From Goodreads: "Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: fight and survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield — her brother, fighting with the enemy — the brother she watched die five years ago. Faced with her brother's betrayal, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan thought to be a legend, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved family. She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother’s friend, who sees her as a threat. They must do the impossible: unite the clans to fight together, or risk being slaughtered one by one. Driven by a love for her clan and her growing love for Fiske, Eelyn must confront her own definition of loyalty and family while daring to put her faith in the people she’s spent her life hating."

Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing me with a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for review! All opinions are my own.

I've been having a difficult relationship with reading lately (for personal reasons) but Sky in the Deep seems to have gotten me out of my reading slump! This book was the perfect dose of historical fiction I didn't know I needed and I'm definitely looking forward to Adrienne Young's future releases!



Characters:
Eelyn was definitely the strong, fierce warrior main character that I've been dying to read about. She was brutal but smart and loyal to those she called family. I do feel that she spent a lot of her time at the Riki camp basically talking about how she could destroy/kill the Riki, but never really doing anything. I was slightly frustrated at this, but then I came to the conclusion that she did this for a reason: she was beginning to realize that maybe the people she's grown up hating aren't so different from her after all. She never says this, but you can definitely tell in her character development that she changes her mind about the Riki over time. Which, speaking of character development, I actually really enjoyed her growth throughout the book. She does remain a fierce warrior, however, and that was my favorite part about her! A Viking warrior female main character that is able to hold her own on the field of battle but also has complex feelings and emotions and is able to grow as a character throughout the book? Yes, please! We need more characters like Eelyn in Young Adult books.

I didn't particularly care for any of the other characters in Sky in the Deep, unfortunately. If I had to choose one that I would be interested in reading more about, it would be Eelyn's battle partner Myra. I'd love to know more about her backstory! However, I do feel that the companion novel may possibly be about Fiske? He wasn't a bad character, and I suppose I wouldn't mind knowing more about him and his connection to Eelyn's brother, Iri. I did feel that the romance between Fiske and Eelyn wasn't necessary, though. I would have much rather seen the two of them become friends! But I will say that, while I may not have necessarily agreed with the romance, it wasn't insta-love, and that wins a ton of points in my book. It was more of an enemies-to-lovers kind of development, and even at the end, they weren't exactly the typical YA romance couple. So, I didn't exactly hate it and would be interested to see how it develops possibly in the companion novel.