Author: A.M. Dellamonica
Source: Netgalley
Published: 2014
Rating: ★★★★

One minute, twenty-four-year-old Sophie Hansa is in San Francisco alley trying to save the life of the aunt she has never known. The next, she finds herself flung into the warm and salty waters of an unfamiliar world. Glowing moths fall to the waves around her, and the sleek bodies of unseen fish glide against her submerged ankles. He world is Stormwrack, a series of island nations with a variety of cultures and economies - and a language different from any Sophie has heard. Sophie doesn't know it yet, but she has just stepped into the middle of a political firestorm, and a conspiracy that could destroy a world she had just discovered...her world, where everyone seems to know who she is, and where she is forbidden to stay.

From the premise of the book I presumed this story to be very young adult based; girl finds herself in a fantasy world and falls in love with the first good looking stranger that she happens to meet along the way. At first I thought this was how it was going to go, but I can assure you it's so much more than that and isn't technically aimed at young adults even.

There's a strong plot of adventure running through this book with a side theme of politics that weaves its way through the story arc quite interestingly. Child of a Hidden Sea is a mix of adventure and mystery and the plot has a wonderful pacing that doesn't rush through the story and gives you enough time to think about what's just happened before the next curve in the story takes place which never really fails to disappoint. As aforementioned, politics is a theme that is widely explored in this book and, like Sophie, you as the reader are slowly getting to grips with a new world and the way that it is run, alongside the cultural differences and magicks that may occur. Instead of a block page or two explaining the ins and outs of this new world, you are learning at a pace that Sophie is also learning which gives makes you more empathetic to Sophies situation.

Sophie as a character was a bit hit and miss with me; I loved the way that she brought an element of curiosity to the book, whereupon she looked at everything that she came across in Stormwrack with a biological eye. Every bit of the world on a physical level was examimed, from the animals to the plantlife and this added another depth to the book that was definitely warranted. On the other hand I found her to be extremely self righteous a lot of the time with her opinions; she would often start obsessing over things that she didn't like about the world when there was the bigger picture that ultimately needed to be looked at. Then again, maybe that's showing the discompassionate side of myself with that statement there so that's a matter thats's up for debate.

Although Sophie is indeed the main focus of our story, the side characters definitely play a part and the development of them throughout the story, when Sophie stays static for the most part, is great to read about. When learning about eachothers way of life was when the most took place I found, they became accepting of the others flaws and could see where they themselves had perhaps taken the wrong turn and could do better and in turn it made them see a bit clearer.

Unfortunately, at times, I found the writing to be a little bit too pretentious for my likings; perhaps it's due to the fact I originally thought that this was young adult, or maybe I need to expand my reading and my learning, but I found that a lot of the words were overly flamboyant for characters of their age. I myself am roughly Sophie's age and found myself struggling to understand a lot of what she was saying, but maybe that's due to the fact that she is cleverer than me. Again, a matter that's definitely up for discussion.

Even though politics isn't really my thing, I thoroughly enjoyed this read and always find it interesting to learn about fantastical worlds and cultures and how an author can be so creative. I believe this book is set to be part of a series, and the ending was most definitely left open, if not a little bit too wide.