Reviews

The Darkest Deep: A YA Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance by Ashlee Nicole Bye

pelicanfreak's review

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4.0

Will update when I finish...
Am reading this now and it's going slowly because of ... well, life. Family issues and work.
But it's excellent so far. Intriguing characters and a princess who's very down to earth, a fun conundrum, some drama, action and a really interesting world have me itching to get back to it.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

novelbloglover's review

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4.0

Book review
Title: The Darkest Deep – Midnight and Dawn: Elementals
Author: Ashlee Nicole Bye
Genre: YA/Fantasy/Harem/Romance
Rating: ****
Review: So I didn’t know much about the Darkest Deep other than it is a YA reverse harem romance. We know this story follows Delta the princess of the Sea Court as she enjoys her freedom before her ascension ceremony where she will be named Princess Heir. We learn that when Delta becomes Queen, she will have four consorts and Hurley and Loch are hoping to be two of them as they have been her best friends for years and Delta is undeniably attracted to both of them, but she also has a huge crush of Tasman her personal guard who seems really uptight, but he does have Delta’s safety at heart. There is also Wade; the Sea Court’s ambassador who Delta finds extremely annoying. It is on an ordinary night when Hurley, Loch and Delta head to a party with Tasman in tow that we learn that the three friends have had a strange friendship that borders on a relationship, but it works for them, however, some cutting comments for Tasman really upsets Delta but then something happens that changes everything.
After the Queen is attacked and left dying, Delta decides to go to Scylla who is the only person who could have a cure for the poison. She sets of with Hurley, Loch, Wade and Tasman in tow down to the Depths. After encountering merpeople, sea storms and several other things they arrive at the Depths where they meet Hali, Tasman’s mother and we can see the relationship between Delta and Tasman deepening. Scylla agrees to give them the antidote if they can get a sorcerer to reverse the curse put on her and they agree. Together they manage to find the sorcerer, but Delta is facing with a dilemma. After making her choice they journey back to the Sea Court where her mother and two of her consorts are saved but they lost so much down at the depths that all of them are changed.
The epilogue was my favourite part as it jumps forward a year to Delta’s ascension ceremony where Hurley, Wade and Tasman are chosen as three of her consorts but Loch who didn’t return from the Depths can’t be chosen and Delta doesn’t want a fourth when her heart already belonged to a fourth. However, the gods work in mysterious ways and Loch returns although he got a deal from Persephone where he could come back from the dead for six months of the year but the other six has to be spent in the Underworld, while this seemed like a cheap cop out, I understand why the author did it.
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