It was an easy 5-stars. Not many sequels to 5-star books live up to their first book, but wow Adrienne Young did not disappoint. I actually didn't read "Fable" until I was able to access "Namesake" because I don't' like to wait. And I am so glad I was able to read this! I finished "Namesake" in one sitting, a book that allows you an escape to a fictional world of pirates, gem sages and love. This novel is so pure, the characters so dynamic and a plot that twists and turns through the reefs of the Unnamed Sea, to the Narrows and beyond. There is a back and forth on feelings and emotions with the characters, which leaves you guessing at the end of each chapter, and wanting more. I find I am not always satisfied with endings, but this one, I was 100%. It was a perfect duology.

In Namesake, the second book of the duology, a kidnapped Fable is carried across the Unnamed Sea. Will West and his crew come for her? Does West actually care? Ghosts from Fable’s past continue to emerge as secrets are revealed about both her parentage and her powers. Through it all, she must confront the reality that West is as bound up in her father’s schemes and deceptions as she is. Trader? Pirate is more accurate. Can she count on Saint even a little bit, or is he the reason for the mess she’s in? Can she still trust West when such darkness lies inside him?

When the most powerful merchant in the Unnamed Sea offers Fable a position at her side, Fable must decide whether to cut line with her past or make peace with its imperfections. In the end, she discovers that she is both her mother’s and her father’s daughter, with the powers of both to forge her own destiny.

This book is not so much a romance as it is the story of a girl and her father. (Spoiler alert!) The book begins with Saint refusing to let Fable ever tell anyone about their relationship. The book ends with Saint claiming Fable in front of the whole trade council. West, Fable’s romantic interest, is in some ways just a cipher for Fable’s father, a window through which Fable can look to understand how her mother Isolde could have ever loved Saint. Although many of the plot points of the story were easy to guess ahead of time, the gradual revelations about Fable’s past were skillfully done.

Although this duology is not as violent as Young’s Viking-based fantasy books (Sky in the Deep and The Girl the Sea Gave Back) there is still a fascination with violence that, I think, leads to a glorification of it. Similar to the popular mafia heroes of many new adult series, the folk of the Narrows are willing to do whatever it takes (even murdering the innocent) to protect their loved ones from harm or insult. In keeping with many modern YA trends, this story has an LGBT relationship with two of the secondary characters and a sexual relationship between the romantic leads.

Immersive world-building continues to be a hallmark of Adrienne Young’s prose, and the gripping storyline makes this duology even more compelling than her last series.

Pirate adventures, romance, family dysfunction, brawls, closely-held family secrets - this book has it all. It’s a romping run through a world of tradesmen and pirates, swashbuckling and gem gathering.

This book picks up where the first of the duology, Fable, left off. I never read Fable but I had no trouble picking up the storyline. Fable has been separated from her crew on the Marigold by her father and she is working to get back to them.

I especially loved the gem gathering aspect of this book. As a dredger, Fable shows keen insight and intuition in locating and collecting gemstones from reefs. It’s a rugged job involving free diving (for what seems like many minutes at a time) to locate the best gems. Additionally she perceives the gems as having identifying sounds that help her locate them quickly,

This is a fun, fast-paced read with good characters and a whole lot of relationship drama. Buckle up!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my digital copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

I was so excited to get approved for the sequel to Fable but for some reason, I didn't like it as much as I thought I would...and that could totally be just me in a phase where I don't like to read as much. And judging by the reviews, I would say it most likely is a case of that because everyone loved it even more than the first one. So by all means, do not go by my review. Fable is very much a badass woman and I love her character...I would also love it if they decided to make a movie out of this...and why wouldn't they? In this book, we learn a little more about Fable's past and even her Mother's past...we find out that Fable has a grandmother she never knew about and why her Mother left that life and what took her to the life where she met Fable's Father. Koy comes back again, along with West and all of the others and none of them appear to be who we think they are either...As I am writing this review, I am changing my rating to 4 stars because recapping made me think I liked it more than I originally did :)

Thanks to NetGalley for the copy for review!
The story of Fable continues in spectacular fashion. Full of family drama and diving in stormy waters, this sequel continues where Fable left off. We meet more of Fable's elusive family, and the various plots of her father Saint. I found the love story in this to be a bit cringey, and honestly felt like it was completely unnecessary, but the rest of the novel was absolutely fantastic. Great characters and fun scheming. I wouldn't say any plot devices or twists were surprises, but it made no difference as to the enjoyment of the book.

This was so much better than book one. I’m very impressed with what Young did here and the direction she took the story and characters. I didn’t care for Fable in book one because she didn’t feel developed but I loved her in this one. She definitely goes through some solid growth throughout the entire novel. The side characters are much better here as well. The plot was paced much better and I found that it really had me hooked from the very beginning. Also, more world building which was great because this setting is pretty cool.

The only thing I still think Young hasn’t quite mastered is the romance. Her romances never work for me and it didn’t here either unfortunately. I think because the hero, West, was the least developed character of the bunch. He was incredibly dull and it feels like I never got to know him. He and Fable lacked any romantic chemistry but I did like them working together.

I liked how everything wrapped up. I’m pretty sure this series is a duology and while book one left a lot to be desired for me this book definitely made up for it. It was a very fun read.

The Review
✨ The Title/Cover Draw:
Another gorgeous cover and I love how it fits with the first. I actually got approved for this one and then read the first in preparation.
💜 What I liked:
We are continuing to follow the path of Fable in her search for happiness and her journey to knowing herself. Still a lot of action but not as much kept my attention in this one as the first one.
😱 What I didn’t like:
Even though this book was thoroughly enjoyable, I felt like there was more filler than the first book. It wasn’t boring by any means, and the journey was still good. I just preferred the first book to this one. However, it is necessary to finish the duology if you have already read the first one
💁‍♀️ The Characters:
Same as before. Fable, West, Willa, Auster, Paj, and Hamish are still on the Marigold with a quest. Returning from the first book is Koy (from Fable’s past as a dredger), Zola (the villain), and Saint who is Fable’s father. New character Holland comes in with a new twist in the plot.
🚦 The Ending:
While the ending is sweet, I would have liked to see more about what the characters end up doing.
💭 Consider if you:
Have read the first one and love tales of adventure.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Received from Netgalley.

I’m so sad it’s over!!!

This is one of those rare times that a story goes perfectly for me. There’s no second book disaster, no rushed ending because it needed to be a trilogy, it was just a perfect duology.

Fable is such a smart heroine and West ugh he’s just the right amount of tortured. I’m always a sucker for side characters and this book doesn’t disappoint! Saint, Clove, everyone aboard the Marigold, her grandmother (OMG). Like so well written!

Namesake is a Plot driven book and as such it’s a super fast read. There’s not going to be a lot of world building here, but it’s a duology and that’s expected! It’s the perfect ending to this story, but I’d totally be open to more stories in this world!!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC, in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are my own!

I personally loved this book and devoured it in one day. The descriptive language is beautiful and soothing to my sea-loving soul. I was immediately drawn to these characters from the beginning of Book 1: Fable - and my live for them only grew as book 2 continued. However, I teach in a private Lutheran school. Even though it’s relatively mild, the physical/sexual nature of the relationship between unmarried youth is not one we condone or promote among our students. For this reason, I will not be using this in my classroom nor encouraging my students to read it.

Namesake by Adrienne Young is the second and final installment of the Fable Duology. Let me preface this by saying that I kept putting off reading Fable bc I was afraid of all the hype it was getting and I didn’t want to be disappointed….that said…. I most definitely was not disappointed and Namesake continued that trend. I thoroughly loved this series as a whole and, whereas Fable caught my attention from the start, Namesake filled my heart with its characters and the relationships between the different parts of Fable’s life.

Namesake picks up where Fable left off with Fable having been kidnapped by a competing Trader and one with a grudge, not only against West and The Marigold, but also Fable’s father, Saint. In this book we follow Fable as she sorts through her feelings and how to get out of her current mess. In this book we learn so much about Fable’s past and her family. We get to travel back to Jeval, sail into the Unnamed Sea, visit the people of Bastian and the fearsome Holland, and attend a Trade Council meeting between The Narrows and The Unnamed Sea. The growing romance between Fable and West continues and is both shattering and beautiful throughout the second book.

I love Fable as a female character. She is strong, sassy, and knows her own mind. She definitely doesn’t take any shit from others AND we get to see her grow, along with the rest of the crew of The Marigold. Now, obviously I love the relationship between Fable and West but I think, perhaps, my favorite characters are Auster and Clove. They are just real and supportive/understanding of Fable and her decisions, even when they don’t necessarily agree with her. I also love Saint. As a character he is both mysterious and strong and I really just loved him from the beginning…. Like you knew he was hiding so much but you also know that somewhere in there, he truly loves his daughter. It was the conversations between him and Fable that were my favorites…especially towards the end of Namesake.

I think anyone who loves high sea adventures and character growth will love this book/series. Sometimes when you have a duology the second book kind of tapers off and you have lot that is unnecessary fluff to fill the story or the author gives us an unbelievable amount of information into the last book but Adrienne Young managed to give you the perfect middle. The book was full of adventure and plot lines without being too full of fluff or information.

Unlike Fable, Namesake's predecessor, Namesake captured my attention from the very beginning. Fable required a couple of chapters to really get into the meat of the story, while this sequel drops the reader right into a couple of shocking twists as well as the arrival of a frustrating character from the first book. The writing is the lush and lyrical style that we're accustomed to from Adrienne Young in her previous offerings, providing a smooth reading experience. Namesake is a treat in that it has something special to it that Fable lacked; a cohesive, character-driven plot, to start with. There's a new villain or two to contend with, in a world that has opened up with a shift in Fable's motivations. I thoroughly enjoyed Adrienne Young's newest offering, and I look forward to more books by her in the future.

The Perfect conclusion to this Pirate-esque duology. Although, I'd love to read more about Fable, I'm fully satisfied. I wish I could go island hopping or smell the sea. 5/5 fully recommend this series for winter escapism.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53138025-namesake

I received an ARC of this from Netgalley and I loved it. Namesake is one of the rare occasions where the sequel is better than the first book. Young weaves together so many intriguing plotlines and really creates a complex and strong character in her protagonist, Fable. It was, at times, a little too convenient when everything kept working out for Fable and her crew, but I personally enjoyed it and am a little tired of YA fantasy series where nothing seems to go right for the characters. This was so engaging that I finished it in a day.

Namesake was so much better than Fable in my opinion. Fable left me with wondering if Namesake would be any good as Fable just wasn't enough of everything to me & I was bored with it half the time. But Namesake was a book that held interest so much more. Which is definitely a good thing when it's a duology. You want the second book to be great and close the story properly. you want it to feel finished. Namesake did all that and more. So much more intrigue, action, family ties, love, fighting, power struggles, wealth, trickery. I'm glad Adrienne saved all the good stuff for Namesake & maybe she purposely put more into it than fable. Or it could of been all the hype that fable received that made the book a let down to me when I read it. Namesake on the other hand is well deserved of any hype and I hope other readers feel it had the work of greatness in it's pages.
I would love if Adrienne wrote a prequel or two in the future for this duology. Isolde & Saint's younger lives until Fable is born would be a great tale or West & Willa's story would be nice to know more of. But Really Isolde & Saint's is what I'd be most interested in.
I was given this ARC of Namesake to leave my personal opinion & thoughts in review by NetGalley, Wednesday books, St. Martin's publishing group.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of Namesake. My spoiler free review is below.

Namesake is just as action packed and stunning as Fable. It is the best kind of sequel that takes the world you grew to love in a book and cracks it open to reveal a much larger and engaging world. The character growth and revelations in this book make the expanded world even better. Namesake was honestly just a joy to read.

Namesake was even better than its predecessor and that is hard to find in stories with multiple installments.

Once again the reader is thrust back into the works of pirates where very little is what it seems. The larger focus of this book seems to be Fable’s relationship with her father. Watching that relationship grow and evolve as Fable came into her own is a journey I could go on again and again.

I was a little out off by how neatly everything wrapped up but it felt right. Fable’s journey feels complete with this installment as much as I want to go back to her world and experience more. I would love to know more about Fable’s mother’s story which is still left very unknown in Namesake as well.

What to say? This was a great ending to a great duet... I loved meeting Fable's grandmother and getting to know her father better!

This was certainly a wild ride as we uncovered mystery after mystery and learnt more about Fable's mothers past. I throughly enjoyed this story and was captivated the whole way through... West and Fable were both equally fierce and both fought for each other so well. I also loved that their was redemption for characters had been written off as bad in the first on and I loved the plan that had been set in motion for years! This is such a excellent well rounded book that people of all ages will love,

I loved that this book wrapped everything up so well, but not in a way that felt rushed or trite. Another excellent fantasy story from Adrienne Young, she is an author whose work I will always pick up!

Namesake is a must read conclusion to this duology. It was action packed from the first page to the end. It was great returning to this seafaring world with Saint, Fable, West and the rest of the crew from the Marigold.

I love that in Namesake we get to see more of Fables family history, learning about her mom and her side of the family... but even more than that I loved seeing more of Saint.. I knew there was more to him that what we saw in Fable. The love between West and Fable grows, and we see what they are willing to do, so that they can stay together forever.

Namesake picks up right where Fable leaves off with Fable waking up on the deck of a ship tied to the mast. She has been kidnapped my Zola and he says he will let her go, if she does somethings for him. While she is stuck there for the time being she never stops thinking of how she can escape and find her way back to West. Little does she know that she is in the middle of a plot by two different people, and that when they finally run there course things for Fable and what she knows about her own family will end up changing things forever.

I can't wait for this book to be released, I will definitely be buying it and reading this duology again and again.

What a fantastic conclusion to this duology. This book picks up right where the first ended. The continuing pirate adventure of a gem sage/dredger and her sort-of crew and her incredibly complicated family history. Wow! This book kind of floored me, to be honest. One of the more stunning and immersive YAs that I've read in a while. Fable is everything I would want in a heroine and believe me when I say that Adrienne Young completely transported me to world of pirates and gem traders and reef divers/dredgers and horizons of all oceans and murder and betrayal.

Abandoned by her father at thirteen after the death of her mother at sea, Fable has scraped a living in a small and brutal island town by dredging for pyre in the ocean. She's been planning to escape to find her father, finally getting her chance when she flees a rival dredger determined to kill her by jumping aboard a trader's ship and paying him everything she owns to get off the island. The adventure she embarks upon is not one that she was expecting and is probably one of my favorite ocean setting books I've ever read. I could smell the salt in the air, feel the cool spray off the prow, hear the rhythmic lapping of the waves in my sleep. I kid you not - I had not one but TWO ocean dreams in the three days that I was reading this book.

This was loads of fun and I loved every minute of it!

Non Bias Review in exchange for an E-ARC.

This book was a perfect conclusion to the world we were introduced to in Fable. Not only did we get to see our favorite characters and get to the bottom of that crazy cliffhanger from book 1 but we get to explore a lor more of the world Adrianne Young has created. We get some shocking reveals about Fable and her family that completely make sense and you finally get to answer some of those questions you had about where she got her powers from.
I loved everything about this book and will definitely recommend it to everyone.
Thank you so much for the Advanced Copy.