retelling of the popular Tristan and Iseult myth, which I have to admit, I’ve never even heard of. So going into this book I didn’t have any expectations about the retelling aspect since I knew nothing about the story. I went into the book completely blind as to what might happen. I wanted to be completely surprised by it. 

What I got was a roller coaster of a story. This book took me on a wild ride and I loved every second of it. It was beautiful yet tragic.

For some reason, the book reminded me a lot of the CW show, Reign. The mood and atmosphere were somewhat similar, but mainly the sense of duty that Branwen had to her land reminded me a lot of the women on that show. 

I loved the blend of fantasy and royalty. It was a very ethereal combination.

The writing style is wonderful. Kristina Perez spins a beautifully written tale that is just as magical as the story itself. 

Since this is the first book in a trilogy, a lot of this book was set up, but it was still very enjoyable to read. I still found it to be very exciting and I was throughly engaged the entire time. 

I loved the notes that the author included at the end about the language used and the source material. You can tell a lot of research went into writing this book so I appreciate that. The author even included a glossary and a list of the characters which made reading this book so easy. There is also a map but I had an ARC so mine didn’t have it but I’ve seen it in a preview and the map is gorgeous. 

Overall, I was blown away by this book and will definitely be continuing the trilogy. If you’re looking for a new spellbinding YA fantasy series, then read this!