An action packed and fast paced story, well plotted and entertaining. I loved the storytelling but wasn't a fan of the characters
3.5 upped to 4
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

OH. MY. GOSH. ★★★★★

I don't think words could ever express how obsessed I'm becoming with this series. truly.

what a beautiful expansion of the world we saw in Monsters Born And Made, wow !! I, personally, loved reading both books together, but seeing how they can both stand as their own is awesome too !

we have many new characters, and regardless of how much time we had with them, they were fleshed out beautifully. it wasn't just a surface level personality we were given. not only did it make me really care for them, but I was worried for them on so many occasions haha.

the galdiator fights and other action scenes were my absolute favorite ! I was gripping my seat the whole time, so scared the fight would go one way or another. and I swear, I was getting claustrophobic just reading about them going into those caves !! or i'd think of how worse that feeling would be with giant murderous monsters in the cave with them.

so much of the story took place underground, and the scenes never felt stagnant or repetitive. especially with our characters being limited to this one setting, the story was always moving at just the right pace. and still, I seriously feel like I devoured this book lol ! this is genuinely just such.an.amazing.book !!

I am crossing my fingers that we get more of this world and its characters. I have so many hopes for a third book (and have my own theories of what could happen if we ever got one hehe) but I think I'd fall over myself rushing to grab any other book Tanvi Berwah releases next. I knew with MBAM that I would be coming back for more, but this book just solidified it !

so so SOO grateful to have received an arc of this gorgeous book. thank you so much netgally and Tanvi Berwah !!

Berwah brings together a wonderful blend of Asian mythology, a slow burn friends to lovers romance, and the island of Kar Atish, holding all of its own secrets within its depths.

We follow Kress, orphaned at a young age, who fights in the pit to one day secure her freedom from the island. She finds a family of sorts in Rivan, a miner, and his two brothers, but all that is torn away from her when she is forced into joining an expedition into the depths of the island; in exchange, she will receive enough silver to leave the island.

I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed the island and the monsters and secrets it held. They were extraordinary, and I could really picture the almost descent into madness that the characters were feeling. And [minor spoilers] after some in the group betrayed the others, I could feel the desperation for survival seeping off the pages [end minor spoilers].

This was a fantastic YA fantasy, where there is a great mix of plot and romance, and sufficient scary creatures that it was heart racing at times! Thank you to Sourcebooks and Netgalley for an e-arc of this book, all opinions are my own.

Rating: 2.5/5 ☀️ (rounded up)

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC, which was given in exchange for an unbiased review.

Somewhere in the Deep was an action-packed adventure beginning to end. The overall anti-capitalist and collectivist themes were so well done, and that’s the main reason I am rounding up my rating. However, that aside, the plot and most of the characters were relatively underdeveloped.

The first few chapters were a bit rocky, but the story quickly found its footing. The setting of the island and the monsters and their variety was one of the most interesting parts of the story. However, I was rather irked by some of the titles in worldbuilding, like Landers, Renters, and Collectors. They felt simultaneously too on-the-nose and reductive - after all, it’s not just “renting” but imperial takeover.

Overall, the plot fell into a repetitive pattern that quickly became rather boring to read. The characters are going through the mines, they get attacked by monsters, they fight and somehow escape, they rest for a bit and have some conversation to move the plot forward, and then rinse and repeat. I think the rebellion scenes in the last quarter of the book should have been more of the focus than just traversing the mines. In general the story was more plot-driven than character-driven and as a result, I couldn’t invest in any particular characters.

Kress was definitely a highlight, though, with a strong backstory and mostly consistent characterization. However, the romance was frustrating because her love interest, Rivan, had very little personality or character beyond being her love interest and having a family. We’re told they care for each other so much because they grew up together and look out for each other, but that wasn’t enough. I found myself annoyed by how he was following her around and causing problems because she got distracted trying to protect him. The rest of the characters such as Raksha, Thayne, Siril, and Yara were interesting, though, and I enjoyed the supporting cast.

There are definitely parts of this I loved, especially Kress finding her place in her homeland and the execution of the anti-capitalist and community-centered themes. However, as a whole, the story was pretty underdeveloped. I know this is connected to the author’s other book, Monsters Born and Made, and maybe reading that would give this more context. But on its own, it just didn’t reach its full potential.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I highly recommend this book.

Kress is a 17 year old girl who is plagued with her parent’s mistakes. A mistake that took their lives making Kress a walking reminder of lives lost.
Kress fights monsters in the pits to pay her parent’s debts and to collect silver to get off her island.
There is one person holding her back. Will he be the one that makes her stay and claim the island as her home.
This book is non stop action that is full of twists and turns.

4 Stars.

The YA fantasy novel, Somewhere in the Deep by Tanvi Berwah is an adventurous story set on an island named Kar Atish which is steeped in lore, mystery, monsters and classism. We follow the main character, Krescent Dune, a monster fighter in the popular underground pits who longs to be free from the island and a past that haunts and follows her due to her parents actions. To achieve this Krescent Dune will take on a mission and go in the depths of the caves with others who may or may not wish her harm.

This is a fast-paced story with tonnes of action scenes involving unique and terrifying monsters. I enjoyed the different characters and the small romantic side plot. The descriptions and world building felt well thought out and added to the creepy and dark atmosphere of traveling into the depths of the island. This was a really fun YA fantasy which can be read as a standalone. I also have seen that this novel is set in the same world as a previous story written by the author called Monsters Born and Made which I will be adding to the never depleting TBR.

My only criticism is it may have been too fast paced at times where too much was happening making the plot and character development feel rushed.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and the author for sending this book for review. Of course, all opinions are my own.
This book is unlike any romantasy I've ever read. The majority of the setting takes place underground in the mines filled with deadly creatures and hidden secrets and is chock full of plot twists. Though quite a few were predictable, they were still entertaining when I read them.
What I liked about this book is that there was a plot along with the romance. It wasn't all about the relationship between Kress and Riven. In fact, the relationship was put on the back burner until certain events came to fruition.
Speaking of, I was about ready to strangle Kress myself every time she deflected and said she wanted to go live somewhere else. Like just let the man love you! That part was probably the most frustrating part with the "will they won't they.
Overall, I think this was a good read. There were quite a few holes at the end though, I have many questions regarding side characters and some of the storyline.
Hopefully those get answered in future books. The romance was cute. I would've loved to see more of the relationship develop though instead of having all the angst.
Lots of tropes including friends to lovers, castes, corrupt government, betrayal, fighting to survive, and protecting one person over everything else. Zero spice, lots of pining.
4/5 stars!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
4.5/5 STARS

Genre: YA Fantasy

Synopsis: Orphan Krescent Dune fights dangerous beasts in the pits to pay off her family’s debt. When she accepts a deal to relieve her debt in exchange for leading a mission in mining caves, she encounters more than just the deadly beasts hunting them.

This is set in the same world as Monsters Born and Made which I loved! You do not need to read MBAM though in order to read this one. They do make reference to some of the characters a few times(in case you did read it), but it has nothing to do with the story.

I really enjoy this world. I love the different beasts and imaginative monsters along with a good quest. This is action packed with a hint of a romance and plot twists.

It is hard to compete with Monsters Born and Made though, but for her second book it was well done. I hope she writes another book set in this world!

Thank you Sourcefire Books for the ARC! 🧌

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

I really enjoyed this book! I kind of wish i had read the first one even though they are standalone novels. I loved Kress and how the book highlights colonialism.

Some grammer mistakes in the book.

How gripping! I love a creature book, and Berwah's writing absolutely delivered for me. The plot was so interesting and really had me hooked. I actually read this in 1 sitting because I didn't want to put it down. I wanted to see where the story went. The characters are enjoyable and I really loved the atmosphere building.

Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for the ARC.

I haven't read the previous work by this author but I have heard great things. In this book, I felt there were a lot of pacing issues and it is very YA and I have not been feeling YA at the moment
However, the world building was really cool and it's set in the same world as her debut book so I should def read it soon. Overall, I think I might have liked it better if I read it at a different time

Tanvi Berwah's debut novel, MONSTERS BORN AND MADE, impressed me. It was different, and I appreciate anything that feels fresh and new when you read as much fantasy as I do. Because I enjoyed her first novel so much, I knew I wanted to read her second novel, SOMEWHERE IN THE DEEP. While it suffers from second-book syndrome, there are enough elements I enjoyed to make her an author to watch.

It was a pleasant surprise to discover that SOMEWHERE IN THE DEEP is in the same world as MONSTERS BORN AND MADE. They occur on different islands, and Krescent's story runs concurrently with Koral's. While reading one before the other is unnecessary, you get a better picture of the political landscape between the Landers and everyone else.

What I like most about Ms. Berwah's storytelling is that she doesn't reveal everything at once. Neither does she unveil secrets in a standard fashion. Instead, it is almost as if backstory and secrets are secondary. For example, we don't find out what made Krescent a pariah among miners until well into the story. While you might think this is a big part of Krescent's backstory, it isn't as big as you thought. Knowing the details of Krescent's past doesn't change your opinion of her. If anything, knowing her past solidifies her fighter status, but it doesn't impact the rest of the story.

Unfortunately, SOMEWHERE IN THE DEEP does struggle with pacing—a lot. Nine days to get under the mines occurs in a matter of chapters. Eight days to return to the surface occurs in one chapter. The pacing issues don't stop there. Once Krescent and the group are at the surface again, the action moves at breakneck speed. The problem is that there is nothing to explain how we go from one situation to another - a very big life-altering -situation within a matter of hours. It's one thing to suspend disbelief for the myriad monsters Krescent faces, but it is another thing to have to suspend disbelief because of the pacing.

With the way SOMEWHERE IN THE DEEP ends, Ms. Berwah may be continuing with this pseudo-series. If so, that excites me. I would love to see Koral and Krescent meet. What's more, I know there are other islands in this archipelago, and the possibilities are endless. Despite the pacing problems, I enjoyed SOMEWHERE IN THE DEEP. Krescent is one of the fiercest heroines I've met, and I appreciate that Ms. Berwah doesn't force a romance on her readers. I still believe Ms. Berwah has the potential for greatness. In the meantime, her South Asian-inspired stories are excellent palate cleansers for those who read fantasy.

I immediately clicked to read more about this book when I spotted this cover. It's so unique and strange! Paired with the title, you get a vague sense of a sea creatures, alien worlds, and a sense of wonder and danger. Which, reading more about it, pairs perfectly with the type of story this proports to be! It's also very original from the covers you typically see for YA fantasy, so it does a good job of allowing the book to stand out from the crowd right off the bat. But let's get into the book itself.

So, I did struggle with this book, but it was more on the side of my failing to really connect to or become invested in the story itself. Some of this is surely down to my preferences, and other parts of this can come down to weaker elements in the book. But, that said, there were also a lot of strengths and I do think there are definitely readers out there who will like this book.

For one thing, it is definitely a breath of fresh air in the current YA fantasy environment. As much as I love fairytales and witchy fantasy stories, we've seen a good number of them over the last few years. But this book treads new ground feeling slightly sci-fi and slightly post-apocalyptic, all while exploring a very unique world made of an island and its deep, dangerous cavern system. I really enjoyed the creative creatures that populated this world, and the culture and society that had been built up around surviving in this sort of harsh landscape. All of these elements also creates the perfect stage on which to place a fast-moving, action-packed plot. The pacing starts out fasts, keeps going fast, and then wraps up fast.

That said, I struggled to really connect to the story that was being told. It is one of those cases where there is nothing actively wrong that I can point to, either in the style of writing or the characterization, but more a situation where everything felt a bit watered down. Krescent Dune (well, I guess I can point to that character name as highly questionable) is your generic YA heroine: strong, brave, but also conveniently obtuse about the motivations of those she claims to know best (we'll get to that). The writing, for its part, was also...serviceable? Again, nothing wrong with it, but it also felt incredibly generic, with a limited vocabulary and fairly repetitive approach to sentence structure. Like I said, none of it is bad, but it was also the type of writing that doesn't necessarily draw you in. It tells the story, but not much else.

I also went in with high hopes for the romance. We've seen a good number of enemies-to-lovers romances, and of course I love those as well. But I was excited going into this one with the promise of a friends-to-lovers story (I will say that the book description seems to be intentionally misleading on this point, which I find very annoying, especially as romance tropes/types are very subjective as far as what readers do and don't enjoy). And while I did still appreciate this change in tone and approach to a love story, I was also fairly frustrated by much of it. Like I hinted at earlier, much of the tension in the romance was centered around Krescent's inability to see what was right in front of her: Rivan's feelings for her. Of course, there are ways to make this sort of relationship drama work, but I do think it takes a certain skill to create a love story where you main character has to be oblivious to the motivations of someone she knows well without also coming across as a bit of a dunderhead herself. It also wasn't helped that much of their relationship was completely dependent on the reader being told that they have had this long-standing friendship, more than showing these moments between them.

So, I don't really know where to leave things. I think that some readers will enjoy this book for sure, but I also wasn't blown away by anything it had to offer. If you're highly anticipating this one, definitely give it a shot. But if you're on the fence, there might be other ones you want to check out first.

Rating 7: While the author created a unique world and had some interesting creatures, I struggled to stay invested in the story.

Review will go live on The Library Ladies on Jan. 19

Content Warning: violence, killer insects

+ I read a book by this author last year and thought it was pretty good and this book is set in that same world. What I really enjoyed about this book is that it’s in the same world, so we get to learn more about it but it’s inspired by South Asia and I love that representation. I like that is it unique.

+ This has a lot of action. Kress is a fighter in the ring, but she has a bad reputation because of something her parents did. I love that she’s a strong character. Kress is an outcast but because she’s a fighter she gets chosen to go on this expedition deep underground. She is part of this expedition group of miners and other people but not everyone is trustworthy so there is a lot of tense moments underground with this group of people and monsters coming for them.

+ There is a little bit of romance going on with Kress and her best-friend, Rivan. It’s a friends to lovers situation so it takes them awhile to really admit their feelings but there is a lot of angst and longing in both but they are kind of stuck in a harrowing situation so it takes them awhile to figure that out.

~ I didn’t totally connect to any of the characters but I did still enjoyed the story. Would have loved to be more invested into the characters though but for some reason I just couldn’t.



My Thoughts:

I like the South Asian inspired setting and the action is great.  I just wish I could connect to the characters so I could be invested in the high stakes of their situation but despite all that I did enjoy this story for the most part.

This was a good book but it wasn't what I expected based off of the description. It has a slight romance to it. I liked the main character, but I expected to book to me more of her fighting off sea monsters and the like and that was really a much smaller part of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and, Sourcebooks Fire, for this book.

I became immersed in the world of Kar Atish. The author did a fantastic job creating this world and interweaving the characters and plot into this fantastic world. I felt as if I were a part of the world and just wanted thevstiry to never end.

It was so vivid and so throughly developed. You must read this book. I have never had a book in which the world was so clear and vivid.

The story, characters a word building are also incredible.

Highly, highly recommend.

4.5 stars. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC. I really enjoyed this story. The characters are well developed, she is very descriptive in the layout of the underground and all its monstery inhabitants. I really enjoyed this adventure. There's fighting, monsters, darkness, betrayal, a little love and a lot of comradery. I definitely recommend this book. I look forward to reading more from this author.

I think that this book is better understood (and enjoyed ) if the reader has previously read Monsters born and Made, but the same author. It brings a deeper understanding to Somewhere in the Deep. Thankfully I had read the first book and slipped very easily back into the world. An enjoyable read.

Somewhere in the Deep is story of a young girl orphaned and left under a huge debt after her parents die bringing shame to the family. Krescent Dune wants nothing more than to escape the island she has grown to hate. She earns money to pay off debt by fighting monstrous creatures in an underground fighting pit, but when circumstances prevent her from continuing she is made an offer she can't refuse. All she has to do is protect a hunting party in the mining caves, but things aren't what they seem and they are left fighting for their lives.
I loved the relationship between Kres and Rivan, and how much he was willing to sacrifice for her. I only wish we would have gotten more background information on the parents, and the team she is paid to protect. Such an epic adventure, I can't wait to read more from Tanvi Berway.
Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.