You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, BHC, and the author via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Sea of the Dead picks up just about where The Immortal City pretty much left off. Penelope is the Archivist and she is navigating her new found relationship with Alexis as carefully as she can stand. Meanwhile, Tim Sanders, Penelope's friend from Uni is on a dig out in the Dead Sea when he stumbles upon a lost scroll believed to be from the Essenes. When the scroll turns up on Penelope's doorstep she realises that Tim may be in more trouble than he bargained for as the scroll seems to have ties to Abaddon and Kreios. They must find him before the priests of Thevetat do. When Penelope can't keep her friend Carolyn away, she'll soon find out the sacrifices one must make when faced with life with the Magicians.

When I saw this cover on the Netgalley dashboard, I thought "ooh, that's a pretty cover..." then I had a moment of realisation that it reminded me of another e-galley that I had read last year pretty much exactly a year ago from today and I nearly had a conniption. I realised that it WAS in fact the second book in the Magicians of Venice series and I was just beside myself until I got the confirmation notification that my review request had been accepted.

So, if you haven't read the first book in this series, which is titled - The Immortal City - stop right now, turn around and go back, read that book, then come back. Trust me, this is a series that needs to be read in order for you to truly understand what's going on, the character relationships, and I think, just to generally enjoy the novel in itself.

Now, I was pretty surprised when I looked back on my review of the first book, because I remember getting to the end and going "wow, I enjoyed that story" yet I only gave it a three star rating, and I do remember why, I just felt like I had rated it a little higher than that, given my excitement upon recognising this book as it's follow up. But no matter, I'll stop rambling and get to the review.

Sea of the Dead picks up pretty much straight after the events of The Immortal City, though the story opens on Tim Sanders in the Dead Sea on a dig when he stumbles upon a scroll. The action was go go go from the beginning because of this. Things in Venice are much as we remember them, and I love that there was no awkward reacquanting ourself with the story, it was as though it was a continuation of the previous instalment, which I absolutely LOVE in a series. It adds a level of continuity to a story that I think is important.

Penelope is trying to acclimate to being the Archivist and the Magicians are going about being Magicians, so nothing much has changed there. They're still on the hunt for the Priests of Thevetat and are working with Marco in Venice to try and find them all and get rid of them. When the scroll drags Penelope's normal life into her new magician life, things take a turn for the hectic. Not only does Penelope have to deal with the realisation that she's not the same person that she was, she also starts to realise how difficult it is for her best friends to be a part of this new life she's created.

The story's pacing was good and I felt like I got through this one much quicker and easier than the first, though granted, this book didn't have a world, magic system, and history to create, which I think made a huge difference as well. We were able to just drop into the world and know how it worked and what was going on. The story kept me guessing and kept me glued to the book needing to know what happened next, in all honesty, the action didn't really let up at all. I am curious to know what happened to the cats though...

The characters are still the same ones that we know and love from the first book, and I'm here for all of them. I have a weird soft spot for Lyca and I really hope we get to see her take more of a forward placement in the story as it progresses.

While the overarching storyline of Thevetat is no where near finished in this instalment, the plot of this novel is wrapped up, and while the ending was slightly predictable in ways, it didn't take away from the story at all for me.

This is a wonderful series of magic, romance, and history and I want more people to recognise how enjoyable it is! The only reason I'm not giving it five stars is because it didn't give that good book tingle that I get sometimes from a book that has just blown me away. Otherwise it's a great continuation onto the story and I'm looking forward to the next one!

this book has started as 4.5-5 star book for me, considering it to be Paul L. Mainer's awesome archeological thrillers meet magical elements, but soon enough became 2-2.5 stars read and it is only for the reference of Qumran, historical references of biblical and ancient Israeli historical references. I do apologize to the author for a bad rating of this work, I am sure it took a lot of effort, however, this whole book was like listening to phone conversations and every 10 pages drop and historical reference. This was one long dialogue between many characters with basically very little meaning to it. The book starts with red sea scrolls and esseans references, which creates an atmosphere of this awesome archeological work of fiction, but unfortunately didn't escalate or deliver. We don't really need to overuse F-word, D-word, not in a work that can completely deliver very deep historical meaning & background. I understand and appreciate the use of sacral #7 a lot in the work, but adding up Atlantis, Dead Sea Scrolls, Archives, magic and didn't deliver, unfortunately, is a big disappointment for me.
Would love to give more than 2 stars for research done, but very sorry, this work didn't work out for me.

thє ѕєα σf thє dєαd rєvíєw⁣
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🧳🦂🌔🗺🧳🦂🌔🗺🧳🦂🌔🗺🧳🦂🌔⁣
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To put it simply, Amy Kuivalainen has hit it out of the park again with Book 2 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘢 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘥 of the Magicians of Venice series! ⁣
4.5 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫stars!⁣
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🪐🌙⭐️🪐🌙⭐️🪐🌙⭐️🪐🌙⭐️🪐🌙⭐️⁣
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If you haven’t heard of this series and are a fantasy/paranormal genre fanatic then you are missing out and NEED to run and get this series ASAP! ⁣
Book 1 of the series is 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘊𝘪𝘵𝘺.⁣
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🌞🌛🌍🌝🌛🌏🌞🌜🌓🌒🌞🌕🌖🌗🌜⁣
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The world building and historical aspects that Amy creates around the fictional priesthood of Atlantis into modern times is amazing. I love Penelope’s character; she is a strong intellectual woman with a vulnerable side, but she’s no push over; and it works! ⁣
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Book 2 focuses on Penelope’s role as Archivist for the magicians library of Atlantis and their continuing war with the demon Thevetat’s priests. This story takes you on an adventure to learn the secret of a scroll that shouldn’t exist found at the Dead Sea! This book has everything I live: Adventure, Mystery, Some Romance, a Kick Butt Heroine, Magic, Some Historical Fiction..it’s great! ⁣
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Thank you @bhc.press and @akuivalainen for this Netgalley ARC for an honest review. ⁣
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Get your copy out September 17, 2020 and..⁣
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Happy Reading Everyone!⁣
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I really wanted to enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed the first instalment in the series. The Immortal City - but unfortunately there were a few issues that prevented it from being as great a read for me. I'll start with the elements I did enjoy; the romance between Penelope and Alexis was still going strong and I especially enjoyed a scene in last 1/4 of the novel where the characters confess their feelings for the first time. I also enjoyed the historical elements, much like the first one, there's a lot of references to archeology, ancient civilisations and the past but in a way which doesn't feel amateur. It just enriches the book. I also liked that we got to touch base with the other characters we were introduced to and they're even more of an established family now which I really liked.

What could have been improved was the pacing and introduction of the 'newer' characters. I don't know why but this entire book sort of felt like a filler episode of a tv show? The pacing felt so bizarre to me and there was a lot of time spent on seemingly insignificant moments, which would have been better suited to take less time and would have tightened the book up a lot more. In particular the focus on Tim and Carolyn and their reactions to Pen's new life was such a big deal and repeated multiple times. I get why Tim was involved due to the whole Dead Sea scrolls and stuff but even so, both Tim and Carolyn were characters I just didn't connect with and disliked that we had to spend such considerable time with them. It was built up a lot and it just didn't deliver an impact for me.

I also felt uncomfortable that while the book does make mention of and explores issues like exploitation to name just one, a large portion of the novel takes place in Israel but there is literally no mention of the annexation of Palestine or conflict in the West Bank and it felt like it was deliberately ignored or glossed over. It just struck me as odd in a book where history and conflict is in the forefront and deeper issues are referenced, for instance even in a seemingly mythical civilisation like Atlantis, a character makes mention of the oppression that existed there, yet in the context of the real world, this commentary or any reference was absent.

Overall, while I wanted to really love this book, it was a mediocre and anticlimactic read for me for many reasons, but I do still want to find out what happens to the characters in the end so maybe I'll still read the next book, I'm not sure. I feel like this was just setting up for the big ending or showdown, rather than being an interesting instalment in it's own right.

I did that thing where I requested this book without realizing it was the second in a series, but to be fair, the title does not include the fact that it's a sequel. Regardless, I found the book very well-written, and very rich in setting and mood, and I'm eager to read the first one!

The book wasn't engaging at all times, but I found the whole experience to be fine enough. The writing was easy to get into, the characters were fairly likable. I will consider reading more from this series.

3 STARS ★★★✩✩
This book is for you if… you're really in the mood to continue this series and are confident that nothing will sour your mood easily. This as an okay-ish read only.

⤐ Overall.
It's not hard to deduct that I wasn't particularly wooed by The Sea of the Dead. Unfortunately, I didn't feel the plot a lot of the time. I wasn't bored out of my mind or maddened by any of the content, but sitting at the edge of your seat because the suspense is killing The Immortal City was such an unexpected pleasure and a great introduction into the NetGalley part of my life, the sequel really put a damper on the series as a whole. I'm honestly not even sure whether I'd continue/complete The Magicians of Venice.

The mythology part of the plot seemed mostly believable although I get very confused when people claim not to be religious but then call themselves spiritual. If it's some New Age candle and plant shit and you wanna call that spiritual, fine, keep fooling yourself. If it's believing in higher powers of any kind it's got nothing to do with spirituality, it is religious. Thanks for coming to my Tedtalk.

⤐ What’s happening.
‘On her list of things that would never happen to her, being assessed as girlfriend material by a sea dragon was at the top.’

This assessment at the eyes of a sea dragon is only a tame element of the events Penelope, Alexis and the magicians of Venice will be going through in this book, in which an old friend of Penelope's sends her a scroll which hides a prophecy that could help rid the world of Thevetat and his priesthood once and for all.
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3 STARS. Decent read that I have neither strongly positive nor negative feelings about. Some thinks irked me and thus it does not qualify as exceptional.

Book two in our beloved Magicians of Venice series takes us on a trip to Israel and the Dead Sea, where a new cave has been discovered carrying an ancient scroll discovered by an old friend of Penelope's.

New discoveries show us that the Priests of Thevetat are also after this scroll for it carries the secret to destroying their Master and his twisted plans.

As always, I am stunned by how realistic Amy makes the story. This is Paranormal Fantasy at it's best. There are very few moment in the book where I thought, this could never happen.

Fantastic books 2 with an ending that leaves me wanting more.

Another delightful story from Amy Kuivalainen. For the life of me, I don't understand why this series isn't trending like wildfire among the urban fantasy / paranormal romance / historical fiction crowd.

Penelope is settling into her new life as the Archivist for the magicians of Venice, learning about her new abilities and getting to know the collection that she stewards (and her new handsome beau, Alexis). Unexpectedly, she receives a strange piece of mail from Tim, a close friend and fellow archaeologist, that suggests that not only has he stumbled into a strange magical artifact, but that he is now being chased by the same evil cultists that have been troubling the magicians.

Penelope and her new family must find Tim before his pursuers, solve the mystery behind his great find, and reckon with a new and disturbing prophecy that ties them all together.

An exciting read, and I eagerly await book three.

The magicians are at it again! The dangers have increased, Penelope finds herself in a world of trouble when one of her best friends snd her a scroll with a prophecy having to do with her magicians. As the hunt for Abbadon and Thevetat continues, she finds that the dangers are involving her loved ones, which she never intended to happen.

Penelope and her relationship, with the Magicians, has become less turbulent and definitely more family-like. Now that Tim and Carolyn are involved her relationship with them becomes harder to cope with. Carolyn is having issues with Penelope's behavior and Tim is becoming possessive about both of them. Overall the book was as amazing as the first. I felt the action was very well placed and it absolutely had everything I love in a good book. Magic, love, relationships, funny moments (usually at someone's expense.), and never-ending action. It doesn't hurt that the characters are all very mature as well as childlike and are extremely understanding. Kuivalainen is a wonderful author and that ending was very good. I need book 3 now.

A debatable belief I have when it comes to sequels is that they should be able to read as standalone books even though they use their predecessors as foundations. I shouldn't feel like a chicken with its head cut off. It's why games like Uncharted work. Why you can read most of Harry Potter out of order. A sequel has to be a good book no matter what came before it. It's also imperative that if there are things you need to know that they are revealed organically and not thrown at you without giving you a chance to breathe.

There was a lot of see-sawing with the development of the story. The prologue with Tim in the cave had me hooked and I thought this might be the book to pull me out of the three-star funk I've found myself in lately. Once you meet the thousands of years old magicians things become muddled. Six characters are introduced, as are the enemy organization and the Villain. It's rushed at you. Part of it was to let us know where we are in the story after the events of book one which I haven't read but for new readers, it's too much information. This happens again the next time we have an Alexis point of view chapter. More names, more groups of people. It doesn't give me a chance to ease into the world.

For what it is worth, this book is well written despite what I would call the requirement for you to have read book one. Kuivalainen's detail with locations came across as meticulously researched and reminded me of the effort that Ubisoft puts into their Assassins Creed games. I haven't looked into it so I am unaware if this was supposed to skew towards a younger audience or not but it does. That also caught me off guard because the prologue was leading me to believe it could have been a very specific type of book and what I ended up with feels like something I could grab off of any bookstore shelf right now.

This was a really great sequel to the series started in The Immortal City. This series reminds me so much of A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (one of my favorite series!) and I loved the parallels between the two series. The characters themselves and their relationships were also very similar to the characters in A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas.

I highly recommend this series to anyone who had an obsession with Atlantis as a child, as well as anyone who liked the books I mentioned above.

This book continues the story of Penelope’s involvement with the Atlantis survivors, with appearances from her friends Tim and Carolyn. I can’t really go into detail without spoiling the book, but I really enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to the next book in the series!

To put it simply, I love this series and was completely psyched to receive a galley copy of The Sea of the Dead. If I wasn't already obsessed with the Magicians of Venice after the first book, I sure am now. It's basically my life-long sorrow that I am not a member of their 10,000 year old family. This is a solid middle-of-series book. The pacing of the action was well balanced with the emotional growth of the characters. The ending left me hanging, but in the best way. Bring on book 3!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Dr. Peneople Bryne and the Magicians are back in a splendid follow up to The Immortal City. After near death experiences with ancient enemies Penelope barely has time to settle into her new role as the Archivist before another threat emerges. Her fellow scholar and old friend Tim goes missing after finding a scroll. This scroll could be the key to unraveling the mysterious disappearance of an ancient civilization thousands of years ago. Can Penelope and the fellow Magicians find Tim before a demonic priesthood can use him and the scroll to bring forth an evil like the world has never seen?

I cannot sing my praise of this series enough! Book 1 lead us on a great adventure that left very little for me to criticize besides the typical "love and infatuation at first sight/most beautiful man I've ever laid eyes on" trope we often see in this genre of book. But that didn't deter me when the story proved to be so well thought out and executed, I quite literally couldn't sleep wondering what was going to happen next. The Sea of the Dead was an even better dose of this world, and with an already established relationship between Penelope and Alexis I have nothing left to complain about. The romance was still plenty present, but it didn't overpower the equisite world the author weaved.

The new characters offer the author an expanded sandbox to continue construction on this series I honestly wish would never end. I have heard rumor that it will be a trilogy and I will be pleased as punch to be allowed atleast one more run around with ALL of these characters. The Magicians all have depth and don't read as
supporting characters, often times outshining Penelope on the page and I'm certainly not complaining. The villians are like ogres in that they have layers....layers for days.

Overall, I highly recommend BOTH of these novels. I gave The Immortal City a four star rating and The Sea of the Dead an extremely bright five star rating. There is very little adult content so I would say the age range could be from 13 and up as there is some violence in the first one that could be seen as inappropriate for younger readers.

This is Amy Kuivalainen’s second book in The Magicians of Venice series and I was not disappointed. When I saw this book was up to request I knew I needed to get it in my hands right then. This book continues Penelope and Alexis’s journey after saving Venice in the Immortal city.

After being sent something surprising from a colleague and trusted friend Penelope along with Alexis, and a few of the other Magicians, and Penelope’s best friend Carolyn head out to Israel to find Penelope’s missing friend. Along the way the uncover more information in the war again Thevetat and his followers.

This book gave me everything I look for in a book. It has romance (Alexis Donato, need I say more), mystery, friendship, humor, adventure, great story telling, and legends brought to life. Thought this book we get to know a little bit more about the other Magicians as well as how Penelope and Alexis’s relationship deepens and grows. These memorable characters have quickly grown into some of my favorites.

The world building is beautiful and I want to live in the libraries and archives. One thing I love about this author is that you can tell she put the time and research into the historical aspects of her stories. Not only does she build the modern world wonderfully but you can also picture the past when brought forth when characters are reminiscing.

The book wraps up nicely while still giving you just enough mystery and leaving just enough open to give you a since of rightness while still keeping you excited and entranced enough to be ready for the exit installment.