Author: L.K. Frost
# of Pages:
Genre: Adult, Romance, Fantasy
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Synopsis: In an unprecedented turn of events, Bastion emerges from his Trial of Knighthood a failure. Certain the gods have abandoned him, he travels down the coast on a leave of absence, looking for solitude. Instead, he walks into trouble in the wake of a series of pirate attacks on seaside villages, where he meets Ulla, a deaf dragon-kin healer with secrets of her own. Despite their initial, disastrous meeting, they’re drawn together by their mutual loneliness. Then, they discover the attacks aren’t random - they’re coordinated. The pirates are planning a large-scale attack on Moonwatch, the kingdom’s naval base, with the intent of stealing an ancient secret. Together, Bastion and Ulla race to Moonwatch only to learn the commander has been drawn away by the attacks. Unable to deny his duty or his very nature, Bastion takes command of their diminished forces in the face of a pirate fleet armed with a mysterious weapon. When Ulla is wounded, the world comes crashing down on Bastion and he must reveal his darkest secret to save her, even though it may mean losing her, after all.
Review: I received an ARC directly from the author.
To Drown Among the Stars had a lot of potential (the premise sounded interesting to me!) but unfortunately it fell short of expectations.
Each scene in isolation is pretty decently written (immersively descriptive) but the transitions between them were abrupt or the catalyst in a change of action seemed random and unrealistic. Multiple times throughout the story, Bastion ends up wandering around for time to think or for some unexplained "leave of absence" that didn't feel nature with the flow of the greater story.
The writing was too verbose on aspects that don't matter. Instead of spending a few sentences describing an empty pint rolling along the ship floor, those lines could've been spent doing more world building or moving the plot forward. I actually had to check if this was a sequel in a series because it read as if world building and character backstories were covered in a previous book.
The characters are not fully developed; they felt flat. The reader is told by other characters how they would characterize Bastion (a man of high moral character), but the story didn't show his personality. Am I supposed to view him as a young knight-to-be who's still building his confidence? or an experienced swordsman with authority? The characterization flipped flopped between the two personas without a it being clear on what type of person Bastion is supposed to be.
The romance between the main characters came off more as infatuation rather than actual romance (there's a lot of focus on how Bastion feels when he's interacting with Ulla, and not as much about what he loves/cares about her as he spends more time with her). Despite being depicted as independent and capable, the female lead Ulla is just a narrative accessory for Bastion's journey rather than a fully autonomous character.
While I was excited to read this, I had a hard time staying engaged in the story and feeling invested in the characters. There's some major improvements that I'd want to see before I recommended this book to someone.
