The Isle in the Silver Sea

An Epic Fantasy™ read, romantic, full of love, beautiful.

This story has a rather slower first part, which ends in a way that broke my heart in the best way and then the story continues on to be what it is set out to be: an epic tale.

I absolutely didn't mind the slower pace as pieces of the puzzle were lay out before us while following the quests that lead all of the characters (and our MCs Vina and Simran must of all of course) to the ending of the first part, and then to start the second part of the book. I felt it was worth it. The pace made me take my time which i appreciated deeply as it made the rest of the book hit as it did.

I loved the world and the writing fit so well to it, to the tale and our beloved Knight and Witch. This is a book that would be so good on reread too, I know as I couldn't help but reread some passages after finishing it.

The world in this story and everything in it went so well together and was well executed, to my taste at least. All elements were interlocked with one another in a beautiful way, all displaying the story's themes in a way that worked so well for me: reincarnation, tales as magic and foundation of everything, the romantic tale and the epic one, this redline that guides the story. Themes I love to see, around colonization and its repercussion, its intentional and active maintenance and its violence, to the systemic level through to the personal; but also around finding oneself in the mist of it.
(I sadly don't think I'm able to express myself any better and do justice to this though, I feel my limitations as non-native English speaker here.)

The last important point that stays in my mind and will stay for a long time is how great and intersectional the queer representation was and central too. It's one of very few books I read that blends it so naturally its story. The romantic scenes, the love (in all its forms) scenes and descriptions were then perfectly to my taste which almost never happens.

I genuinely enjoyed this book. The writing was very simple and the plot points were a bit obvious, but this stories characters are well developed and you understand their motivations and heart. My biggest complaint, and this books biggest sin, is redundant statements.

Something akin to, well if Simran wondered how Vina felt then she had no way of knowing.

Yeah, no duh. None of have anyway of knowing. You don't have to tell us after you showed us. You can trust us to read between the lines. These redundant type of statements are a big pet peeve for me.

And even with all of that, it was an enjoyable saphic romantasy