The Drowned Woods: The Sunday Times bestselling and darkly gripping YA fantasy heist novel

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In the interest of remaining spoiler-free, I will only talk about the two characters I liked other than Mer and Fane. One was Ifanna, Mer's ex-girlfriend. She's an incredible character and a straight-up badass thief. I still haven't entirely forgiven for what she's done. I can't tell you what but it was pretty bad. Yet, I can't help but like her regardless. She's such a hilarious, wholesome character. She made every scene better. Even if it was a sober one. I sort of hate that I love her, but I really do love her. I also want her, Mer, and Fane to have a polyamorous relationship. I really do. When I was researching THE BONE HOUSES, I found a mention of Cantre'r Gwaelod - or translated into English, the Lowland Hundred. It was a sunken kingdom that supposedly once stood where Cardigan Bay now exists. I wrote a note to myself - “Welsh Atlantis,” I scribbled - before returning to work on my current deadlines. Characters have to deal with questions on what’s right and wrong and how to cope with knowing that you did something you regret throughout, but our main characters consistently choose to try and do what’s right for the majority rather than the few. It makes for a lot of tension and overall you really just won’t want to put this book down until everything is resolved. The world-building was phenomenal; I absolutely loved the descriptions of each and every location, but particularly those of the fairy lands and otherwordly creatures. There are many, many references to Welsh myth here, a subject that I am completely unfamiliar with but will definitely be looking into now, and they were interwoven masterfully into the plot of the story. The magic system was intriguing too--it was just the right amount of mystery, but there was a balanced logic to it that made it almost believable.

Mer is the last living water diviner, who is on the run from the prince that forced her to kill with her magic. When approached by her old handler with an opportunity to bring him down, Mer agrees. Fane is an ironfetch, pledged to the service of the Tylwyth Teg, the fae. Blessed with the ability to sense iron and cursed with the magic of death, Fane once sought to avenge his family, killed by mercenaries when he was a child.When Renfrew, Mer’s old mentor and the prince’s spymaster offers her a chance to do just that, Mer is more than ready to join him. What she isn’t expecting is the rest of the people who form their crew, including an adorable corgi, and the lady of thieves herself. I thoroughly enjoyed The Drowned Woods. I absolutely devoured it in about 3 hours, and it was non-stop from start to finish. The pacing was excellent, the characters likeable, and the plot was interesting. The author integrated world building into the story very well, it never felt like there was information being dumped or things done for the sake of world building.

She's made to do terrible things, such as finding the wells of Garanhir's enemies so that he can poison them. This results in the deaths of many, many innocent people. The Gaelic was beautifully interwoven, and even though some of the names were very foreign to me, I was able to read this effortlessly. I liked how the mythology was explored, at times humorous, but very informative. Did I love it? Yes! There was so much to love, from the characters to the magic, and the world it’s set in.

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The Drowned Woods” by Emily Lloyd-Jones is an easy to read / listen novel with focus on the “magical heist” theme. The story follows Mererid ‘Mer’, a water diviner (read wielder) who is once again on the run from the Kingdom’s prince who wants her for her water-wielding powers. All Mer truly wants is a safe, quiet life, far from power and politics, but all that changes when her former spymaster and father-figure shows up with the proposal of a magical heist. Not being familiar with Welsh mythology beyond King Arthur, I had never heard about Cantre'r Gwaelod, a sunken kingdom off the coast of Wales, that sounds strikingly similar to the myth of Atlantis. That was the selling point for me, and I'm sure it will be for others. Starting from the legend of “Cantre'r Gwaelod”, a Welsh sunked kingdom, Emily Lloyd-Jones creates a high-fantasy novel enriched by stories of promised treasures, magical debts, and a lot of complicated adventure stories. To some extent, it is similar to Leigh Bardugo’s “Six of Crows” adventures, in a stand-alone format. This fun heist had Welsh influences woven throughout and I became incredibly invested in it. I would have liked it to be a little longer because the plot felt a little rushed at times, but overall I thought the fast pace suited the book. A soldier. A runaway. A barmaid. Mererid has played many roles, but beneath them all, she has always been a water diviner, blessed with the magical ability to control water in all its forms. Prince Garanhir secretly abused her power for years, until Mer discovered his treachery and fled. Now she longs for a peaceful home of her own, but when her mentor, Renfrew, asks her to join him for one final mission, Mer can’t refuse.