ARC, Books, Reviews

Book: Essentia

The Pearl Wielder Trilogy #2 by Hannah Reed

Independently Published

The mer and the legged are still at war after the President of the legged blamed the mer of threatening the peace treaty. Princess April, the heir to the kingdom of the seven seas, made it back to her people and her sister Kayla is now the head of their military.

Essentia starts where Tenebrasco left off, with April escaping Rushton and going back to the ocean.

To try and win this war Kayla has come up with a plan to weaponise her sister April. Although he doesn’t get a say, her father King Nathaniel doesn’t agree. Kayla wants to make her sister April the weapon to destroy the legged people by using all her pearl powers.

Princess April does not want to threaten the chance of peace with the legged forever. So she refuses to be used as a weapon. Therefor she comes up with a plan to disappear for a little while to stall for time. To become the weapon she will have to wield all her pearl powers. Apart from not wanted to become a weapon, she also doesn’t know how to use all her powers.

She has no control over her Tenebrasco powers. In fact she seems to lose control of it more and more instead. The Tenebrasco powers have been dormant for so long, is there even anyone out there to help April? And can she gain control before time runs out?

Mending Fences

With the help of new and old friends princess April is trying to learn to gain control of her powers. But can some of her friends to be trusted? Will they help her to stop this war? Will they support April as the heir to the Kingdom of the Seven Seas? Or will some cave in to the lure of power and sabotage the work for peace from the inside?

Can April and Kayla come together to stop the war between the mer and the legged? And can they stop the threat from within? Who that wants to overpower King Nathaniel and undermine Kayla’s position as the head of the military?

Not only do Kayla and April fight to gain control of their powers. They will have to mend their friendship and unite the people of the Seven Seas.

Skilfully Written

Hannah Reed delivered a great second book to the trilogy of the Pearl Wielders. The underwater world she created in book 1 has continued nicely in book 2. Especially the way you forget you’re reading about a fictional underwater world with all its modern day technology shows writing skills.

The apprehension I had about the underlying romance story line from book 1 makes more sense in this book. Even though the story is not a caricature of “the little mermaid”, one of the characters made me think of Ursula. Hopefully Hannah can finish the trilogy without falling into the Little Mermaid trap in the end.

I would recommend reading book one first before starting on this one. I feel the books this trilogy cannot be read separately because the story line continues from one book into the next. Reading them as standalone books will only confuse the reader and you’ll have missed half the story that leads up to current events.

Rating 3/5

Essentia is published on 16th September 2020. You can grab a copy here.

Disclaimer: I received this book as an ARC from Hannah Reed in exchange for my honest and unbiased review. All opinions are my own.

Previous Post

You Might Also Like

No Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.