If you're looking for a toothless, easy to read romance, then this could be the book for you. But it was not the book for me.

The plot, setting, and magic system inconsistencies became unignorable about halfway through and it didn't help that while there was endless exposition, nothing was ever really explained properly. Magic systems had conveniently changing rules and motivations were glossed over constantly. The real tragedy of this book is that it had so much POTENTIAL

A culture, country, and people lost to the ocean? A submerged city?! Rife for exploration of identity and a colonisation metaphor. Rife for beautiful underwater imagery and creative recovery magic. And it's barely touched on.

A magic system where one person pulls all the power out of someone else and they're helpless to use their own well of magic? Rife for exploration of the imbalance of power between them, especially with a gendered power imbalance! Also rife for beautiful magic logic that plays on devotion and sacrifice.

Alas, all of the emotional punch in this book was very much telling rather than showing. She tells us she's grieving, but we never see it. She tells us she's battle-hardened, but her actions say otherwise.

A good example of a novel that falls victim to YA writing styles and expectations with sex scenes added in for flair. Fanfiction acting like fantasy. Dreadfully disappointed in this one and was rage-reading the whole second half. I had high hopes in the first few chapters, a touch of yearning and mystery. But it did not deliver in the slightest.