#a river enchanted

Review: A River Enchanted (Rebecca Ross)

Rating: ★★★★★/5

“‘I look at me and I look at you, and I see two different dreams. I am death. And you, Sidra…’ He reached out to touch her face, softly, as if she might vanish beneath his fingers. ‘You are life.’
She closed her eyes beneath his caress. When his hand eased away, she looked at him and whispered, ‘Does that mean we cannot exist as one?’
He had been waiting for her to ask this. He had yearned too answer her in the orchard, when she had made it evident that they were vastly contrasting souls.
‘No,’ Torin said. ‘It means that without you, I am nothing.’”

That ending…ouch :’) This book was like ivy by Taylor Swift with a touch of Outlander and so much heart that it made me ache the whole way through. I loved it so much.

After ten years away from his island home of Cadence, Jack Tamerlaine has been summoned back by his laird. He returns, unsure of what he’ll find, what he’ll feel, being back on the island that the was forced to leave at age 12. Turns out, it was his childhood nemesis, Adaira, who summoned him back, and the island has a problem: a missing girl problem. The spirits of the island are crafty, but Jack is willing to use his skills as a bard to try to win them over to find the girls - but the island has many secrets, and Jack is entwined with more of them than he realizes.

The word that comes to mind when I think back on this book days after finishing it is “lovely”. In all aspects, this book is that. I feel like I spent weeks on Cadence, breathing the salty island air and learning about the spirits, and god, I would kill to actually live there.

Jack and Adaira are what I would consider the “main” characters of this book, and they are such a joy to read about. Jack is soft, with music in his heart, but he’s been slighted by the island, and it takes him time to readjust and accept that it is still his home; Adaira is strong, ready to rule in the event of her father’s death. Their enemies to lovers romance was, naturally, SO satisfying for me.

But it was Sidra and Torin that drew me in the most, that made me feel the most. The amount of compassion and love that they have for each other and their daughter, the way that their relationship changes as they change and grow and suffer loss and heartache and triumph, just…got me. I wanted them to be so, so happy and so, so good for one another.

I liked the structure of the plot here as well. As the spirits are summoned and the mystery is unraveled, things always felt like they were clipping along, but with room to really *feel* the island, to live there with the characters. I loved the clan dynamics and how everything feels distinctly Scottish, but with those magical, fae elements that elevate it to a place that I would die for.

I absolutely can’t wait to return to Cadence and these characters. That ending personally hurt me, and I need to know where we go from here. I adore the cover of book 2, and I wish it was in my hands right now.