When the Sea is Rising Red Review

Title: When the Sea is Rising Red
Author: Cat Hellisen
Source: Borrowed from my Library

Goodreads Summary:
After seventeen-year-old Felicita’s dearest friend, Ilven, kills herself to escape an arranged marriage, Felicita chooses freedom over privilege. She fakes her own death and leaves her sheltered life as one of Pelimburg’s magical elite behind. Living in the slums, scrubbing dishes for a living, she falls for charismatic Dash while also becoming fascinated with vampire Jannik. Then something shocking washes up on the beach: Ilven's death has called out of the sea a dangerous, wild magic. Felicita must decide whether her loyalties lie with the family she abandoned . . . or with those who would twist this dark power to destroy Pelimburg's caste system, and the whole city along with it.  


 My Take:
Well, here goes my first actual review on the blog that is not 4 or 5 Mickeys. Unfortunately, it's not even 3 Mickeys.

When the Red Sea is Rising really just fell flat for me. I'm not sure if I'll be able to explain why, but it did and I'll try.

It took me over half of the book to finally understand the world and caste system that were created. Still at the end, places were still being tossed into the story.

There was no real character development for me. No character that I fell in love with, such as I do, in every book I read. I didn't even get a connection with the main character, Felicita.

By the end of the book, I was honestly thinking, "All of this because of a suicide?"

I would like to give Cat Hellisen another attempt with her next novel, but her debut just didn't knock it out of the ballpark for me.


My Rating:
When the Sea is Rising Red just fell flat for me, unfortunately.


 When the Sea is Rising Red satisfies a portion of the StandAlone Reading Challenge.

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