Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong

Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong

2014, HarperCollins

Series: Book 1 of Age of Legends

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Synopsis: In the Forest of the Dead, where the empire’s worst criminals are exiled, twin sisters Moria and Ashyn are charged with a dangerous task. For they are the Keeper and the Seeker, and each year they must quiet the enraged souls of the damned.

Only this year, the souls will not be quieted.

Ambushed and separated by an ancient evil, the sisters’ journey to find each other sends them far from the only home they’ve ever known. Accompanied by a stubborn imperial guard and a dashing condemned thief, the girls cross a once-empty wasteland, now filled with reawakened monsters of legend, as they travel to warn the emperor. But a terrible secret awaits them at court—one that will alter the balance of their world forever.

The Good: Kelley Armstrong knows how to write a good book, so the mechanics are there if you can gather enough interest to get through Sea of Shadows.

The Bad: I was flat out bored reading Sea of Shadows. I have never, even slightly, felt that way reading a Kelley Armstrong book. I'm a huge fan of hers and I couldn't believe she wrote this. It was slow, hard to get into. It was confusing, this world she created and the actual point of Moira and Ashyn's existence. The entire point was lost on me. Why would a community exile people, knowing they would die, and then have to trek out there every year due to the havoc the souls could cause? Wouldn't it be easier to just have the death penalty and deal with the souls then? Or do anything else that wouldn't directly cause a dangerous situation you have to repeatedly fix? I spent the entire book wondering why we were bothering with any of this.