Review: Song of the Current by Sarah Tolcser

Song of the Current by Sarah Tolcser

Song of the Current #1

Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens Books

Publication Date: June 6th, 2017

Rating: 4 Stars

Source: Purchase

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 373

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Summary (from Goodreads):

Caroline Oresteia is destined for the river. For generations, her family has been called by the river god, who has guided their wherries on countless voyages throughout the Riverlands. At seventeen, Caro has spent years listening to the water, ready to meet her fate. But the river god hasn’t spoken her name yet—and if he hasn’t by now, there’s a chance he never will.

Caro decides to take her future into her own hands when her father is arrested for refusing to transport a mysterious crate. By agreeing to deliver it in exchange for his release, Caro finds herself caught in a web of politics and lies, with dangerous pirates after the cargo—an arrogant courier with a secret—and without the river god to help her. With so much at stake, Caro must choose between the life she always wanted and the one she never could have imagined for herself.

From debut author Sarah Tolcser comes an immersive and romantic fantasy set along the waterways of a magical world with a headstrong heroine determined to make her mark.

I feel like it has been entirely too long since I found a book that I couldn't put down. Song of the Current was that kind of book for me. I am absolutely in LOVE with all of these books coming out with badass, sea-faring ladies! This book delivered all the scalawags I could have ever wanted!

Caro finds herself on a mission to deliver some important cargo from Hespera's Watch to Valonikos. After refusing it himself, her father ended up being locked up for smuggling, so Caro agreed to deliver it in exchange for his release. She takes the crate of mysterious cargo and her frogman, Fee, and hit the river. She quickly finds herself being hunted down by a group of fearsome pirates known as the Black Dogs.

Wanting to know what she was risking her life to deliver, Caro opens the crate to find a boy. A courier on his way to deliver an important message to Valonikos.

Caro was such a fun heroine. She's kinda sassy with a no nonsense attitude. She doesn't put up with a lot of crap. She has spent her whole life waiting to hear the river god call on her as he has on generations of Oresteia wherrymen. But at 17, she has pretty much given up any hope of the river god calling on her. Not that she needs his favor, she is a perfectly capable wherryman all on her own.

Tarquin, the courier sent from Akhaia to Valonikos to deliver a message, was a good character too. Caro suspects that he's keeping secrets. I liked him as a character. I feel like it took me a minute to grow to like him though. I don't know, I feel like his development wasn't super smooth? Like in the beginning he comes off as spoiled and then the next thing you know, he's just not?? I don't know if he's supposed to be putting on some kind of act or maybe that's just how quickly Caro's opinion of him changed, but it felt a bit off to me.

I liked the romance in this book. It's a hate-to-love kind of thing. Caro and Tarquin can't stand each other when they first meet. Tarquin is mostly just spoiled and useless and Caro wishes that she could stuff him back into his enchanted box, but she can't. Then they start to understand each other more and tell each other the truth and they grow on each other.

This book is pretty much nonstop action, so it's really easy to get drawn into it. I really enjoyed all the relationships in this book. Between Caro and her father, her wherry, Tarquin, Fee, I loved it!

Like I said, the only thing that I think I didn't like was the development of Tarquin because it didn't feel smooth.

Overall, I loved this book. It's definitely a favorite of 2017! This is kind of a junky review, but darn it, it's hard to write reviews of books I love because I just want to spell it all out for you and that's just not how it works. If you liked Daughter of the Pirate King, you will probably like this one as well!

Have you read Song of the Current yet? What did you think of it?