Book Review: A Sea of Pearls and Leaves

Princess Ingrid is being forced to marry. Her father tells her she must marry and produce an heir, Ingrid doesn’t know what to do, but her girlfriend has a few ideas. If they make the terms of her marriage awful enough, maybe all the suitors will just go away. The only problem will be if they don’t…

A Sea of Pearls and Leaves by Rosalyn Briar is about the princess of Norella Isle, Ingrid, trying to escape having to marry a man, so she can keep her relationship with her girlfriend, Lilura. After devising a list of conditions for her marriage contract, she hopes the suitors will go home, but they don’t. Instead, the king decides to host a set of challenges for them to pass to be eligible to marry Ingrid. During the challenges, some of the local priestesses are going missing or turning up dead. Both Ingrid and Lilura try to juggle the suitors and figuring out what is happening to the priestesses.

Unfortunately, this book is not one I can recommend for a number of reasons. The biggest reason being, the characters were just too shallow and one dimensional. Throughout the book I realized that each of the characters have one main unique trait to them, and that is what their entire characterization is built around. For Ingrid, she was once a playgirl who constantly dated around but now only wants Lilura. Lilura herself has a secret she is trying to hide even from Ingrid. And Soren, the main suitor, is constantly saying the alphabet backwards to calm his nervousness and anxiety. Beyond that, the characters don’t have much to them. These same traits keep coming back around and around until they are overdone. None of them really grow or develop. I was unable to make any connections to them.

I also found that many events and plot points were put in to create an opening for Ingrid and Lilura to have sexual situations or to comment on Ingrid’s sexual needs. This book is meant to be a romance, but even so, it came across as very shallow and focused on physical intimacy. I would have preferred more substance to the plot and characters before diving into the sexuality of their relationship.

As a fantasy novel, I didn’t find it very exciting. I did like some of the magic involved, but in general, the fantasy elements didn’t really excite me. The setting is in a fantasy world with mythical creatures, healing springs, and magic spells. Yet, those elements mostly blended into the background. These elements might have made a stronger impact if the story and the characters were stronger to support them.