Review: The Perilous Sea

Title: The Perilous Sea
Author: Sherry Thomas
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: September 16th 2014
Series: The Elemental Trilogy #2
How I Served It: Audiobook (Read by Philip Battley)
How I Got It: Borrowed (Library)

Summary:
"After spending the summer away from each other, Titus and Iolanthe (still disguised as Archer Fairfax) are eager to return to Eton College to resume their training to fight the Bane. Although no longer bound to Titus by blood oath, Iolanthe is more committed than ever to fulfilling her destiny - especially with the agents of Atlantis quickly closing in.

Soon after arriving at school, though, Titus makes a shocking discovery, one that throws into question everything he believed about their mission. Faced with this revelation, Iolanthe struggles to come to terms with her new role, while Titus must choose between following his mother's prophecies - or forging a divergent path to an unknowable future." -- Goodreads

Review:
I liked the first book in this series - Burning Sky.  I know it got some really mixed feels from most people, and I'm definitely not saying it was perfect or without faults, but I liked it. I liked the way the relationship between Titus and Iolanthe/Fairfax grew and I liked the overarching plot line.

I feel basically the same way about The Perilous Sea.  It was far from perfect, but it made me happy when I was reading it.  It's one of those books that has a lot of heart.  Yeah, there are a lot of plotholes and eye-brow raises, but it's easy to ignore them and just smile.  I like books that make me smile.

The Perilous Sea is written in a kind of cool way. It bounces between the present and future (or present and past depending on how you view it).  At the start of the future-y time, Titus and Iolanthe have lost their memories and are stuck together in a desert.  The only thing they both know is that they must avoid Atlantis.  In the present-y time, they're facing a severe conflict of interest. Wintervale has suddenly begin to display immense amounts of elemental magic leading Titus to believe that it's Wintervale and not Iolanthe who is the prophesied savior. Talk about trouble in paradise.



I've got to admit, for at least half of the book I fell for it.  I wasn't sure how Thomas was going to write herself out of this.  I felt betrayed by her and by Titus, how could anyone but Iolanthe be the savior?  How dare Wintervale step on their happiness!  Angst! Angst! When it clicked, and man it was obvious in hindsight, that the Bane was possessing Wintervale, I felt so much better.  Also bad for feeling good about a kid dying.  It was a conflicting time for me.  What's worse was the dramatic irony that existed for the rest of the book after I clued in.  I was so mad at both Iolanthe and Titus for not seeing who Wintervale really was!  Angst!

Maybe this is why Thomas chose to write the book flipping between two time periods.  Watching amnesiac-Titus and amnesiac-Iolanthe fall in love all over again was gorgeous and broke up the angst really well.  It made me believe there was hope for the two of them, and that I wouldn't have to wait for the third book to see them together again.  They just needed to literally forget everything and they could be happy!  I did think it was neat too how, up until Wintervale died, there was no guarantee that, once the amnesiacs got their memories back they wouldn't just go back to angst-ing.  The whole back and forth thing really was a neat trick.  I don't think it would work for all books, but for this story it was perfect.

If looked at chronologically, the plot of the Perilous Sea was pretty simple.  Wintervale-Angst not withstanding, Titus and Iolanthe found out a lot of surprising information about Iolanthe's parentage, fought, played cricket, once again fought the Bane in the crucible, won and escaped.  Then they lost their memories (side effect of their escape) and had to team up to fight their way through the Sahara, where they were sort of rescued by Kashkari and his family.  I really liked Kashkari's story in this saga.  He was a cool character in the first book and I like how he's developing into an important, plot-altering character now.  I feel like he will be essential in their plot to overcome the Bane, especially considering how integral his future sister-in-law is to the rebel movement.

I'm finding now that I don't have too much to say about The Perilous Sea.  Don't get me wrong, I really liked it.  I adore the interactions between Iolanthe and Titus - they feel very real for a pair of teenagers. I love the fact that Iolanthe is still masquerading as a boy at Eton and that all of the other boys think she's the cat's meow.  I think the plot is stable and interesting and couldn't put it down.

The Final Noodle: 3.5 Spoons up! (I have got to make an image for this....)
I find the Elemental Trilogy really enjoyable and easy to read.  Its not the type of book you can think too much about or analyze too much, but it's the type that leaves you smiling. I think this second book was better than the first and am excited to see if the upward trajectory continues into the finale!!
What do you guys think? :)