The Sea King by C.L. WilsonSeries: Weathermages of Mystral #2
Published by: Avon on October 31, 2017
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 384
Source: Edelweiss
Book Details
Rating: ★★★★
He wasn't supposed to choose her...
Seafaring prince Dilys Merimydion has been invited to court the three magical princesses of Summerlea. To eradicate the pirates threatening Calberna and to secure the power of the Sea Throne, Dilys vows to return home with a fierce warrior-queen as his bride. But politics has nothing to do with unexpected temptation.
She didn't dare wed him...
A weathermage like her sisters, Gabriella Coruscate's gentleness exemplifies the qualities of her season name, Summer. Yet her quiet poise conceals dangerous powers she cannot begin to wield. Better to live without excitement, she reasons, than risk her heart and lose control—until an irresistible Sealord jolts her awake with a thunderclap of raw desire.
Until evil threatens everything they hold dear...
When pirates kidnap Summer and her sisters, Dilys is in a desperate quest to save the woman he loves. Only by combining his command of the seas with the unleashed fury of Summer's formidable gifts can they defeat their brutal enemies and claim the most priceless victory of all: true love.
For those of you who don’t know, C.L. Wilson is my favourite author of all time. I first read The Winter King (book one in this series) and fell madly in love. I then proceeded to read Wilson’s first series, Tairen Soul, and fell even more in love! I just about died from excitement when The Sea King appeared on Edelweiss!
I really enjoyed The Sea King, but I’ll confess I’m disappointed I wasn’t able to give it 5 stars. I had to dock a star for two key reasons:
1) Stubborn Gabriella spent too long rejecting Dilys
Dilys was totally into Gabriella and kept trying to win her over, but she kept rejecting him. It was frustrating because it wasn’t that she didn’t like him, it was that she was afraid of loving someone out of fear of losing them later. And while I get that, I think it just became really frustrating that SO MUCH of the book was spent with this part of the story on repeat, and it made matters worse for me that Gabriella refused to tell Dilys her reason. She kept trying to pretend she just wasn’t interested in him when we all knew that was a lie (Dilys included).
In general, I didn’t like Gabriella’s refusal to confide in anyone. I guess I’m just not a fan of the whole suffer in silence thing. She had so many awesome, loving people around her who would have been happy to help and support her. And honestly, it was downright foolish of her to refuse Dilys’s help once she learned View Spoiler »
2) This spoilery thing at the end…
View Spoiler »Still much to love about the book though!
- Sealords! They can breathe underwater and kind-of-sort-of talk to dolphins – #jealous.
- I loved how the women were most important part of Calberna. They value strong, badass women and that was awesome.
- Pirates!
- Magic!
One thing I REALLY adored about this book was getting to know all the sisters more. They had more of a chance to shine in this book and I really fell in love with all their different personalities – particularly Autumn! I loved how they all interacted with each other.
After finishing The Sea King I learned something really, really exciting. The two other, upcoming books in the series are called The Jaguar King and The Dragon King! How bloody awesome do those sound???
I loved all C L Wilson’s books and can’t wait for this one!
Yeah, I read this book a while ago and enjoyed it but I did have a few issues. I think the rejecting Dilys was dragged out for a long while and I had some issues with the kidnapping and everything but I really enjoyed it and I quite liked that it led on to what happens in the next book.
oh Ashley loved your review of this one. Isn’t C.L. Wilson so good??!!! I first read her Tairen Soul series a few years ago and she got me hooked on Epic Fantasy romance which isn’t as written as other genres in romance. But I loved the worlds that she has created. I felt the same about this book, I didn’t realize I could read so fast when reading this book. Yeah the whole spoiler in the middle of it and not finding out their status was frustrating and I reread the second half of the book, because I was so distracted by the sisters death because Wilson just doesn’t do that. She doesn’t kill off future main characters like that.
What I loved most was the Sealords though, so cool they would work their butts off for a chance to marry for love? so awesome. A man not afraid of committment, so rare and so refreshing. Loved hearing your thoughts on this one. Lovely review.
C.L. Wilson has become my favourite author! I’m currently rereading Tairen Soul for the third time. 😀
I’m glad you mostly enjoyed this book too! I agree the Sealords were excellent. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series. ♥
Hey Ashley, I read The Winter King because of your glowing review. C L Wilson is fantastic. I enjoyed The Sea King and completely agree about Gabriella. Please could you recommend authors similar to C L Wilson?
First, if you haven’t already, try Tairen Soul by C.L. Wilson as well. 🙂 It’s fantastic!
Then you can also try The Kingmaker Chronicles by Amanda Bouchet and Sarah J Maas (Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses).