Description from GoodReads
As best friend and lady-in-waiting to the princess, Branwen is guided by two principles: devotion to her homeland and hatred for the raiders who killed her parents. When she unknowingly saves the life of her enemy, he awakens her ancient healing magic and opens her heart. Branwen begins to dream of peace, but the princess she serves is not so easily convinced. Fighting for what's right, even as her powers grow beyond her control, will set Branwen against both her best friend and the only man she's ever loved.
Inspired by the star-crossed tale of Tristan and Eseult, this is the story of the legend’s true heroine: Branwen.
Overall Thoughts
2/5 Stars
I’m always down for a good retelling. Whether it’s romeo and juliet in space or a classic reimagining of a beloved fairy tale, retellings are where it’s at. So I was really excited to dive into Sweet Black Waves, which is inspired by the celtic tale of Tristan and Iseult. I had never heard of this legend before, but after a quick wikipedia search I was keen to read Perez’s take on the story.
The result was, however, underwhelming.
Within the first couple of chapters It became apparent that I was not going to click with the characters at all. In my mind, Branwen, Tantris, Essy, and Queen Eseult were really flat characters and fairly predictable. This combination made it a struggle to finish the novel and did not make me want to pick it back up for a re-read. Retellings are derivative (not in a bad way of course), by nature. That’s what a retelling is. But a successful retelling has an exciting twist beyond what is expected, whether that’s the characters, the plot, or the setting. However, Sweet Black Waves did not deliver on this front. Sure, the story was told from the point of view of Branwen (someone who would be considered a secondary character in the grand starcrossed tale of Tristan and Iseult). But, I didn’t think her POV added anything to the narrative, it wasn’t the big twist the story needed. It just felt like the same story being told, without any real change. At the end of the day, I would not recommend this novel. The world building was lukewarm and unimaginative, the dialogue was hella cheesy, and the characters were not really compelling.
Characters
Like I mentioned before, the characters were really flat. They felt extremely one dimensional and were caricature like representations of the classical medieval roles. Branwen was the devoted maid servent constantly putting her spoiled princess cousin ahead of her (i.e Branwen let Essy walk all over her which was really annoying). Queen Iseult was the wise queen with sage advice and Tantris was the mysterious enemy with a heart of gold and penchant for cheesy lovey dialogue. Their motives and actions were extremely predictable and I just really wanted some more depth to these characters. Like really, really wanted some more depth. But was eventually disappointed when I did not find it by the last chapter.
I also just did not like Branwen. She was a very so- so heroine. She constantly let her Princess cousin walk all over her, and took her back every time Essy threw a temper tantrum and hurt her. The girl had no backbone, and her thinking/reasoning always felt very surface level. And don’t even get me started on how Branwen acted to a particular situation at the end of the novel. I don’t want to spoil anything, but to be vague about it...Basically Branwen created a big mess which forced her love interest into doing something against his will, thereby betraying Branwen. She got SUPER angry at him for the betrayal and dumped his ass. BUT BRANWEN, GIRL, YOU CAN’T GET MAD AT HIM BECAUSE IT LITERALLY WAS NOT HIS FAULT AND IT WAS YOURS THAT HE DID THAT THING AGAINST HIS WILL. YOU SHOULD HAVE NOT MESSED WITH THAT THING THAT YOU MESSED WITH.
Anyways....
Plot
The predictability of the plot was compounded by the predictability of the characters. This in turn made the narrative relatively unremarkable. I was not a fan of the world building, I wanted something to spice it up. But I just felt like it was something I’ve read a million times. I do appreciate that the author took the time to develop a language for the countries, but it wasn’t enough to carry the world building. I think that the story had a lot of potential but it wasn’t paced to keep my attention and there weren’t really any plot points that had me going “OHMYGOSH”.
Concluding Thoughts
The book wasn’t terrible, but it would not be first on my “recommend list”. The writing was competent and there were a few pretty lines in there. But at the end of the day the world building, the plot, and characters were forgettable.
