I received an advance copy of Isolde Morrow‘s The Tidebound Bargain.
She built an empire from wreckage. He’s guarded these waters for millennia. Neither planned on needing the other. When a storm destroys everything Captain Maren Voss spent three years rebuilding, she wakes on a volcanic island that shouldn’t exist—watched over by something vast, ancient, and far too interested in keeping her alive. Eidros has protected Ven Skai for centuries, binding a horror beneath the reef and asking nothing from the humans who shelter on his shores. But Maren is different. She calculates risk the way he reads tides. She doesn’t flinch from what he is. And she sees the cage he’s built around himself—the same one he built around the woman who fled him three hundred years ago. The bargain seems simple: her help with the binding in exchange for safe passage home. But the creature beneath the reef is stirring. And Maren is learning that some debts can’t be paid in coin—only chosen freely.
Again, I received and read an ARC. So, there is a chance some things have changed between my reading and the book’s publication. However, I had very mixed reactions to this book. It started out very strong. I liked Maren. I was intrigued by the mysterious Guardian. The shipwreck plot looked interesting. The prose is VERY purple, but I have a pretty high tolerance for purple prose and thought it lovely.
But then the book just went on and on and on and on and on, repeating itself about a million times. Yes, Maren and Eidros were working out difficult things, and Eidros showed real growth. Maren’s growth was less straightforward, and ultimately, as is so often the case, she gave up her previous life to pick up Maren’s. But she did grow. And yes, consent is very strongly emphasized, and I appreciated that. It is, in fact, an important part of what Maren and Eidros are working out between them. I liked the story a lot.
I also liked the mystery around what Eidros actually was. I got the impression he’s not wholly organic, not entirely naturally evolved, maybe. Again, it’s a mystery, and I appreciate it. But by the end, I was just praying for it to finally end. I honestly think a good 100 pages could have been cut with no effect but improvement. I figure some people will love this, others will hate it. I enjoyed the story, but was stifled by the length. Would I read the next? Probably.
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