Full review and links to social will be posted as soon as possible.

I'd like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I am a big fan of Amie Kaufman and absolutely loved the mix of magic and adventure in this book! The world-building is wonderful and I was really drawn into the story and loved getting the different point of views from characters.

I always love Amie’s books. This is a fun start to a ya fantasy series. It was a fun read and I am excited to see where it goes from here. It was fun to see the author write fantasy because she so often does sci fi. This book has multiple povs. I sometimes struggle with more than 3 povs. I loved the magic system in this book and the world’s history- I love the sleeping Gods waking to cause havoc trope (can we consider that a trope?)

Really fun read! Amie Kaufman is an excellent writer

Word to the wise: If you're going to have more than 2 POVs in your book, don't write it in the first person. Just don't. Third person is perfectly fine. I promise.

Wonderful story, excellent world building, lovable characters - I enjoyed this very much!!
Wonderful story, excellent world building, lovable characters - I enjoyed this very much!!

Amie Kaufman always writes a great young adult book, and Isle of the Gods is no exception. As our library is participating in the "adventure begins at your library" theme for summer reading, we asked our young readers to choose their favorite "adventure begins" books and Isle of the Gods was a top five pick! Although the plot is sometimes a bit busy, with the point of view shifting between characters, the energy remains high and readers are pulled along to the finish (and the next book) before they know it. An excellent addition to any library summer reading display!

Archived prior to being able to read the book. Lost interest in trying to pick it up. I was originally interested but as it sat in my library, I did not feel the summary grabbed my attention anymore.

This is a riveting new fantasy series about a girl whose magic won't quite show up, and the prince that helps her find it while they spend most of their time at sea trying to prevent a war.

I liked that the magic required a payment of sacrifice from the magician to be compliant. It was a cliffhanger ending, and I can't wait for the sequel~

I loved this! I was immediately drawn in and had a hard time putting this book down! It’s obvious the author knows the sea and sailing, and she’s passed that love and knowledge onto her main character Selly, who is fierce and capable and passionate. The world and action are so engaging, but the characters really shine. I can’t wait to read the sequel!

The plot wasn't the most original, but because of the characters and world-building, I didn't find that to be a distraction.

Reader’s Notes:

– this is the first of a series (not sure how many, but bk2 releases July 2024)

-this is told mainly from Selly, Jude, Laskia, Keegan, & Leander‘s points of view (the prologue is someone else)

– there is fantasy violence & death (characters are trying to start a war)

– it is mentioned that several characters have an interest in/relationship with someone of the same gender as themselves

– people in this world believe in/worship gods (similar to the Greeks/Romans); they also give offerings of various sizes throughout the story (from coins to lives – their own + others)

– some people (magicians) can control the elements(s) after they sacrifice things to them (in the sense of giving something up); the elements that they control are called spirits & have a form of personality that depends on what element they are

Review:

My main reason for giving this book 4 stars (though it wavers more between 4.25 & 4.5 stars) is due to having a personal issue with the last three points mentioned in my reader’s notes (and it was a little hard to keep track of who was narrating the chapter if I put my book down too long). I’m not entirely comfortable with the 3 notes, so at this time, I am unsure if I will continue to read the series or not.

The main reason I’m unsure if I’ll continue the series (on the opposite side) is because I was at the edge of my seat reading this book! And that ending I was not thrilled with (in the best way) and really really didn’t want it to end where it did!

Outside of the narrators themselves, I really enjoyed the high seas travels and seeing characters thrown out of their elements. It was fun to try and guess what would happen next and if our main main characters would ever make it to the isles alive. I really enjoyed Selly & Leander’s banter and sass. These were by far my favorite characters and points of view that I enjoyed reading out of all the narrators. Though each narrator had a great point of view that really expanded the scope of the story and all the little things happening outside of the main story between the two of them! I loved that even in her own point of view, Laskia was keeping most of her cards close to the chest and not letting others catch on to how big of a network/plan she had in mind. I loved that Jude was conflicted/caught between those who’ve been in charge of him for so long and the friend he once had. (I’m curious if he picks one side and stays loyal to it in the events of the next book.) And Keegan balances out Selly & Leander in both knowledge & clear headedness (for the most part). I liked that he grew close to the two of them and that they all had a sense of loyalty towards one another.

Summary:

Selly was supposed to be learning how to care for a ship and it’s crew, but all her captain does is send her out on errands. Finally fed up, Selly is determined to go find her father, the owner of the fleet Selly has been on ever since she was born. But to do that, she’ll need to get on another ship heading in the directions her father went.

When an unexpected passenger joins the roster under the cover of night however, Selly’s plans of reuniting with her father are dashed. Because the passenger is none other than Prince Leander and he chartered their boat to get to the Isles of the Gods so he can make a sacrifice on behalf of the royal family of Alinor. A sacrifice that should have been made sooner…

While on their journey, Selly and the crew discover that there may be greater repercussions than anyone could have thought for having accepted the charter. Now, Leander is being hunted by people who are on the brink of starting a war between two countries. And if they succeed in catching him before he makes it to the isles, then they will all have something greater to fear: the reawakening of the gods and lands being decimated once more when they go to battle…

Oh, I wanted to like this book so badly! I was excited to see Amie Kaufman publishing her own writing, and the description of the book appealed immensely to me. However, I felt that the multiple perspectives distracted from the plot, and the world-building, while interesting, wasn't concrete enough to ground me in the setting. The romance felt too quick (although that may be my own love of slow-burns influencing my rating) and the premise, while intriguing, is not enough for me to seek out the sequels.

The Isles of Gods started out promising to me. As the story continued to unfold I found it difficult to be attune to any of the characters. Their personalities felt a little to stagnant and trope like to me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

Love Amie Kaufman but this was just meh for me, still look forward to anything she writes and will pick them up always!

I tend to love YA fantasy, it's genuinely one of my favourite genres.

However, when books are focused on tropes, or what they want to have included in the story rather than the story itself, I find it falls rather flat for me.

I found the addition of a very underdeveloped, unnecessary romance to be very annoying. It did not need a romance subplot, but it felt like the author added one in there thinking that to succeed, there needed to be romance.

Additionally, the fact that there were multiple POVs, and they were all in first person, really took me out of the story. I did not enjoy that and found that they were all bland and sounded the same. I could not tell them apart whilst reading. I am not sure why authors these days are afraid of third-person narration.

Lastly, I don't want to get too into it, but there were some very weird racial undertones that I did not enjoy whilst reading, such as the two antagonists in the story being POC, and one POC describing another POC as "darker skinned than him". Did not enjoy that.

I don't see myself picking up any more of Kaufman's future works.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for the ARC of this work.

This is a page-turner! There is everything in this book - high sea adventure, romance, danger at every turn. This is a must read!

This book was okay. It would’ve been better if there were more pirates and not a million different POVs happening at the same time. It probably needed to be longer in order to have better pacing, as the story felt rushed and the world building felt brushed aside in the process.
Even with saying that, the story was still interesting in terms of the gods, the gangs, the school the heroes went to, the royalty system, and the sailing all over the seas.
I would’ve liked this book better if the romance wasn’t so insta-love.
Thank you for the ARC!

I didn’t go into this book with high expectations, and yet I still didn’t really enjoy it. Overall, this book just felt boring. I felt the characters to be very flat and by the time anything interesting to start started to happen I already lost my investment in the characters and the story.

I think the biggest struggle I had with this book was the world. There was multiple POV‘s in this book and so jumping from different points of views in a world that I’ve never experienced it made it very difficult to envision the world in my head and understand the rules And culture of the world.

The pacing was very slow, and there were a few characters that were interesting, but as mentioned before because it was multiple point of view, there were many times where I would try to skim through a chapter because I didn’t really care about that character. The romance was decent, but because I was not invested in the characters the romance didn’t hit in the feels, like I want a romance to do.

Overall, this book just fell flat for me, and I will not be continuing with the series.

Thank you too Penguin Teen Canada for providing me and eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the writing and just bought this book. The story is fun and fresh. I love the cover. It is subtle and yet magical.