Review: Sea Witch by Sarah Henning

Sea Witch by Sarah Henning
Series: Sea Witch #1
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: 31st July 2018
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Source: Bought
Add it: Goodreads
Rating:

Everyone knows what happens in the end. A mermaid, a prince, a true love’s kiss. But before that young siren’s tale, there were three friends. One feared, one royal, and one already dead.

Ever since her best friend, Anna, drowned, Evie has been an outcast in her small fishing town. A freak. A curse. A witch. 

A girl with an uncanny resemblance to Anna appears offshore and, though the girl denies it, Evie is convinced that her best friend actually survived. That her own magic wasn’t so powerless after all. And, as the two girls catch the eyes—and hearts—of two charming princes, Evie believes that she might finally have a chance at her own happily ever after.

But her new friend has secrets of her own. She can’t stay in Havnestad, or on two legs, unless Evie finds a way to help her. Now Evie will do anything to save her friend’s humanity, along with her prince’s heart—harnessing the power of her magic, her ocean, and her love until she discovers, too late, the truth of her bargain.

Sea Witch had a lot of potential, and I think with some fine-tuning it could have been really good. Unfortunately, I was all hyped up for a dark Ursula origin story, but this book turned out to be more of a romance that really dragged in the beginning.

I feel like Sea Witch really suffered from pacing issues, which is a shame because I think I would have enjoyed the plot if it had been better laid out. I really liked it when things picked up at the end, but that was the strongest point. It felt like there were a lot of scenes in the beginning that weren’t fleshed out enough, and therefore they were rushed, and there were also plot points that were dragged out for no reason. A more even pacing would have benefited this book massively.

That said, the ending got good. Like, really good. I’m almost considering reading the sequel, Sea Witch Rising, which came out on 6th August. I’m very intrigued by Evie’s character and where she could go next. Having said that, I’m not entirely sure where she could possibly be going next, considering the way this book ended. I think that’s the thing that is intriguing me the most, because I have no idea!

I really liked Evie’s character. Someone called her a Hufflepuff queen, and I have to agree. She’s sweet and loyal and all she wants is for her friends to be okay and to get along. Obviously, this is an Ursula origin story, so as you can imagine, not everything works out for her, but Evie doesn’t deserve any of that nonsense. I was rooting for her throughout this entire book.

The romance… I’m not really going to touch upon it but it was sweet, I guess? It’s very, very rare that I enjoy YA romance plots, so you’ll just have to forgive me for sliding over that one. It was cute, it had an emotional bit at the end, and I didn’t hate it.

While I feel Sea Witch is an average book, I think Henning has a lot of potential. So much so that I might read the sequel even though I’m only giving this book three stars. I think her writing will develop into something great, if the ending of this book is anything to go by!