SpookyWife

Roughly the first half of this book is about the coming of age of the Rowan, an orphaned child who displays Talent (mind powers) and is taken in as a ward of the planet. She studies at The Tower to one day become a Prime. This part of the book is good. We get to see the Rowan grow from frightened child to a strong, smart, & powerful woman.

The problem lies in the latter half of the story when the Rowan falls head over heels for the mysterious Talent Jeff Raven. Her personality does a 180 into a fawning lovey dovey puppy. I kind of get it, as the whole book up until this point has stressed how alone the Rowan is, so when she finally finds 'the one' she leans in pretty hard. But these two just act like horny teenagers whenever they are together. They do not stop. And Jeff is… a lot. He's supposed to be a charming country man type but just comes off as rude and arrogant. And then there's the whole casual mind rape bit Jeff does to the Rowan out of nowhere. The book spends a lot of time stressing how unethical mental intrusions are and then Jeff just casually blasts through the Rowan's mind without repercussion. I think we're suppose to be in awe of how strong his Talent is by seeing him perform this act but its very nonconsensual and icky.

I like this book for the first half of the story and the end. The big danger in the book is discussed and wrapped up in a single chapter which was disappointing. So, the story feels more like a space slice of life instead of a great adventure.

The first half of the book is a forbidden sibling romance story with sea magic sprinkled in. In the second half, the story is about kingdom politics, while also recapping everything told in the first half, which made things drag since you already know what happened. Valraven has the personality of wet cardboard but he does get a little more interesting in the end. I'll probably pick up the next book in the series just to learn more about the mystery that is revealed in the final chapter. Overall 'meh'.