The Savage Blue

by Zoraida Cordova

The Vicious Deep, Book Two

Book Description

A storm is coming…

The ocean is a vicious place. Deeper and darker than Tristan could have imagined. Beneath its calm blue surface, an ancient battle is churning —and no one is safe.

In the quest for the Sea Throne, Tristan has already watched one good friend die. Now he must lead the rest on a dangerous voyage in search of the trident that will make him king. But while Tristan chases his destiny, the dark forces racing against him are getting stronger, and the sea witch of his nightmares is getting closer.

Battling sea dragons and savage creatures of the deep, Tristan needs his friends’ support. But they each have their secrets, and a betrayal will force Tristan to choose between his crown and his best friend Layla — the only girl he’s ever loved.

MY THOUGHTS: 3 OUT OF 5 FLEURS DE LIS

*SPOILER ALERT: This review is of the second book in a series, and will contain spoilers for the first book.  There are no spoilers for the book I am reviewing, however.  You can find the review for book one, The Vicious Deep, HERE.*

The Savage Blue by Zoraida Córdova

Well, the first book in this series, The Vicious Deep, left things with a cliffhanger so I was definitely ready to see what came next for Tristan after he found out the truth about what he was. Unfortunately, the second book in the series didn’t live up to what I hoped it would be.

This book starts off right after, and I mean RIGHT AFTER the events of book one. It had been several months since I’d read The Vicious Deep, and I didn’t have time to reread it before starting Savage Blue. But if you can, I definitely recommend you do so. The author doesn’t give much context onto the events of the first book. I really struggled to remember who some of the characters were, and for that matter I didn’t really recall the whole tournament of champions thing itself. There are very very few flashbacks or hints to help you if you don’t remember, and for a series that has books many months apart, I just appreciate when the book drops subtle hints to help me not feel as lost.

Tristan seems to have grown and embraced his responsibilities a great deal more than he had previously. He’s on a mission now to find Oracles that can lead him to the trident that will help him take rule of the sea. Even though he’s joined by his friends Kurt and Thalia, he’s still making slow progress. It doesn’t help that his nights are filled with disturbing visions of the sea witch Nieve who hopes to derail him from his journey.

Like many second novels in any series, that’s exactly what The Savage Blue was: a journey novel. To me, this was quite a slow journey though. I had a lot of difficulty getting into the story, and nothing really exciting happened until the last ten percent.

I wish I could have seen more from Layla and Tristan. Their romance seems promising, but Tristan is letting pretty much everything else in his life take precedence over her. I also barely heard from Thalia, who was one of my favorite characters in The Vicious Deep, and what she was doing I didn’t quite follow anyway.

The ending was explosive but I wish I hadn’t had to wade through 400 pages of slow moving plot to get there. Things are getting serious now, and I will be happy to join Tristan on the next leg of his adventure.

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About the Author

Zoraida Córdova was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador. She made her way up north and now works in the glittering New York City nightlife. She likes shiny things like Christmas, merdudes, and the skyline at night. She’s currently working on book #3.

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