“The Little Mermaid” takes a twisted turn in this thrilling sequel to villainess origin story Sea Witch, as the forces of land and sea clash in an epic battle for freedom, redemption, and true love.
Before I get started, this is the second book in the Sea Witch Series. I did do a review for Sea Witch, which you can read here, but obviously, there will be spoilers for that one.
However, I don’t think you need to read Sea Witch to read this. Yes, you’ll know who the characters are and references to others from the first book, but this one also does a good job of catching you up.
But I still recommend it.
Amazon
Sea Witch Rising
Sea Witch #2
Author: Sarah Henning
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Publication Date: August 6, 2019
Summary:
Runa will not let her twin sister die. Alia traded her voice to the Sea Witch for a shot at happiness with a prince who doesn’t love her. And his rejection will literally kill her—unless Runa intervenes.
Under the sea, Evie craves her own freedom—but liberation from her role as Sea Witch will require an exchange she may not be willing to make. With their hearts’ desires at odds, what will Runa and Evie be willing to sacrifice to save their worlds?
Told from alternating perspectives, this epic fairy tale retelling is a romantic and heart-wrenching story about the complications of sisterhood, the uncompromising nature of magic, and the cost of redemption.
Review
In my last review, one of my dislikes was how slow the story was. It seemed to take some time to get going, but with this one, we jump straight into it. Runa can’t believe her twin sister, Alia, would give up her life for a prince she never met and rushes to the Sea Witch, aka Evie, to fix it. It’s interesting to see how these characters view Evie, which is just as the Sea Witch. She’s still the same character, but older, wiser, and more powerful.
Except she can’t leave. The Sea King has bound her.
The other main character, Runa, is determined and will do whatever it takes to get her sister back. She hasn’t experienced love outside of sisterly and doesn’t believe the prince will love Alia. As I said, she’ll do whatever it takes, even if that means leaving her home behind.
I like the switching of viewpoints between Evie and Runa. Part of me wishes we spent more time with Evie, but this is more of Runa’s story and there’s not much for Evie to do since she is stuck in one spot.
What they don’t realize is there’s a war brewing on the surface that could destroy sea life as well. Runa isn’t the only one with magic on land wanting to stop it and there are a few good twists and turns when it comes to new characters I wasn’t expecting. When something happens not even halfway through the book, I was caught off guard and didn’t know where it would go from there.
Runa does have a bit of a love interest, which I’m okay with. I’m not one for rushed love interests, but I can see this as being part of the retelling of a fairytale. It just seemed like, for someone like Runa, it felt a bit fast. But I like slow buildups so that’s a personal thing.
Overall
Sea Witch Rising is a step up from Sea Witch. The pacing is faster and without all the background information the first book gives, the story gets going and the threat is established early on. I didn’t know where the story was going, which is a good thing for me, and since I really liked Evie’s character in the first book, was excited to see how much she’s changed.
It has a big theme about not judging people’s choices, even if at the time, they believed they were doing the right thing. Even if they seem like an evil sea monster (i.e. Evie.)
If you enjoyed or semi-liked Sea Witch, I recommend giving this one a read. Even if you haven’t read Sea Witch, you can still catch up with a different take on The Little Mermaid story.
My Rating:
Side note: I want to send a huge thanks to Cassie @ZombieGoddessBeauty for making me these rating pictures that I’ll now be using in my reviews. She does headers, icons, signatures, and a lot more so check out her Etsy as well.
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