The Sea King by C.L. Wilson

 Welcome to my 1st review of 2021 and this blog!

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The first book I finished in 2021 was The Sea King by C.L. Wilson. This is book 2 in the Weathermages of Mystral series.

I loved this book (and series). It's a fantasy romance with more fantasy elements than a lot of the fantasy romances I've read in the past. (Side note: books like this and Milla Vane's A Gathering of Dragons series that are more "high fantasy" are really fulfilling my wants and needs from a fantasy romance)

So after reading the first book in the series and meeting our Hero Dilys I immediately jumped into The Sea King. This book features my favorite trope, the wrong sibling. It's some time later (months?) after the first book and Calbernians are arriving in the Frosthaven to court and find brides. As a Prince, Dilys has a chance to court the 3 Seasons - Summer, Autumn and Spring. The advisor group to the queen has identified Summer and the weakest of the three sisters and advise him to go after Spring or Autumn. Of course Summer and Dilys are immediately drawn to each other. 

As I mentioned before, this is one of my favorite tropes. I was swept up into the magic of this world again and it really fit what I was needing at the time. Was this book perfect? No. I did love that the first half was focused on Dilys wooing Summer, however it did get a little long. If you've read any other C.L. Wilson books, they're pretty chunky for a romance. I kept finding myself waiting for the pirates part of the plot to happen. It's mentioned in the blurb, but didn't happen until just about 60%. It was like knowing the other shoe was going to drop, but it just wouldn't. There was also sudden rape (not full intercourse rape, but rape all the same) that I was not expecting. That part drug on a little long for me. I kept voraciously reading because I just wanted Summer to save herself (since Dilys was always a few steps behind). Then we had the "third act" plot that was jammed into the last like 20% of the book. I did enjoy the magic in this one again, this time focusing on what was learned about the season's own magic in book one and learning more about the water and sea magic that is unique to Calbania.

Overall, this book had me laughing and swooning (I would love a Calbernian to call my own) and rooting for the Dilys and Summer. I enjoyed their relationship and it was nice that once they both accepted the connection they had and consummated it (they have to say their magical sea names), they were solid and the last act conflict was external. No silly misunderstanding that's easily solved with communication. I can't wait for the 3rd and 4th books in the series to see what happens with Spring and Autumn. It looks like it may be a while though based off of C.L's website.

If you like Fantasy and/or romance and are up for a longer but exhilarating read, definitely give this series a try. Like I said, they aren't perfect, but they still gave me the feels I was expecting and more going into them.

If you've read The Sea King, what did you think?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: The Sea King, C.L. Wilson, 5-stars, 10 days, eBook, 598 pages, Published 2017