Whisper of the Tide continues Caro's adventure, with all the same pirate escapades as the first book. The beginning chapters go a little slowly, featuring all of the angst promised by the synopsis, but it picks up from there. ( )

Literary Merit: Excellent
Characterization: Excellent
Recommended: Recommended
Level: High School

This book…omg…THIS BOOK. Sarah Tolcser once again delivers a high stakes adventure at sea as Caro and Markos fight for love, power, and treasure. Picking up almost exactly where Song of the Current left off, Caro and Markos are quickly faced with a tough choice that will put them on the path to heartbreak or sovereignty. What follows is a fast paced thrill ride full of old enemies, magic and mayhem, and a swoony romance that gave me all the feels.

Caro is just as fierce as ever, even when she doubts the person she’s becoming. Her relationship with Markos is something completely new to her and she worries that the promise she made him at the end of book one will leave her feeling caged and unable to take to the seas, adventuring as she so wishes to do. Along the way, she realizes who she’s meant to be and how Markos plays into that, especially once he reveals vital information in regards to how he feels about his own future.

The best parts of these books most definitely are when Caro and Markos are sharing the page, bantering and bickering and pushing each other’s buttons. Their relationship is so fun and realistic feeling, which is really cool to see set against the backdrop of pirates and monarchies and politics and fantasy. I love getting to see how much they’ve grown across two novels and I can only hope someday there might be even more to their story, even though this appears to be only a duology and the ending is oh so satisfying.

Another pleasant addition to this book was Diric Melanos. He was present in Song of the Current, but was villainous and made to be unlikeable. I loved that we got to uncover who he really was in Whisper of the Tide, and see the redemption he had always secretly been seeking.

The plot is very well done, the female villain introduced in this book is quite adversarial, and the ending is everything fans of this series could hope for. Song of the Current was one of my favorite reads of 2017 and I can already say that Whisper of the Tide is one of my favorite reads of 2018. ( )