I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Is it sad that The Girl Who Belonged to the Sea has been on my TBR for almost a year? I think it is because I finally found the time to jump into this. While this might be the first book within The Azantian Trilogy, I can already tell you that I'm super excited to jump into the next two books.

In this, you will meet Margrete and Bash. Now I absolutely adored, loved, and cherished these two characters. Seriously, I don't think I've ever fallen so quickly in love with someone after meeting them. It was definitely main character insta-love syndrome and I'm okay with that.

Now Margrete's life sucks. She's constantly abused by her own father and dreams of escaping. The only downside if she leaves, her little sister will be subjected to the torture instead. So, when she's thrown into a random marriage, she doesn't think she will be rescued by some pirates. Handsome pirates that is.

Enter Bash. These two were just peas in a pod. They were so similar to one another it was kind of scary. They are both selfless and grow on one another quite easily. Which, yes, made things very easy to ship them together. The constant push and pull within their relationship made it way too easy to devour. I loved their bantering so much and the sexual tension between them made their chemistry very likable.

In the end, I had so much fun reading this book. Silently kicking myself for waiting so freaking long to jump into this book. If I cross paths with the sequel, I will not hesitate to read it right then and there. Definitely need more books within this series and from Katherine stat!

A very pleasant and intriguing story. I love heroes and the world created by the heroine. I will definitely look for other books by the writer.

I really enjoyed this, and can't wait for the second one!
I'm really interested to see what will happen next. After the ending to this one - which I honestly wasn't expecting (or prepared for) - I was surprised and anxious to get my hands on the next book. I really enjoyed the characters, though I do wish their enemies to lovers plot was drawn out a little more - it passes rather quickly.
Overall, really enjoyed this, and I can't wait for the second one.

This was an exciting adventure with pirates and the likes of Atlantis! There was romance, mystery, and fighting! I loved our heroine, and how she took no wimpy way out. She really pulled the crap shoot of a dad card- that is for sure. I loved the subtle cliff hanger at the end…. It was just enough to satisfy yet keep me intrigued for the next installment.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this book.

This was overall a pretty enjoyable read! Good world building, good characters and decent action. It felt a little dragged at some points, but not terribly so. I will be looking forward to the next book!

Pirates, romance, action, strong characters, perfect world building. This novel has it all! If you enjoy strong female leads and well written stories, this is for you.

Okay this review is long over due and I am sorry for that. To be honest this book was a little slow at first. I'm not sure why but it took me a bit to get into the story. That being said when I was finally able to see what was going on I was able to get through it a lot easier. It was good overall. Im excited to see what happens next and I am also pretty happy with the ending.!

The cover of this book gave me high hopes for my enjoyment of it, and I must say I was not disappointed in the least! The last few books in this fantasy romance vein that I have tried have been a little meh, so I was thrilled when this one paid off. I would say this is along the same lines as Of Blood and Ash. I loved the characters. Margarete and Bash had a great chemistry throughout and I highly enjoyed their story. The side characters were fun as well, particularly Bay and Adrian.

The world of this book was so interesting. I loved the combination of gods, pirates, and lost cities. I think this series will only get better and I can't wait for the next installment!

It was a really great concept, but it fell slightly flat for me. The world-building was by far the best part, so I will definitely be reading on in the series.

I am a great fan of Sci Fi Fantasy, magic, Pirates, anything to do with the sea, strong women, dominant men with a soft side and lots of adventure to boot. This book had it all. The main characters Margrete and Bash are so good together and their caring nature stands them in good stead for the hard times ahead in Azantian.

After Margrete's kidnapping by Bash to Azantian, she found a very different life and formed wonderful friendships with Adrian and Bay, something she never had at home with her abusive Father.

She finds herself in many new and dangerous situations as she and Bash try to find where the Heart of Azantian is before their gates are opened and Azantian and their people and lives are destroyed.

Enemies to Lovers is my favourite trope and this didn't disappoint I found it a bit predictable but that didn't spoil my enjoyment at all.

First off, this cover is absolutely gorgeous. Let me say that right off the bat. Second, this book has so much I love in it: forbidden romance, pirates, see faring adventures. It certainly is worth the hype it got on bookstagram that is for sure.

“Only small men fear a woman who knows her own mind and wields a sword. Who fights back. Because those women… Well, they have the power to send men to their knees.”

I really enjoyed the premise of this book. Pirates, an enemies-to-lovers romance, magic, a feisty female protagonist? All elements that make a perfect book for me - the book I was searching for a few years ago in fact.

It took a while for me to get into this one. I don’t know why. I just didn’t vibe with it straight away. It reached a point where I was happy to pick it up, but I only picked it up to finish to finish it before the end of the year. Even when we were in the middle of the battle at the end, I could only read it a chapter at a time, my attention just wasn’t grabbed for longer.
I liked the world and the magic and the history in this. The setting was almost like Atlantis with the characters of lost Greek Gods. It answered enough questions, but still left enough to make me want to seek out the sequel - and I would want to.
I wasn’t sold on the enemies-to-lovers, at least not from both sides. I think Margarete definitely hated Bash at the start, but I think he was always indifferent to her. There didn’t really feel like there was any tension.

All in all, I enjoyed, but I didn’t love as much as I could have done.

I cant wait to read more of this story.
I really enjoyed all of the characters.
Pirates and God's what more do you need
The romance is really good too.

The Girl Who Belonged to the Sea is a shallow novel that fails to dive to any depth and is filled with flat characters and a plot that drags. This book caters to a certain audience, fans of Sarah J. Maas and Jennifer L. Armentrout may find themselves enjoying this but I found that it lacked substance. It follows Margrete as she travels to an island kingdom after being kidnapped by its king. Bash, the king, is supposed to be this cruel man for having kidnapped her and Margrete does everything in her power to try and escape at first but this didn't make a lot of sense to me. Her father was abusive and while she wanted to save her sister from him, Bash never once came across as the truly cruel man she believed him to be. I could understand her motivation to leave but not for her dislike towards Bash.

From there, the plot was messy and the worldbuilding was nonexistent. The ending of the book pushed in a lot of random information but I still came out of it not understanding much about the world. All the side characters blended together and if you told me one of their names and asked for a description I would not be able to tell you one thing about them. It seemed like Margrete was supposed to go on some sort of self confidence journey but with minimal effort put into this, she ended up not growing at all over the course of the book. The romance was also an insta-love and while the author tried to make the two main characters angsty in regards to this, it didn't work. Instead, it just made them seem self-absorbed and it distracted from the overall plot. This book was supposed to be about gods and Margrete's connection to them but after the opening chapter, they didn't have much to do with the plot at all under the very end. I was hoping for mystery and intrigue as she tries to uncover her connection but it all quickly began to focus on her feelings for Bash. I really couldn't even tell you more about Margrete than she loves Bash, she was abused by her father, and she loves her sister. Everything else felt irrelevant because anything else ended up not being important to the plot. Margrete was, I think supposed to come off as strong but she mostly felt annoying and the more annoyed I got the more the plot kept boring me.

I think that if you're new to the fantasy romance genre, this could be worth checking out, especially if you're looking for something that's very light on the fantasy side of things. The romance was lackluster at best but I also recognize that this is more of a transitional book from a YA fantasy to an adult fantasy romance. If you're well versed with fantasy romance, I'd say pass this one up.

3.5/5

The Girl Who Belonged to the Sea by Katherine Quinn Is a sweeping fantasy that takes place in a world of magic, but also monsters. Margrete Wood Has spent her entire life being a pawn in her father’s conquests. Now she’s expected to marry a person of her father’s choosing. But she can’t help but hear someone calling for her from the sea. When her wedding day is crashed by pirates and their dashing leader, will Margrete fight to save her family? Or will she use this opportunity to save herself?

I really like the beginning of this book. And I kind of liked the ending of this book. However, the middle was kind of just meh. The beginning starts so fast paced but it quickly develops into a slow, waiting-around-for-things-to-happen plot.

The writing itself is really good. I think a lot of it flowed well. I like most of the characters, and the relationships that were forming. I wish there was more strong female characters that were displayed. We really only get Margrete. Hopefully in the next installment we’re going to get more female power representation.

The world building was good. I just wish she didn’t take the entire middle of the book to explain it slowly.

Honestly, I was kind of confused by the ending. It didn’t really hit me as much, but it did do its job of setting up for the next instalment.

I will be reading the next two books. I do have high hopes for this series, and hopefully there won’t be as much exposition now that we know a lot of the lore and world.

This was such an awesome book and I enjoyed reading every page, even though it took me forever to finish reading 😅 I wasn’t a huge fan of Margrete in the beginning, but I grew to love her and her bravery throughout the story. What mostly held my attention though, was her chemistry and sexual tension with Bash. I could not handle that knife-to-throat scene. SO HOT. I thought the plot was interesting and I loved the worldbuilding! The ending was pretty satisfying and I’m intrigued to see how the sequel will turn out!

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley # netgalley

This book knocked me of my feet! It's just too good for words

It was an interesting start to a series. Loved
the different aspects of the book and how the
story was told. It slowly unfolds, it's not rushed,
so you get to know the people, places, and things.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book from beginning
to end.

"The Girl Who Belonged to the Sea" is a fantasy in which our heroine, Margrete, reared in a deeply abusive household by her father, is about to enter an arranged marriage. Lo, a pirate-y stranger and his crew suddenly invade and in the fray, Margrete ends up taken off to the kingdom of said pirate, who has the unfortunate name of Bash. (Why? Why??)

What's good: This book knows its real point is the tension between the leads. The fantasy elements are interesting and not ones I could immediately identify.

What's iffier: This is the first book in a series, so the end is clearly left open. Also, the male lead is named Bash and I cannot get over that name.